This was the sequel to ‘Gunmetal Gods,’ one of my favorite books of all time. This book was a thinly veiled alternate world history story about the culture clash between Sunni and Shia Islam. Where book 1 takes place in alternate Turkey/Istanbul, this book takes place in alternate Persia/inner Asia/Samarkand. The main tension is between a tribe of nomadic warriors (basically think proto Mongols) and the establish empire of the shah- both Sunni. There exists a tenuous peace, because a Mongol Princess married the shah, and they are united by their shared faith in a military alliance. However, a vengeful Shia sorceress wants to that marriage/alliance and thus causing chaos in the Sunni faction. Blood magic ensues.
I must say, I did love this I didn’t love it as much as book 1. This book took a very hard-magic approach to this book’s magic system. Different people have different blood types, and sorcerers can use the different blood types to perform different magics. It reminded me of the ‘Arcane Ascension’ series, where a large portion of the narrative is devoted to describing different magic systems. For me at least, I disliked how much of the story was focused on the intricacies of the magic system. I liked how in book 1 the magic was soft and scary; this book’s explicable, understandable magic system was less interesting for me. (Of course, it was always going to be hard for this book to stack up, book 1 was one of my favorite books of all time.)
I’m happy I read it, I’ll read book 3.
This book is about the difference between human chronological age and human biological age. You know how some people can be young and more vital than someone their age should be? Or vise versa, older than they should be? This book is about that.
I found it useful. It discusses mainly calorie restriction, fasting/intermittent fasting, vegetarianism/the Mediterranean diet/the Japanese diet, sleep and rest, the gender divide/race divide in stress, and a lot more. If you’re like me and follow various science-based health outlets, this book summarizes a lot of the data available in a readable format. It’s nothing outlandish, but a good, concise advice book for things you probably already know. It explains on the proteomic level why exercise is good and anti-aging, for example.
John Mendez- Book Reviews and More 