The Judas Blossom: Book I of The Nightingale and the Falcon (Nightingale and the Falcon, 1)

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The setting this time is in Yerskania where a series of murders takes place, and the city is clogged by a sense of fear. The Guardians investigate the matter and deems it magical. Here Aryan describes the condition of the kingdoms after the devastating war. Magic is now treated as something dangerous, and wizards and sorcery has become anathema to the people who are afraid of its power. As such, the peace is fragile. We get to know about Yerskania a lot more as Aryan describes its politics, the criminal world, its economy and trade. There is a lot of espionage stuff here, assasination plots, conspiracies which keeps the tension high. Ancient Persia provides a fresh and vivid setting for the rediscovery of long-lost magic and the machinations of secret societies fighting the Mongol Empire. Historical fantasy at its finest!” While there is plenty of action,its smaller in scale. There is a magical murder mystery to solve, an assassination plot to be foiled and a civil war between different criminal families to be averted. So this story focuses more on intrigue and mystery than on straight up battle scenes. As a fan of historic fiction, I am very comfortable reading Judas Blossom, it reads like one of the better Bernard Cornwall novels, or a Ben Kane. The sense of history and place is well realised. All historic fiction bends the narrative to make for a better pace, and when you have a character who can produce flames from their body, your book is never going to be historically accurate. Aryan never set out to write that book, but instead use real world inspiration for a low fantasy alternate history book. In this, he nailed it. Middle East has experienced many genocides and wars over the course of history, from Persian empire wars with other ancient civilizations to what happened after Islam and Mongols and … .

As a work of fiction though, The Judas Blossom is a riveting tale, set in a dynamic world that is equally beautiful and terrifying. It is gripping, the characters are great and there are no filler chapters (which is surprising for epic fantasy and especially the first books in a series). Also, the novel ends in a compelling manner and this has guaranteed that I will read the next release as soon as I can. Stephen Aryan: I would say that The Judas Blossom is similar, but only up to a point. It also has factions fighting for control, and there’s lots of politics, intrigue, espionage and battles. But the story is set on Earth, not a made-up world, and there are no dragons or direwolves. There is a fantastical element, but it’s not the focus of the story. This is about the expansion of the Mongol Empire as they attempt to conquer the whole world. Writing this whole book has been the biggest challenge of my writing career to date. Mixing fact and fiction together in a way that is hopefully seamless was the hardest thing. If someone is not familiar with this period of history, or even this part of the world, I don’t want them to be able to work out what I made up and what really happened. Writing a traditional fantasy novel requires a lot of imagination. This series required a lot of research because I can’t just invent some aspects of the story to make it fit. His youngest son, Temujin, struggles to find his place in his father’s bloody rule. After another failure, Temujin is given one last chance to prove himself to Hulagu, who is sure there is a great warrior buried deep inside. But there’s something else rippling under the surface… something far more powerful and dangerous than they could ever imagine…This is why we read! A historical fantasy at the very top of it’s game, and it should be on top of everyone’s reading pile. Characters that feel fresh and authentic, a plot that explores the fate of the Mongol empire with all of the breathtaking action and twists that you love to see in modern fantasy. An early contender for book of the year.” I was entertained despite a lot of truncated scenes. This “Bam!, Boof! we are done and everything is resolved, so let’s move on” type of writing leaves much to be desired. Like poignancy’s gift to a well developed story line. Did I care about Fray, Munroe or Goraxx? Not really. As main characters they never developed to the point where their loss might affect your ability to buy the next in the series. They were just average in development and shallow in depth. Even Choss, whom was the pivot point for most of the action, was not to be missed should he catch a fatal steel bolt through an eye. Kaivon is an Iranian general who was defeated in the war against conquered people but not at heart. Everything should be destroyed from the inside.

The sieges and battles (which are very hit or miss for me) were so interesting in their logistics and details that were written in I would’ve never considered otherwise. I can’t remember the last time a book made me this intrigued with warfare. If you told me I’d be this riveted by a historical fantasy with just the seeds of the fantasy, I wouldn’t have believed you, but here we are. The Judas Blossom is an historical fantasy novel that starts The Nightingale and The Falcon series, a reimagining of the Persian Empire story, written by Stephen Aryan, and published by Angry Robot Books. In this new series, we get immersed in the fights and political intrigue that surrounded the Mongol and Persian Empire during the Ilkhanate of Hulagu Khan, grandson of the famous Genghis Khan, whose expansionist ideas still last. Temujin is my favourite, as I found his character arc is the most compelling. From an overweight coward to the man he becomes at the end (no spoilers), his transformation is the most heartbreaking. Temujin moves so far away from who he was at the beginning he is almost unrecognisable, but it is realistic, done step by step within the rules of the world he lives in. The Judas Blossom is clever, character-driven story-telling at its best.

In the shadow of his grandfather, Hulagu, ruler of the Ilkhanate, is determined to create a single empire that covers the entire world. His method? Violence. Hulagu Khan, the ruler of the Ilkhanate, tries to dominate the world through brute force. His conquests and violence attract many adversaries who are actively scheming against him. Like his newest concubine, Kokochin, also known as the Blue Princess. She finds purpose in honing her self-defense skills and becoming part of an underground resistance group to destroy the Ilkhanate from within. Along the way Aryan cleverly explores many themes including turf wars, undercover assassination plots, magic and human nature both at its best and at its worst. With a slower pace to that of its predecessor, Battlemage, Aryan has more time to develop characters, whilst building plenty of tension and intrigue along the way. Family and war collide in this thrilling and bloody reimagining of the Mongol Empire’s invasion of Persia. BUY THE BOOK

Fantastical aspects are marginal, in the style of some other low fantasy stories, such as Game of Thrones, despite I suspect it will become more important in the next books. A strong continuation to the series, though it can also be read as a standalone. The story and the plot has very little connection to the first novel, although reading the first will help the reader in understanding the fanatsy world created by Stephen in better terms. The story begins right after the end of the war which we got to witness in Battlemage . I enjoyed reading it which has a sense of mystery throughout, and keeps the reader guessing. Aryan's writing style is vivid and engaging. His rich descriptions appeal to the senses, allowing the reader to imagine the scenes and relate to the characters' feelings. I also liked how he uses dialog to clarify the characters’ personalities and relationships.

For this particular story, there were a lot of different aspects of the conflict that I wanted to explore. I’m telling the story from the perspective of both the conquerors and the people they are conquering. So, it would have been extremely limiting to do it from one point of view. That’s really difficult to answer. The most fun, or the most interesting character, is the one I’m working on right now for book 3. I have to find a way to relate and connect to all of them. I have to care about all of them as well so that I can make them feel as real as possible for the reader. That way, even if the audience doesn’t like a character, hopefully, they can understand their motives. Reduced to the position of one of Hulagu's many wives, the Blue Princess Kokochin is the last of her tribe. Alone and forgotten in a foreign land, Kokochin is unwilling to spend her days seeking out trivial pursuits. Seeking purpose, she finds herself wandering down a path that grants her more power than a wife of the ruler may be allowed.

Temujin is one of Hulegu's sons and the one that everyone hates. My first issue is that people's views of Temujin felt a bit too modern or...not Mongolian enough? They hate him because he's fat. Okay. I am not an expert on Mongolia but Kublai Khan is in this book and a few decades later he is supposedly very large and it's not treated as a big problem. There's also a rumor that Subutai was fat, even if it's untrue the evidence suggests this wouldn't be a big issue with the Mongols. The second reason they hate him is because he's not a fighter. This again feels like someone trying to think of WHY a strong warrior would hate their son and not considering cultural context. If this was Genghis's generation or before, sure. But Genghis' whole thing was finding uses for people that suited their talents. His brother Temuge was not a good fighter, but was a highly trusted administrator and counsellor in the khanate. So everything to do with why Temujin was utterly rejected just fell flat for me.Hulagu Khan, the grandson of the great Genghis Khan, has one purpose: to continue his grandfather’s dream of building a single Mongolian empire covering the whole world. And he will do so using violence, so legendary cities surrender, hoping to escape it. Temujin, Hulagu’s youngest son, cannot reconcile himself to the man his father wants him to be. Temujin is a man of books, not a sword. But through his studies, he will find power so great it could save the world or destroy it. Dare he disobey his father with his merciless attitude and casual relationship with violence, or does Temujin betray himself to finally win Hulagu’s approval? The way the Khan and his people justify their actions is revealingly disgusting. Perhaps I am reading too deeply into it, but it feels reminiscent of crudely justified politics and cultures today.