TL;DR Review: A sad, sweet, heartfelt story about remembering fallen loved ones wrapped up in magic, action, and a fascinating world.
Synopsis:
Blood Saberu is dead. His last request, that his brothers carry his body up the Heaven’s Trail mountains to make sure he gets into Heaven.
Full Review:
It was wonderful to be back in the Mortal Techniques world, if only for a short while. I went in expecting a story of martial badassery and fascinating magic—and instead what I got was something so much more emotional and heartfelt.
In Blood Brothers, two bandits who have become as close as brothers are traveling to the top of a mystical mountain to honor the final wishes of their third “brother” who has died. Circumstances and life have conspired to pull these men apart, but there are things in their past that have also broken their bond.
The story slowly peels back the layers of all the mistakes made, the hurtful words, the messy decisions, and the misunderstandings that broke things between these three men who were as close as brothers. Every step along the journey brings our two main characters one step closer to finally processing the grief that they feel but, in the beginning, are simply unable to comprehend.
Of course, given that it’s a Mortal Techniques story, it is dressed up with all the favorite wuxia-style action and mystical martial arts that I loved about Never Die and the others. There are also lovely Easter eggs that tie into the rest of the books in the series and flesh out the world even more.
But really, what makes it so powerful is the narrow focus. We stay in one small corner of the world, explored through the eyes of a man grieving the loss of his brother—but more than the loss of death, the loss of their relationship shattered years ago, which death has now made impossible for them to fix. The grief goes beyond simply “my brother is dead”, but transcends into something more complex and real: “The brother who I told I hated and never wanted to see again will now never know how much I loved him and how sorry I am for the way our lives were broken apart.”
As a man who has lost a brother and has my own complex feelings surrounding that sibling relationship, it struck a chord with me and resonated deeply.
While perhaps not the grandest or most epic of the Mortal Techniques tales, it’s definitely the most raw, vulnerable, and heartfelt. And that, in itself, is what may make it one of the best of the stories set in this world.
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