Synopsis
People are dying, their corpses left savaged and drained of blood. The obvious culprit: vampires. But vampires shouldn’t be able to sneak around Wistful undetected or shadowstep freely inside her body. Soon the station herself becomes oddly uncooperative, leaving Rohan and Wei Li bewildered and all her inhabitants in danger.
Finding and defeating the killer will require a deep dive into the ancient history of Wistful and of the il’Drach people. Into the connections between the Ursans, the wormholes, and the races that preceded them. Into the dark past of a tormented space station that yearns only for death.
Rohan will be forced to fight, and maybe even to kill. He’ll have to face those who bear grudges from his past, the Empire he once served, and his own reluctance to again become the warrior he sometimes needs to be.
Review
“You’ve mentioned this before. I have to tell you, it’s refreshing to meet someone so liberated.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean ‘liberated’?”
His smile broadened. “So many of the people I meet are slaves to things like civility and manners. You’re just so… unencumbered.”
I ended book 2’s review saying I will certainly start book 3 soon and look at me, sticking to my word for once. I am so glad I immediately jumped into Blood Reunion and at the time of writing this review, I am actually 32% into Book 4. Now, Wistful Ascending still holds my heart but objectively (if there is such a thing in book reviews) this is the best book I’ve read by JCM Berne yet.
Everything in this book is balanced so well. The character development, the action scenes, the banter, the story arc, the tension, the world building, the mystery, the reveals, the stakes, the family drama. I feel like this is the first book where we are getting glimpses of the actual wider arc Joe is trying to build to. There are some things alluded to in this book that I cannot wait to see in the future books. I cannot talk about it because of spoilers but this is the book where you get the feeling “Oh, this series is going to go somewhere I didn’t expect at all but also somewhere much, much grander than I expected.”
When I say this, it is not just about how the world of hybrid helix is expanding, how the history is getting deeper, how the action scenes are getting bigger, but it is also about how Rohan’s character is constantly being explored. Fonda Lee has said ‘The term epic fantasy conjures an expectation of vast continents, kingdoms and armies, the rise and fall of nations. But there is also an epic scale to be found in a single life.’ And when I stop and think more deeply about this series, this is what JCM Berne is doing. Rohan is such an epic protagonist to follow. In every book, he has significant character exploration going on even if it might not really show on the surface.
In book two, the plot happens on Earth and for me, it took a bit long to warm up to the new characters. In Blood Reunion, we are back in the Wistful space station and I didn’t need any time to be invested. I loved everything about being back in Wistful and it was like meeting old friends – effortless really. The story flowed so smoothly and the main characters were basically confined to a small space because of an impossible ancient vampire threat. So it was dialogue heavy and I was reminded once again why JCM is one of the best dialogue writers in the business. Every scene with Wei Li’s dialogue is my favorite scene in the book. And the fight scenes and badassery of Rohan keeps getting more and more delicious with each book.
I need to get back to book 4, so I’m ending the review here. I also don’t know what more I can say more about the book without going into specifics of the plot. So far, it is the best entry in the series for me and JCM is definitely one of the best writers in super hero fantasy/ space operas.
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