Reviews for Sea of Blood

The average rating for Sea of Blood based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-02-22 00:00:00 Kathy Tracy Ravenloft stories are part and parcel of my youth. They engendered my love of modern Gothic horror stories and led me to masters such as Lovecraft and Poe, in my later years. I have read many of the books in this series and have found several to be better than the rest, among them I list "I, Strahd"; "Knight of the Black Rose"; and "Vampire of the Mists". Add to that short list Shadowborn by Carrie Bebris. This was my first time reading Shadowborn and I am very glad that I did. The Shadowborn family is famous in these fictional lands for bravery, piety and honor. Many of their esteemed lineage have become great knights, high Priests and Clerics and a handful were powerful and devout enough to be chosen by their god, Benelus, to join the Circle- thirteen knights of great renown and holy faith known as Paladins. The greatest of these Paladins was Kateri Shadowborn who became famous for her service during the Heretic Wars. Then she mysteriously died and disappeared. Her legacy is her son-Alexi Shadowborn. Gifted beyond all measure, Alexi will become the youngest Paladin to ever be allowed, save for his mother Kateri. But on his holy day, Benelus seems to find him wanting as a Paladin and the position is given to his friend and lover Desmaria. This begins the grand adventure by Alexi to find redemption in the eyes of his god. Along the way he meets and his assisted by the mysterious cleric Lysander. Alexi's half-brother and squire, Ferran and Desmaria all are involved in this rather dark and interesting tale. Within Alexi is a great darkness that struggles to be free and his fight with the darkside is quite interesting. Many of the main characters of a Ravenloft tale are evil- Alexi is not. That is what makes this such an interesting story. The evil demon Ebonbane is excellent. His desire to destroy the legacy of Kateri Shadowborn and his fear of the power of the boy Alexi and his magical sword, Corona, are the drivers of the story. All of the characters are well developed and you can feel for their circumstances. That is a rarity in books that tend to be relatively brief and are more action/story driven. Shadowborn is more than that. It is a look inside the heart of a potential Paladin who has accepted darkness inside his soul. I shall not ruin any of this excellent plot. If you are interested in a good gothic horror tale of good vs evil, peopled with memorable characters, and several shocking twists then I can not recommend this book enough. One of the finest Ravenloft stories I've read in a long time.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-05-28 00:00:00 Michael Brendan Walsh I'm pretty sure this one doesn't even take place in Ravenloft and may have been published under this name rather then Grayhawk in an attempt to keep the series going, which it didn't accomplish. They would have been better served getting back to the core characters Strahd or Azalin and advancing the main plot if they were having trouble keeping up interest in the series. A decent Dark D&D book though. A tormented paladin and heroic undead priest are a bit more interesting then the usual fantasy fair.