Synopsis:
Break the chains of fate… or be broken by them.
In the brutal Kingdom of Night, elite fighting men known as Thorns train with blood magic and blade. Souls bound until death, they exist to protect their lords.
But not always willingly.
Izakiel, former crown prince, has the birthright torn from his hands and is sentenced to serve as Thorn to his younger brother, the newly named heir to the throne.
Aaram, piratical raider and son of the seas, watches his people slaughtered by the Armies of Night. Shamefully taken alive, he is enslaved to protect the very royal family he’s sworn vengeance against.
Brat—thief, street rat, survivor—is given the choice between the noose and a new life. The decision isn’t a hard one, and becoming a Thorn might even pay out in the long run. That is, as long as the young rogue can keep hidden the one dark secret that could bring everything crashing down.
United by fate, the prince, the pirate, and the thief will band together to fight the tyrant who enslaved them.
No one escapes the Thorns unscathed.
Review:
Scourge of Thorns is grimdark at its grimdarkiest, and author eden Hudson pulls no punches here. We are dropped into a brutal world right from the opening pages and if you’re not blessed by the strong gods, you won’t make it out alive.
Here’s the book in one long run-on sentence and a second smaller one: a lecherous prince, a half-gelded pirate, and a street urchin with terrible bathing habits & grammar all join a battle school of blood magic to eventually die horribly young deaths in service of a non-vampire, vampiric king hellbent on destroying the world of the sun and plunge it into the darkness of night. Plus there’s a mad queen who is creepy as sin.
This book is an interesting one because the world is something I’ve not really seen before, and it really does fit the grimdark tone. There is a neat prologue that is biblical in nature, outlining the basis of the gods and how two peoples started, those of the day and those of the night. These aren’t vampires, but these people of the night are uber pale, the sun hurts their flesh so they do everything by night, their cities and sleep schedules flipped. This was awesome worldbuilding, and then bring on the blood magic, which sometimes involves drinking blood… Who doesn’t love blood magic??? The main use of blood magic is called grafting and that involves being stabbed in the heart, dying, then being brought back to life and becoming a bloodslave to the king or lord/queen/crown prince. The Thorns (battle school graduates) are the royal guard, dying for real this time mostly young or in horrible ways in their service.
There are three main points of view characters, plus a number of side POVs. Izak is the crown prince and heir of the Kingdom of Night, but this older teen wants to nothing more than drink and whores. He’s lazy, snarky, and not desirable for the throne. Since he is a royal, Izak has some really awesome blood magic powers, like smoke stepping (aka turning to smoke and appearing distances away) and illusion powers. Aaram is a pirate, just launching his first raiding ship in search of a bride. These opening scenes with Aaram and the bride raid was so epic, the concept was amazing and I really liked it, give me a whole book like this please and thank you. Brat is a street thief and is the main source of humor in this book. Brat hates bathing, swears a ton, has poor speaking skills, and is an all around nuisance but such an amazing character. Brat’s full arc is great, with a neat twist I figured out early on but awesome nonetheless. And the ending with Brat was hella cool.
Jadarah, the mad queen, giiiiiiirl is probably the creepiest character I’ve read in ages. Like she legit creeped me out whenever she showed up on page. Remember, this world and kingdom they live in is based in the powers of night and blood and strong gods, so Jadarah is essentially this blood seer who is guiding the king on this prophecy of mega proportion. But what makes Jadarah creepy, yet ultimately compelling in a sick, disgusting way, is how gross she truly is. This woman is considered beautiful, like Helen of Troy beautiful, but she’s so entrenched in her beliefs and blood magic, she only bathes in blood. Hudson goes to great lengths via our characters to describe how loathsome she smells of death and sex. Oh yes, Jadarah utilizes sex a lot in her magic (more on this below), and it is so well realized that I started to feel icky whenever she appeared on page. She is so incredibly cruel to her daughter (for plot reasons) and to the princes. Jadarah could easily have come off as a one-note villain, but as much as I was grossed out by her, she was incredibly compelling to have around, always keeping me guessing what would come next.
Here’s where I struggle a bit with this book, and that’s the structure of our dual plots. Ultimately, I really liked the book on the whole, but I did have some quibbles with the presentation. When we are introduced to all three of our mains in the beginning, we get this great close 3rd POV perspective from each of them. But when we get to Thornfield, aka the battle school, it becomes more 3rd omniscient, which is not my favorite, but fine, it works. But then it becomes something more akin to short vignettes of a montage, almost like 1000ft views, for example this sickness happens and a couple of battle school teens die, then we move on to another time jump. I get it, we go through three years at this school, time has to pass and we can’t spend too much time on every part, but in the middle of all this, the secondary political intrigue plot happens, and this is back in mostly close 3rd between Etianiel (Izak’s brother, who had a really compelling arc) and Clarencio setting up the coming war for the king. It all works, don’t get me wrong, but it does take some getting used to. And I will say, the battle school focus didn’t really dive too deeply into the mechanics of what makes this battle school so difficult, it really focused on the two mock tournaments each year and who wins. I wish there would have been more showing of these characters learning the blood magic skills instead of the after affects of them mastering it. This book is already over 550 pages but I felt there could have been another 100 with the political intrigue part, mainly with Kelena (the princess who has such a baleful experience) as the POV. But, again, I’m picking nits here.
There is one thing I do have to say, and I do commend Hudson for not shying away from it, but the first chapter is brutal AF. It has to do with Jadarah and her blood magic and how she uses sex with her bloodslaved Thorns. It was uncomfortable and it may put some readers off due to its nature, but it really did showcase how dark this world is. This is not a hopeful world, and this scene lets you know it. It is the darkest scene in the book, in my opinion.
If grimdark, true grimdark, is your jam, then check out Scourge of Thorns. It is chock full of blood, terrible people doing terrible things, and awesome worldbuilding that sets up what is to be an epic series. I enjoyed this book, but it also made me want to bathe after a few scenes, unlike a certain mad queen or streetwise brat…
*I received an ARC from the author in return for an honest review
Leave a Reply