Now the third Moontide is almost here and, this time, the people of the East are ready for a fight .

The next Moontide is coming in a year, and The Rondian Emperor wants to use this time to rule both continents, but this time the people of Antiopia will be prepared. Instead it put me in a months long reading funk just as I got conscripted inside my own apartment for my own health. The end two hundred pages are choc-a-bloc with action, political intrigue, character treachery and much more happening on a grand stage. As the series name implies, Mage's Blood is only the first in what is meant to be series of four books, and as such there is much left wide open for huge things to come.This book had a blurb that promised a war that occurs every twelve years due to a specific tidal event and featured a world that bears a close resemblance to certain areas and historical aspects of our own. Across the ocean, in Javon, Elena Anborn, a ruthless assassin whose world of targets and weaknesses, and strategies of killing enemies and sacrificing friends undergoes a transformation from “head and coin” to “heart and body” and finds herself to be the last (and only! There is definitely a Game of Thrones feel to this book (after all my copy had a sticker on it saying “If you love Game of Thrones, you’ll want to read this!

Most of the nations and cultures in this book bear marked resemblances to those in our reality -- even when it comes to religion and geography. The main epic arc is stretched between two polar opposites: Antonin Mairos and Sabele the Witch (you can also replace the “w” with the “b” and you’ll get the overall sense of this character). Suffice to say though, this book has it all: nations at war, clashing religions, political intrigue, mages and sorcery, multiple points of view. However, at the same time David Hair has wrapped things up in a way that is straightforward and satisfying, without any abruptness. Hair’s narrative relied a lot on info-dump during the first half of the novel, and it honestly hurt the pacing of the book so much; informations, to me, are harder to register in my head when they’re told in info-dump way.These citizens are led by Elena Anborn, former Yuros assassin turned guardian and chief councilor to the most influential royal family in Antiopia.