The sisters advance with disciplined manoeuvres, using weight of fire to gain advantage over a flank or employing cunning feints to draw their enemy into overcommitting. Some characters only spend a paragraph in the spotlight, while others have exceptional arcs with tragic or glorious endings. They’d tasted like lemons with a cinnamon rind, and had left her lips, tongue, and teeth so red it looked as if she’d torn the throat out of a deer.

That’s one example of many fine instances of author self-gratification, and I applaud Eames’ desire to continue in this way, and, more so, to improve at it.

A lute named “Red Thirteen” is noticeable only to someone who consistently has Final Fantasy 7 near the tip of their tongue, and it sounds legitimate enough as an instrument name to justify its use. Oh, she could fire a bow with passing skill, but anyone with two arms and an arrow to spare could do the same.

Fable is a superstar band, the most famous in Grandual and they even have a group of fans ( groupies) The Outlaw Nation that follow them when they are on tour. Bloody Rose ends with the most epic epic battle I have ever read, and, yes, at nearly 100 pages it might drag a little despite being expertly staged.

Emotional moments snuck up on me and hit me hard, though I usually found myself bursting with laughter on the very next page. Or that a seamstress who killed her husband down in Rutherford is claiming to be the Winter Queen herself? So, you commit yourself fully to this moment, soaking in every detail, absorbing and filing away each new wave of emotion, to be examined and analyzed and cherished later. Kings of the Wyld, Eames’ first book, is one of my favorites, but it’s a book about old men reliving their adventuring glory days, and I can’t really justify reviewing it for my queer blog.

Along the way, as any band worth its salt would do, Fable makes a tour of the arena circuit, continuing Eames’ notion that mercenary bands are simply more violent versions of rock groups. One of my favorite images is always going to be Tam playing “Together” the night before the final battle. Nevertheless, Bloody Rose is easily one of my favourite novels of the past few years, and is probably worth a reread soon. Due to this, Bloody Rose was my most anticipated read for 2018 and I had to wonder ( sorry Nicholas) if Eames would turn out to be a one hit wonder and if Bloody Rose would even come close to the brilliance that was KoTW. After six solar months, the influx of Tyranids into the system ceased, and after six more the last xenos creature was finally slain.

It's almost like it was written by an entirely different author with a very different tone and a way below average story. It speaks volumes for Eames’ talent that he can weave these themes into a story that is goddamned funny at the same time.

KoTW itself had many musical references and was influenced by the music and bands of the 1970’s and with Bloody Rose, it is influenced by the music and bands of the 1980’s. Which is great, because everyone, from the wranglers to the bookers to the arena managers—heck, sometimes even the mercs themselves—get paid, and the rest of us get a hell of a show.

Yet each character feels alive and familiar; if you don’t know these people, you know people just like them.