J. L. Gribble

J. L. Gribble has created a captivating alternate reality in her debut novel, full of magic and vampires and were-creatures. The story centers around a centuries old female vampire named Victory and her adopted family, and the city-state she's cultivated as a safe zone between the British and Romans empires.

Victory has tried to step back in her control of the city politics, but as often happens, subversive elements creep in and try to undermine all she has accomplished. A new Roman Emperor also threatens to destroy the peace that has been established by treaty for decades.

But her family is not one to be trifled with. They all have military training and varying degrees of experience in the arts of war. A mercenary guild helps protect the city as well, with ties that go back to the birth of the city. But their little hamlet is no match for an entire legion from either the Brits or the Romans, so they must rely on savvy politics to keep their status as a free-state.

The characters are all singular, well-developed, and interesting. She uses strong female characters as the main points of view, while not a new thing, it does add flavor to the historical fantasy trope, especially Victory as a matriarch of the city-state and the anchor of the story.

Mrs. Gribble's prose is excellent, a very well-done novel from a first-time author. The story is tight and moves quickly. It drew me right in. I would definitely qualify this novel as a page-turner. She keeps cranking up the tension, and just when you think things couldn't get any worse, she takes up another notch.

The timeframe this story takes place in is hard to pin down. The alternate history of Romans and Greeks still playing a large part on the world scene would imply an older venue, but it's post-apocalyptic, taking place long after a nuclear war that has devastated much of the land. Certain types of technology have been rendered useless by Elven magic but there is a history of gun making that could be taken out of our current science. The history of this world intrigues me and I hope we find out more about it in the other books in this series. She currently has this planned as a trilogy with the next book set to release sometime in 2016.

If you like vampires or urban fantasy this should be in your wheelhouse. Highly recommended.
… (més)

I have read none of the related books, so bear with me, but I believe this book takes place after "Steel Victory" and either right after or concurrently with "Steel Magic", two other books set in the same world. Steel Blood returns to following the protagonist of "Steel Victory", the vampire mercenary Victory, as she returns to the Qin (Chinese) empire for a contract with an old lover.

This is by far one of the best vampire books I've read and overall an excellent alternative history world. I missed a little by not reading the earlier two books in terms of world-building, which I am genuinely sorry about, but despite that found it easy to pick up the plot and the character's relationships. I liked almost all of the individual characters and appreciated their motivations, which is a hallmark of quality storytelling.

There were only two sticking points for me. First, and this may be because I haven't read the earlier books, but the use of tshirts, jeans and automobiles (very dependent to the industrial revolution) seemed arbitrary. I would have liked a more robust explanation of the history of this world, or at least allusions to it. Secondly, and this may be a matter of personal preference, but I didn't find all of the character interactions believable. Often characters did a thing and I understood why they did it, but I just didn't believe a human would do it like that. Dialogue in particular felt a bit stilted.

However neither of these things stopped me from enjoying the book!… (més)