Two women - and the workings of Time and Fate. In a time too long ago for most human memory, a god asked Mara what she most wanted. She got her wish: to protect the weak against the strong. For millennia, she has avenged that god, and her dead sisters, against anyone who uses the Rituals of Blood to become a god through mass murder. And there are few who can stand against her. A sudden shocking incident proves to Emma that the modern world is not what she thought it was, that there are demons and gods and elves and vampires. Her weapon is knowledge, and she pursues it wherever it leads her. The one thing she does not know is who she - and her ghostly lover, Caroline - are working for. RHAPSODY OF BLOOD is a four-part epic fantasy not quite like anything you've read before: a helter-skelter ride through history and legend, from Tenochitlan to Los Angeles, from Atlantis to London. It is a story of death, love and the end of worlds - and of dangerous, witty women.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By John Dallman
Amazon Verified Purchase
Roz Kaveney has been a woman-about-town in SF, fantasy and related sub-genres and mash-ups for decades, terrifyingly well-read and always with something to contribute as editor and critic. Her hinterland extends much further, into feminism, politics, opera ... essentially the whole of western culture. It's necessary to understand this, a little, to make sense of Rituals, because this is in no way a normal fantasy novel. Its author's personality, and devastating intelligence, infest the book.
It does not indulge in the comforting limited scope of a created world, but ranges throughout our gory history. It creates a proto-mythology and a magical cosmology to prop up the weirdness of our own culture. It uses this as scaffolding for an urban fantasy that seems, at first, to be a typical modern example with the normal influences, and some deliberate inversions of Buffy The Vampire Slayer - until things start to get weirder. Cutting from Weimar demi-monde to LA ball culture via proto-Indo-European mythology is not exactly the usual way to write fantasy. Nobody in SF or fantasy has rewritten history as fictional opera that feels true since Lafferty's The Three Armageddons of Enniscorthy Sweeny, and he confined himself to the twentieth century.
A lot happens at the end, because this is the first slice of a larger story. The genre space is being expanded, with power tools. It's going to be an exciting ride. Fasten your seat belts.
It does not indulge in the comforting limited scope of a created world, but ranges throughout our gory history. It creates a proto-mythology and a magical cosmology to prop up the weirdness of our own culture. It uses this as scaffolding for an urban fantasy that seems, at first, to be a typical modern example with the normal influences, and some deliberate inversions of Buffy The Vampire Slayer - until things start to get weirder. Cutting from Weimar demi-monde to LA ball culture via proto-Indo-European mythology is not exactly the usual way to write fantasy. Nobody in SF or fantasy has rewritten history as fictional opera that feels true since Lafferty's The Three Armageddons of Enniscorthy Sweeny, and he confined himself to the twentieth century.
A lot happens at the end, because this is the first slice of a larger story. The genre space is being expanded, with power tools. It's going to be an exciting ride. Fasten your seat belts.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By S. Field
It's hard to describe the scope of this novel, or just how plain cool it is.
The number of times you find yourself reading a sequence of alternative history (so very firmly grounded in the real world) and just stop and think to yourself damn, that was just plain cool... or creepy... or weird... or scary... or exciting...
The list goes on.
It's smart, erudite, kinky, funny, and I run out of superlatives. Just buy it, read it, and wait impatiently for the next volume.
The number of times you find yourself reading a sequence of alternative history (so very firmly grounded in the real world) and just stop and think to yourself damn, that was just plain cool... or creepy... or weird... or scary... or exciting...
The list goes on.
It's smart, erudite, kinky, funny, and I run out of superlatives. Just buy it, read it, and wait impatiently for the next volume.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing novel, read it now before it becomes the next big thing
29 Oct 2012
By Alex de Campi
- Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase
I would not be surprised if RITUALS is picked up by a much larger publisher and then wins a slew of awards next year. It is a fantastic read. I ordered it on a friend's recommendation, and sat up all night last night devouring the first 100 pages.
A fierce intelligence permeates every niche of this book, and its covers positively crackle with wit and excitement. RITUALS is the story of two characters: force of nature MARA, an immortal huntress who guards humanity against those who would (or have) become gods; and EMMA JONES, a shy Oxford undergrad tapped by mysterious powers to first help spring a faun from the Ashmolean and very soon after, take on rogue angels... with some epic Egyptian help. The book canters along at a breakneck pace, a really welcome change from some more plodding, overpadded fantasy epics. And it tickles both the urban fantasy and historical/fantasy itch at the same time. It is, in turns (and sometimes even in the same paragraph), funny, horrifying, wise, and surprising. Get it. You won't regret it. I'd write more but I have to go read the rest of the book because OMFG NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.
A fierce intelligence permeates every niche of this book, and its covers positively crackle with wit and excitement. RITUALS is the story of two characters: force of nature MARA, an immortal huntress who guards humanity against those who would (or have) become gods; and EMMA JONES, a shy Oxford undergrad tapped by mysterious powers to first help spring a faun from the Ashmolean and very soon after, take on rogue angels... with some epic Egyptian help. The book canters along at a breakneck pace, a really welcome change from some more plodding, overpadded fantasy epics. And it tickles both the urban fantasy and historical/fantasy itch at the same time. It is, in turns (and sometimes even in the same paragraph), funny, horrifying, wise, and surprising. Get it. You won't regret it. I'd write more but I have to go read the rest of the book because OMFG NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Officially the best book I've ever read
13 April 2013
By Siavahda
- Published on Amazon.com
This...this...good gods, how can I possibly put this book's awesomeness into words? It is going to the very top of my favourites pile FOREVER.
Let's start simple: the plot. Which is not really simple at all. There are two plotlines within this book - one, told by Mara the Huntress, an immortal slayer of evil gods, is quite simply Mara telling her own story to a magician she happens to have met. As an immortal slayer of evil gods, that story is a long, complex, incredible one - even if it often involves horrible horrors and unspeakable cruelty, on the parts of the evil monsters she is sworn to kill. In the course of her life she has met many creatures and become involved with many stories - if you're a student of mythology like myself, and even if you aren't, you'll probably recognise many of the stories she becomes involved with. Noah and his Ark, Atlantis, the Amazon warrior women - all of them and more are here, in a recognisable form but still utterly different from the myths and legends we know today. If you ask me, this is one of Kaveney's special bits of genius, because it makes the stories far more real: you can see how the 'grain of truth' evolved into the myth we know, and I loved it to pieces every time I caught a reference.
The second plotline is that of Emma, a young woman living in 90s London who becomes involved with the supernatural world when a monster eats her best friend. This is the only time the two plotlines really cross, because Mara gets involved for a minute or two - but then she's off again, leaving Emma, and her friend Caroline (now a ghost, and Emma's lover) to start policing the supernatural world at the behest of Caroline's nameless 'employer'.
Both Mara and Emma end up saving the world a lot.
But to be honest, that really doesn't give you any idea of Rituals' complete and utter genius. Sure, there's the retelling of all the myths (which I adored SO MUCH). There's the host of LGBTQ characters, including chaos magicians in drag and a vampire princess who is simply adorable with her 'baby fangs'. And there's Emma's snarky sarcasm, as she ruthlessly says what we've all been thinking for years and mocks the elves and vampires she comes across mercilessly. (Don't worry though. This is NOT a book about elves and vampires, or a book for their fans. Kaveney parodies them deliberately, and it's utterly hilarious and wonderful). But there's also Kaveney's incredible use of language, description, and sheer original BRILLIANCE that has me down on my knees BEGGING for the sequel.
Please please PLEASE, Kaveney - don't keep me waiting too long for book 2!
Let's start simple: the plot. Which is not really simple at all. There are two plotlines within this book - one, told by Mara the Huntress, an immortal slayer of evil gods, is quite simply Mara telling her own story to a magician she happens to have met. As an immortal slayer of evil gods, that story is a long, complex, incredible one - even if it often involves horrible horrors and unspeakable cruelty, on the parts of the evil monsters she is sworn to kill. In the course of her life she has met many creatures and become involved with many stories - if you're a student of mythology like myself, and even if you aren't, you'll probably recognise many of the stories she becomes involved with. Noah and his Ark, Atlantis, the Amazon warrior women - all of them and more are here, in a recognisable form but still utterly different from the myths and legends we know today. If you ask me, this is one of Kaveney's special bits of genius, because it makes the stories far more real: you can see how the 'grain of truth' evolved into the myth we know, and I loved it to pieces every time I caught a reference.
The second plotline is that of Emma, a young woman living in 90s London who becomes involved with the supernatural world when a monster eats her best friend. This is the only time the two plotlines really cross, because Mara gets involved for a minute or two - but then she's off again, leaving Emma, and her friend Caroline (now a ghost, and Emma's lover) to start policing the supernatural world at the behest of Caroline's nameless 'employer'.
Both Mara and Emma end up saving the world a lot.
But to be honest, that really doesn't give you any idea of Rituals' complete and utter genius. Sure, there's the retelling of all the myths (which I adored SO MUCH). There's the host of LGBTQ characters, including chaos magicians in drag and a vampire princess who is simply adorable with her 'baby fangs'. And there's Emma's snarky sarcasm, as she ruthlessly says what we've all been thinking for years and mocks the elves and vampires she comes across mercilessly. (Don't worry though. This is NOT a book about elves and vampires, or a book for their fans. Kaveney parodies them deliberately, and it's utterly hilarious and wonderful). But there's also Kaveney's incredible use of language, description, and sheer original BRILLIANCE that has me down on my knees BEGGING for the sequel.
Please please PLEASE, Kaveney - don't keep me waiting too long for book 2!
›
Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
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