Review: Destroyer's Blood (Blood Series #1)

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
Dev shook his head, spitting out dust and rock chips. The last rays of the setting sun stained the ground crimson. “Betrayer,” he murmured, ears still ringing from the terrific explosion, “we have a problem.”
The cryptic message from Olympus changes everything... One moment Devcalion and Betrayer are free, climbing up Half Dome without a care in the world, the next they are dragged into battle with the Destroyer, Zeus’s ancient foe.
The Dark Power is merciless, and time is running out. It’s up to Dev and Tray to try to stop him, or the world of men and gods is doomed.

I really should start to learn how to DNF books before it's too late. Before the only feelings, I have the author's baby is discontent and frustration. Destroyer's Blood intrigued me from the beginning. The concept of ancient Greek mythology and the disputes between the ruling gods has always been close to my heart, and, in a way, are what got me into reading in the first place. So, almost every time someone presents me with an opportunity to dive back into that world, I take it. I take it because I enjoy the lores, I enjoy the mystery and the great adventures.

At first, I didn't realise who/what Betrayer was... Did me a little confuse that one. When the question switched to answer I could begin to dive into the plot. And that's where I hit the first big obstruction: Too much information. Although, to those who know something about martial arts, outside the world of books and films, might be interested in different fighting stances and whatnots. But to a person whose knowledge of the arts is based on Chinese drama series watched in a 39celsius fever when nothing else was available, the names of different battle-poses just are too much. They didn't add any more credibility to the character's fighting abilities.

After trying to ignore the information overload, I run into the next wall. The narrative likes to skip several hours from the end of the previous chapter to the beginning of the next one. Then the narrative would go back and bring the reader up to speed with the current events. This truly disrupted the flow and sometimes broke it all together. It's like driving a car from one end of the street to the other and reversing ten meters for every hundred meters advanced. This way the dialogue suffers a cut-back, having to refer its space for telling what happened rather than just opting for showing real time.

It's not all negative though! Since I had decided to trudge until the very end, I found the dialogue between Devcalion and Betrayer entertaining. There is a really good relationship between those two, the trust between the two is almost blind. The references for the modern day mortal world, like phones and coffee shops, were a nice reminder of in which era the events were placed in.

The scheming and politics of the godly world are what I enjoyed the most. You can never trust anyone because the entire lot is so interbred that your sister might be your worst enemy's mother. You might win a battle against gods but never the war.