Pathfinder Tales: Bloodbound

A Slow Burn

This review was first published on Kurt's Frontier.

Synopsis:

Larsa is a royal accuser: an agent for the royal spymaster who keeps the peace between the capital’s secret vampire population and humanity. She is also a dhampir, born of a union between vampire and human. Jadain is a young priestess of the Maiden’s Choir and servant to the death goddess. Her more fanatical superiors harass her for being too soft on the worshipers. The unlikely pair come together when vampiric invaders massacre almost the entire household of a noblewoman. They set out on a journey to find out who would attack this house. The problem is that the enemy is her father, and he is targeting a mother she doesn’t know.

Review:

Wesley Schneider’s Bloodbound is a tale from the popular Pathfinder series of games. It is told in the first person and from the point of view of Larsa, a dhampir hunter of dark things, and Jadain, a soft-hearted priestess of the goddess of death. The tone of this dark fantasy trends toward gothic horror. Larsa was born from a union between a vampire and a human. After a childhood of living hell, she was forged into a tool for maintaining the uneasy truce between humans and the undead, killing anyone caught breaking the truce. She is never truly accepted by either vampires or humans. Jadain is caught in a power struggle between two factions of her order. The more fanatical faction would love to destroy Larsa.

While not exactly hard to put down, the book is interesting. Bram Stroker’s Dracula has been described as a slow burn. In most respects, so is this book though with more action. Larsa and Jadain have to piece together a mystery as to why Larsa’s father is targeting her mother, and why the woman refuses to remember.