I loved this book! It was so good, maybe even better than the first. I loved the addition of Sol's POV, it was great to see a POV from a strong female character and get a deeper dive into her side of the story. I also really enjoyed the addition of Sila's POV. We plunge even deeper into this world and start to see a more complete view of the culture that was hinted at in book one. I felt like this book dug deeper while still delivering on plenty of action and the great fight scenes that we loved from the first book. Well done, I can not wait for more!

A wonderful sequel. Not only are there more POVs in this book you also see more of the world and more of how the different factions work!
This book did well setting up what the conflict will be in book 3 while also being interesting and leaving room for the characters to grow and have their own stories!
I'm looking forward to seeing how it all ends.

The follow up to Combat Codes I feared would suffer from "middle book" syndrome...it doesn't at all. Grievar's Blood by Alexander Darwin is a well paced, action packed, follow up that will leave you wanting more from book three!
This book launches on December 05th / 2023 and if you enjoyed Combat Codes you are sure to enjoy Grievars Blood. The world is expanded in part of the book, opening different perspectives and characters that contribute to this ever expanding world that Darwin is creating. Cego and Murray are such flawed characters that we can all relate to them in some way, either in big ways or small.
There is continued found family, betrayal, new friendships, heart break, death, and a reckoning...Grievar's Blood is definitely worth reading.

Thank you to both NetGalley and orbit for letting me this read this arc.
For this book I would say that I enjoyed it. The action scenes are well described and easy to follow. They never feel bloated or gone on too long. Now for the plot, it was fast paced, stuff escalates pretty quickly which is fine. The only problem I had with this sequel is that there are lot of view points to the story compare to the last one. Now it’s good to see a lot of the world in the story but there were times where I was reading one viewpoint fully invested, only to have read another viewpoint that I was not fully invested so it felt like a little bit of chore to get through. Other than that I enjoyed it and look forward to the final book in the trilogy.

This story is a fast-paced adventure with further character development from the first one, and more backstory. The world and its politics are opened up as well. For a self published book, I was a little skeptical about starting this series, but man I'm glad I did! Great follow up to a great debut!

In his afterword, author Alexander Darwin touches on the subject of middle book syndrome, the point in a series that can either make it or break it: now that I have read Grievar’s Blood I can say with total assurance that this book does not only make the series, but it also expands on the characters’ journey and on the view of the world in which the story is set, and does so in a gripping, page-turning way.

Where The Combat Codes focused mainly on the characters of young Cego, rising star in the Grievars’ training school, and of Murray Pearson, former Grievar Knight turned scout for fighting talent, Grievar’s Blood adds two more POVs to the story, Solara Halberd and Silas the Slayer and through them gives us a deeper, wider understanding of this world and its social and political forces at work. All of the characters - old and new - are on some form of quest here: Cego needs to learn more about himself and his talents after the momentous revelation on his origins, a discovery that has a profound impact both on his personality and on the way he interacts with his friends. In the previous book I enjoyed the theme of found family in this group of young trainees, and here the strength of the bond linking them is stressed even more once Cego finds himself facing a quite unexpected turn of events in what proved to be a very compelling narrative thread: the team’s reaction to what is happening is both heartwarming and harrowing, and leads to a detailed trial scene that kept me on the edge of the seat for the whole run. It’s interesting to note, though, that Cego’s journey is not front and center in Grievar’s Blood: the bold move of having him share the limelight in equal measure with other characters pays off in the end, because the uncertainty about his fate that colors the last quarter of the book adds even more strength to the pivotal scene where the present leg of his journey ends to start a new one. Apologies for these quite cryptic comments, but I don’t want to spoil anything here…

Murray, after the shocking discoveries he made in the previous book, is a rudderless man who has turned to drinking himself into a stupor, literally touching bottom, physically and spiritually until something awakens him and gives him a new purpose: finding Sam, Cego’s younger brother. His commitment to this goal takes him back to his former self, and we see him taking great risks and paying a huge price for his actions: I am amazed at the kind of beatings this man can take and yet be back on his feet again, never surrendering to obstacles once he finds again a purpose in life. In the course of the first two books of this series I have grown very fond of Murray: this grizzled, blunt, grumpy individual has unexpectedly carved a place in my heart, and I hope of seeing more of him in the final book.

In The Combat Codes Solara Halberd was described as a very committed, very serious young woman whose life has been focused on becoming a Grievar Knight and making her father - an eminent fighter - proud of her accomplishments. Here, on the heels of a huge personal tragedy, we see her leave the Lyceum on an almost impossible quest, to which she brings the same determination she applied to her studies and training. Where she might have previously appeared as merely ambitious and a little self-centered, here she exhibits a many-layered personality that comes across at its best in her dealings with another young trainee, N’auri: the growing friendship between these two girls is a delightful addition to the story and also brings some welcome female presence that was slightly missing in the previous installment.

And finally we come to Silas: the way Cego remembered his older brother - capable, focused but also affectionate - clashes with the person represented here, a cold-blooded fighter who crushes his opponents with cold, surgical detachment. The nickname “Slayer” seemed perfectly tailored for a character I was ready to dislike, to say the least - that is, until more was revealed about his personality and, more important, the ultimate goal he is pursuing here, and which ties in closely with the huge twist toward which the author has been leading his readers, carefully managing the various narrative threads that combine toward the end into a breath-taking payoff which, in turn, holds the promise for a quite spectacular conclusion in the next book.

When reading The Combat Codes I was often curious to know more about the world in which this series is set, and Grievar’s Blood did indeed reveal more details about it, particularly where the Daimyo - the actual rulers of the world - are concerned: there are several interesting glimpses into their mindset and customs, and in the social and political machinations they surround themselves with, but the most intriguing detail about the foundations of this society, and the origin of Grievar Knights, comes from a bitter musing from Silas:

The Grievar [...] are characters in this world they’ve built made to play a very specific part [...] fight in their arenas, settle their disputes [...] With them looking down on us from above, watching us fight and bleed and get buried, all to serve at their pleasure.

It’s in this small seed that the riveting turning point at the end of the book finds the means to expand the story and its scope into a tale which grows from the relatively small-scale conflicts of the fighting arenas to an epic battle for freedom and dignity:

We who are not bound by the world they build
We who are free to fight
We who will fight to be free

Given what I’ve learned in this second volume, I can hardly wait to see what Alexander Darwin has in store for his readers in what promises to be the impressive climax of a gripping series.

Grievar's Blood is an action packed continuation of the Combat Codes trilogy. In this book, we continue to follow Cego and Murray as they delve even further into the injustices the Diamyo have set across their world.

In this installment, we get to see even more perspectives than just Murray and Cego. We read from the perspective of Sol, Memnon, and Silas. I enjoyed getting to see what each character got up to and how all 5 of their stories ended up connecting by the end of the book. Each character was so interested to read from their perspective, that by the end of each chapter, when the perspective switched, I really wanted to keep reading the previous character's point of view.

I liked this book in part because it started to explain more about the Daimyo, Grievar, Grunts, and bitminders. I was so confused as to the difference in the first book, and this book explained it all a lot more clearly. I finally feel like I can see where the plot is headed-it was very different than what I expected after finishing the first book. This makes me excited for the 3rd and final installment to be released, because I am dying to know what happens to each of the characters!

You will like this book is you are into battle/combat sequences, fights against injustice, and action packed adventure! 4/5 stars

Thank you so much to netgalley and Orbit Books for providing an arc copy in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to Orbit Books for providing me an eARC in exchange for my honest review! The title will be released on December 5, 2023.

Once again throwing epic, visceral combat scenes at us, Darwin continues the adventures of young Cego in his second year at the Lyceum combat academy. However, this is no cozy fantasy with a school-setting. Cego doesn't know what's coming for him. Mentor and former Grievar knight Murray has left on a mission to find Cego’s brother Sam, while Cego’s friend Solara Halberd has gone to retrieve her slain father’s body. All three characters get pushed to their limits mentally and physically, with fights to the deaths and threats from the shadows.

As a sequel to The Combat Codes, Grievar’s Blood expands our view of this world and the players within it. The multi-POV format serves the world-building and broader plot but does perhaps weaken the cohesiveness of the book. I felt we didn’t get as many meaningful relationship-building moments or opportunities for character growth. I didn't really care about most of the new characters introduced. On the other hand, the highs were high. Darwin sticks the landing with some stunning revelations as well as unexpected plot developments. I also enjoyed seeing new regions of this world and how Daimyos (the elite ruling class) live.

Talk about cliffhangers! Grievar’s Blood has us over a precipice on multiple counts. Darwin has set up some very ambitious plot threads that seem like they will be difficult to wrap up in a satisfying way in one final book. I cannot wait to be proved wrong! I feel that we’ve only scratched the surface of all that this world’s politics, technology, and history entail.