Blood Oath
(Blood Oath #2)
Author : Amanda McCrina
Publisher: Month9Books
Publication Date: June 19, 2018
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 244
I was asked to review this second installment but I just can't insert it anymore into my overly crowded TBR and more so because I would not be able to read and review it in time for the release day. So instead, I opted to just post something to help promote the book in time for the release day. Since I read Blood Road, I decided to ask the author some questions regarding some of the things I've noticed on the first book. So, scroll down to the Ask the Author portion of this post and find out for yourselves the questions I've asked the author and her interesting answers. Hopefully, I would be able to read and review this second book of the series in the later months.
Thanks again Month9Books and Amanda McCrina for allowing me to ask my questions and have them answered.
For everyone's information, this is my first time to ask an author questions about the book and get them answered and I am allowed to post them. Mostly, this usually happens in private messages and some authors gave me inside information on their books that I've reviewed but of course, I am not allowed to share them with anyone. And that's one of the greatest things about being a book reviewer and blogger. I get to be privy to some very important updates and development of some of my favorite books that are not included in newsletters and other pubic forums or social media platforms. It's like an insider tip given to me by author. This is officially my first author interview though very very brief. Thanks Month9Books for facilitating this and for the awesome opportunity.
The aftermath of what happened in the capital has shaken Torien to the core. Battling self-doubt and bitterness, he must find his resolve as he is sent back to Tasso to quell a violent uprising on the Road.
But Torien will need more than resolve to navigate the deadly path before him. His troops are inexperienced and his new adjutant untrustworthy. A series of murder attempts leaves the whole camp on edge. As the threat of mutiny builds, the mission seems doomed before they even reach Tasso—and Torien is beginning to suspect it was meant that way. He and his men are being set up to fail.
With his best friend in the hands of the rebels, his commanding officer refusing to negotiate a peace treaty, and his own men ready to turn on him at any moment, Torien must decide once and for all how much he’s willing to sacrifice for an empire he no longer believes in.
Chion unsheathed his knife and slid the blade under the edge of Torien’s cuirass, above the hip.
“I’m going to signal the ships tonight,” he said.
Torien stood very still against the blade. “Chion—”
“I won’t kill you—though I think Serik would, if I asked him. I’ll let them give you your trial in Choiro.”
“Listen to me, Chion.”
“You’ll be under guard. The Tegeni can do it. Easier that way. You’ll be in your quarters as if nothing has
happened.”
“I sent to negotiate. I sent to offer peace.”
“General Sarno said you would.” Chion unbuckled Torien’s sword belt with his free hand. “He said you’d
try. Said it was in your barbarian blood—to betray us. I said I’d stop you, if it came to that.” He tugged
the belt off and bundled it under his elbow. He shrugged Torien’s hand from his shoulder. He eased the
blade a little, pushing Torien around toward the hilltop. He jabbed the point into the small of Torien’s
back. “Walk.”
“Is that what you think? That it’s my barbarian blood?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is that what you think, Chion?”
Chion was silent, for a moment.
“I don’t think you’re a traitor,” he said finally. “Not the way Sarno thinks, anyway. I think you really
believed they’d give us peace.”
“At least give them the chance. Wait until the signo comes back.”
“If he comes back.”
“You’ll know by nightfall. At least wait until then.”
“I can’t,” Chion said. “I can’t, even if I wanted. I gave Sarno my word.”
“You gave me your word. Any oath I asked—you weren’t the traitor. Your word doesn’t mean much, at
this point.”
“I can swear truthfully that I serve the Empire. My word to you came subject to that. You should
understand. You swore it the same.”
“I serve the Empire,” Torien said.
“They can decide it at your court martial,” Chion said.
In the first book, Blood Road, I observed that Torien seemed to faint a lot of times. Why did Torien keep passing out in the story? Does this happen in Blood Oath?
Honestly, Torien had a pretty rough time in Blood Road: getting stabbed twice and suffering a seriously infected wound, taking a spear butt to the face, being tortured via exposure/water deprivation ... the list goes on. He does pass out after one of the stabbings, during the extended torture sequence, and while suffering an extremely high fever from the infection, but I don't hold it against him—I’m pretty sure I wouldn't have lasted as long. 
I'm happy to report that he doesn't take such a physical beating in Blood Oath.
One of the characters that I really liked in the story is Lieutenant Senna. I want to know who's the inspiration for his character. Is he based on a person in real life who's close to you? Is Torien based on anybody in your life?
None of my characters are intentionally based on real people, though I'm sure I've subconsciously recycled bits and pieces of people I actually know. I will say that Alluin's snark and sarcasm came pretty easily to me; his sense of humor is pretty close to mine. Torien himself is a character type that I tend to write quite a lot—an insufferably honorable character, usually a soldier, who's trying to do the right thing even if it means personal hurt (and it always does)—and he's drawn from the types of characters I like most to read about. Costis, from Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series, is an example of a similar character, as is Aquila from Rosemary Sutcliff's classic YA novel The Lantern Bearers.
How did Torien's story come to be? What inspired you to write it? Did something close to what Lida experienced happen to you personally or someone close to you? Or were you a witness to some cruel injustice and corruption and have taken it as a personal cause?
Writing from a position of privilege as a middle-class white woman, I've never experienced the kind of hardship Lida experiences in Blood Road—seeing her mother murdered by gangsters, her twin brother sold into slavery, and her government either turn a blind eye to or actively participate in her oppression. But that kind of violence and injustice does happen in our world, and closer to home than we'd like to think. Too often, we can witness it just by watching the news. I truly wish Torien's story didn't have so many real-life parallels.
Amanda McCrina was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her BA in History and Political Science from the University of West Georgia. She lives in Madrid, Spain, where she teaches at an international school.
She writes historical fiction and political fantasy.
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