Blood Forest is an intense and gory debut from Geraint Jones. Set in AD 9, Blood Forest follows a Roman legionnaire through the campaign to subdue the Germanic tribes of northern Europe. The hero, Felix, has forgotten (or hidden) his true name and origins providing a layer of mystery to the character.
This is heavy on action and gore but the plot is limited and the characters are underdeveloped (possibly because so many die off). The ending was disappointing with little of the plot resolved and leaving the surviving characters ‘up in the air’, everything is teed up for a follow on.
If you want an idea of what it was like to fight in the Roman army 2000 years ago then you might well enjoy this (I am not sure how historically accurate it is), I didn’t really care and just wanted it to finish as soon as possible – sort of the equivalent of watching a movie with your hands over your eyes and peeping through the cracks. I’ll pass on the next one.
2/5