4 out of 4 stars
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The Bulls of War by E.M. Thomas is the first book in his Chronicles of the Andervold Thrones series. Set in a foreign place in a distant time, the story chronicles the vicious war and bloodshed between two powerful empires, the Rokhs and the Valogerians. For years, these two kingdoms have been fighting to take over one another, until a new emperor arrives and orders a truce. This truce, albeit a fragile one, has kept the fighting at bay for the time being.
Along with the war, the story documents the upbringing and lives of two best friends, Kyrus and Tyghus, who are of Rokhish descent. Both of them share a tragic past. They have both witnessed the murders of their families in war, have fought side by side in battle, and have the hearts and minds of soldiers. These unique experiences have caused them to share a very strong, loyal friendship and bond. However, due to politics, mind games, deceit, lies, and manipulation, that friendship will ultimately be put to the test.
This is a fantastic book. In the story, the author explores such powerful themes as love, war, justice, revenge, honor, trust, family, and loyalty and he does so with the utmost skill. One of the marks of great writing is to show and not tell, and the author does just that. He clearly conveys the fear, the anger, the pride, and the patriotism of the characters during the battle scenes, and in the heartfelt, emotional scenes between loved ones.
Initially, the book was very hard for me to read. The book was set in a fictional world so it started off with a lot of facts and information about the wars, the timeline, and the different clans of people. There was also a lot of different terminology used, such as the word “khorokh” which essentially meant emperor, and other such words. It was hard to keep the terminology and characters straight. However, as I read more, I became used to the language and I really started to enjoy the dialogue and the story.
There were a few editing mistakes and typos. For example, there was a sentence written as “All I can I say” when the second “I” should not be there. The word “unceremoniously” was misspelled as “unceremonisouly,” etc. These errors were so minor, however, that they were easy to overlook and did not detract from the story.
This book is thoroughly well researched and I can only imagine the amount of time and effort put into writing this. The storyline, the research, the drama, and the political intrigue impressed me so much that I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. I do not recommend this book to younger readers or people who do not enjoy violence because this book is a war story. There are descriptive war scenes that can be quite brutal and gory, so those who are squeamish may want to avoid this one. Action, adventure, and thriller lovers, however, will not want to miss this.
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The Bulls of War
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