Bloodwalk

This is another time when I wish Goodreads had a rating system out of 10 instead of 5. I'm really torn between 3 or 4 stars, and 3.5 would've been just right. In the end, seeing as how this is the first novel for the author, I gave it 4.

Firstly, I'd like to say that the setting and tone of the entire story was very good - it was dark and bleak. You could almost feel the aura of doom descending. Tension exists, but unfortunately it got stretched by slow pacing. Parts of the story in the middle were slow to read, with a lot of repetitive descriptions regarding both the protagonist and villain. The plot itself has moments of horror (the beginning was especially good), lots of action, questions of faith, and even some romance thrown in.

The main protagonist is the classic good-guy-doing-bad-things - i.e. the good-aligned killer (D&D 3.5E) - in this case, a ghostwalker (prestige class). He's a reluctant hero with a strong personality, dealing with his own internal conflict of light and dark.

The villain, despite wielding the rarely mentioned (rare in novels) blood magic, was a little one-dimensional in her evil. She's just... evil. Her background and dominating personality was superbly crafted, how it led to her current state. Too bad her motivations were left a little weak; she could've been even more interesting.

Overall, this is a good read; a story about prophecies and the reluctant pieces that got tied up into it.