Cego and his team return to the world’s most prestigious combat school, The Lyceum. Though he’d like to focus on his martial studies, Cego feels the pull of his mysterious past and two missing brothers.
Solara Halberd, daughter of the fighting legend, embarks on her own quest to bury the past. She must utilize every lesson her father taught her to explore unknown lands where evil lurks in the shadows.
I read Alexander Darwin’s THE COMBAT CODES towards the end of 2023, and it wound up being one of my favorite books of the year. Because I was kind of “late” getting to that one (relative to its release date), that means I was able to read the second book in the trilogy, GRIEVAR’S BLOOD, while the story was still pretty fresh in my mind!
There was no doubt going into this book that it was going to be a much different vibe from the first book…the way things ended in THE COMBAT CODES made it clear that book two was going to be branching out in some different directions.
But wow, this is such a fundamentally different book than the first. I love when authors are willing to take big risks with their story. That’s exactly what Darwin has done with GRIEVAR’S BLOOD, and the payoff is enormous.
I loved Solara in the first book & with how book one ended, I knew she’d end up with her own POV here. Solara is…kind of reeling. Still dealing with the death of her father, I think we’re seeing a character who is still in a bit of shock. Grief is messy & complex, and I think Darwin does great work showing Sol as a character that’s just…going through it. All of it.
Sol’s story takes her to an entirely different location in this one, so it’s really cool to see the world open up, and to see different cultures built around combat. She makes some friends and allies, including one extremely enigmatic character called Wraith. Wraith is initially presented as somewhat terrifying & possibly villainous, but becomes a really key part of Sol’s story, and a great ally.
Murray is down in the Deep for a lot of GRIEVAR’S BLOOD, looking into what’s become of Cego’s brothers. These parts of the story were some of my favorites…I’d hesitate to call these books “cyberpunk” overall, but certainly the terrain & vibe of the Deep has a distinctly dangerous/grimy/cyberpunky feel to it. Murray is like the heart & soul of this series for me, and I love getting to spend time with him. He’s kind of a mess in this one but still, he’s just got this big, brawny, comforting presence that I love.
The mystery of Cego and his brothers really takes center stage here, and as I mentioned (and without giving too much away), this means massive changes to the direction of the story. I honestly could never have guessed at some of the twists & turns this one would take, but holy fuck, the stage is set for an epic finale with BLACKLIGHT BORN.
These books are, of course, very action heavy. And it’s something Darwin is extremely skilled at writing (he is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after all!), but I promise you don’t need to be an MMA enthusiast or something to enjoy these books! I’m certainly not & I think the fight scenes in these books are fucking brilliant!
But none of the teeth-rattling action ever comes at the expense of genuinely great character development, and vivid, unique world-building. This is just an incredibly fun, emotional, and compelling trilogy so far. Absolutely cannot wait for BLACKLIGHT BORN!
Huge thanks to Orbit for sending this one my way!!
Grimdark Dad 