Bloodline

A smooth , compelling read set in Dark Ages England, one of my favourite periods and settings. Traces the stroy of Essa, a half Briton, half Saxon boy abandoned by his travelling bard/spy/father in a Wixna village without explanation when he is nineHe grows up in the village, struggles to find his place in the world until his village is attacked by Mercian marauders. He not has a mission to fulfill, while preventing war between the various kingdoms and tribal federations, and has a psychic talent for astral travel and communication with animals, even with entering their bodies.He makes friends and enemies, and his strong bonds with his animals and his love for his childhood sweetheart, blond saxon beauty Lark, are both beautiful to read. his ultimate task is to stop the savage and bloodthirsty Mercian king Penda, after having gone with Penda's son, Wulfehre, on a journey to Powys to fetch Wulfhere's young bride.The author shows great understanding and research of the Britain of this time , and we get a feel fro the characters and places.She definitely shows a feel for Britain and it's history.

Having read Rathbone's The Last English King and been impressed by it I was simarly impressed by the way the author captures the essence of a mid-period in Anglo-Saxon History -Penda's Mercia-and manages a nice character arc as the tale unfolds. Small touches will appeal to any historian on the period and although ultimately I guess it is entertainment it was nevertheless a good story.

Historical fantasy set in Dark Age Britain gives this book a feel of something new and exciting. Essa is left in a village caught between two feuding kingdoms. His father, Cai, is a roving trader with a secret history only hinted at in front of his son. Essa is concerned with understanding his own family history, for he feels no pull of real allegiance to any of the lords in the surrounding countryside.After his apparent abandonment by his father, and with no mother to care for him, Essa ends up shifting his loyalties around, trying to ascertain where he fits into the puzzle of power-hungry lords and feuding factions. Caught up in a power struggle between two kingdoms on the brink of war, Essa realises that he can only be true to himself if he is to weather the coming storm. He is helped by his maturing ability to enter the minds of animals and perceive what they can see.The book is aimed at young adults, but is definitely a good read for adults who enjoy this genre also. It is a story of ancestry and of war, and ultimately our young hero can only achieve what he must by realising that his unique differences, that he is neither wholly Northumbrian, Wixma, nor Wolf Folk, give him the chance to slip between the cracks and fulfill his own destiny.Very well researched by Moran, and the beginning of a whole new series of historical fantasy that will undoubtedly rise to high levels of success.

This is what my seven year old son says about the book, we are reading it at bedtime. He thinks that it is as good a Eragon. He found it slow going at the beginning but is now enjoying it. I have read on and have finished it. I enjoyed it. I wonder if some important parts of the emotional dynamics of the story are within the emotional understanding of the target audience and I think that perhaps there are several areas that assume prior knowledge of the period. But if there is one thing I have learnt being a mother is that what adults think children will enjoy is often very different to what they do.

This carefully-researched and well-written story is set in the tribal dark ages which is unusual for a children's book and sets it apart from the crowd. In addition, the main character, Essa, has an unusual talent, a spiritual gift: he can soar above and away from his physical being and be inside animals and use their eyes or he can exert an external influence upon their behaviour. There is much made of honour and loyalty to the clan, there's intrigue with suspected treachery and dangers lurking at every turn. and the evocative language pulls you right into misty marshes of political change and tribal unrest. Great for boys in particular as they set off for secondary school.

The story is set mostly in England in the Dark Ages, where war is about to break out between two tribes. The central character is a boy named Essa, whose travelling father (sometimes a bard, sometimes a spy) has abandoned him to be brought up by one of those tribes. Essa has a role to play in trying to prevent war, alongside discovering the true identity of his mother, and in turn his place in the world.I didn't initially have high expectations of this book. The Dark Ages is one of my favourite periods of British history, but so often historical novels are ruined for the reader if the details of the period are inaccurate. The Dark Ages are particularly hard to get right, as so much is unknown, even to historians, that authors must often extrapolate likely situations and customs, without losing the authentic feel of the period. Katy Moran does this beautifully and subtly, without allowing the history to slow down the plot. There is a real sense of what it was like to live in the period, helping the reader to understand the choices facing Essa, in the context in which he faced them.From the first page, the plot doesn't slow, and the characters are rounded - even Essa's enemies have some redeeming features. If the book had a flaw, it was that it seemed to end too soon. Essa's journey, and his efforts to secure peace, were incomplete. Although the author does pull the ending together, it still has the feel of the first half of a larger novel, rather than the first book in a series. I wondered if the author had originally written a longer book, that had been split into two to make each book a more realistic length for a teenage audience?It isn't a major flaw though, as when a debut novel is this good, it suggests the sequel will be worth waiting for!