Bloodline Rising (Bloodline) Paperback – 2 Mar. 2009

Cai can blend in anywhere - making him the perfect thief. He's known as the Ghost. He moves through the shadows and has amazing balance. He gives his loyalty to the King of Thieves, hoping one day to rule his world.Now, his King gives him an impossible task. Cai does his best to retrieve the information requested. However, he hears more than he's supposed to. This information concerns his family, and he races back towards them.In Cai's line of work, there's always a rival wanting to take you down. It happens at the worst possible time for Cai, and before he can figure out what's happening, his world goes black. When he awakes, he finds himself on a ship. He's headed to the very place from which his parents fled. Cai knows that he can't go back home, but he has to create the best future for himself.Could the people his parents' fled from be part of his future?This companion novel to BLOODLINE takes place twelve years after that first title. Cai's strong, bold, determined, stubborn, and impulsive. He has a unique sense of honor and loyalty. I loved the time period and the historical aspects of BLOODLINE RISING, but I couldn't quite connect with Cai in this story, which slightly lowered my enjoyment.Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel

My daughter [now 15] loved the first book in this series, `Bloodline', which was about the life of the young boy Essa and his battles with the Wolf Clan in Mercia, set during the English Dark Ages [c640 AD]. This book `Bloodline Rising' is the sequel, and it starts off without any of the characters from the first book, as it follows the adventures of Cai, Essa's young son. Known as 'The Ghost', Cai is the fastest and most cunning young criminal in Constantinople. Skilled at lying and deceit, he can twist the minds of men, often bending them to his will. He thinks he is both invisible and invincible. But then fate strikes a blow, and Cai finds himself a slave aboard a ship bound towards Britain - on his way back to the country from which his barbarian parents fled, so long ago. As Cai sharpens his skills of subterfuge and persuasion, war threatens, and he must choose: will he use his phenomenal talents for good, or evil?These books are aimed squarely at older preteens and teenagers [typically 11+]. My daughter really enjoyed this Bloodline sequel, highly recommending it for the target audience and rating it 4* [a high score for her, where 5* are reserved for `My friend Walter' and `Alone on a wide wide sea']. Like the first Bloodline book this story also comes nicely to a full conclusion, rather than simply ending in a cliff-hanger for the next book in the series. My daughter reads 3 to 5 books a week, and present faves also include The Dresden File series, Nightmare Academy, The Rainbow Opera, The Ask and the Answer, and anything by Michael Morpurgo.

Bloodline Rising is Moran's second instalment in the series. Having read the first offering I am tempted to say that this latest book is of a higher quality than the first. Both are enjoyable books, with vivid descriptions laced throughout, and I feel that this second book could almost be as enjoyable whether you have read Bloodline or not. Essa was the lead character in book one, and it is interesting to see what Moran had in store for him as well as her new lead character, his son Cai.The story begins with 'The Ghost', or Cai, the most cunning thief in the whole of Constantinople. Cai's world is about to be turned upside down, and he is to be parted from his family and shipped to Britain as a slave. Cai is a character that is easy to sympathise with, as he struggles with his new life in Britain, and with building relationships in a land foreign to him.As the story unfolds the old allegiances between kingdoms, politics, and religion are brought back into the limelight. Cai finds himself unintentionally swept into this struggle, which culminates in a bloody battle scene, swiftly followed with a surprise re-entry of a much-loved character.Book two brings new magical gifts to the mixture, a delightful addition for those who love fantasy stories. It also continues to display how well-researched Katy Moran is upon her chosen era. Attention to detail is good, and you feel as though you are learning about parts of life in the Dark Ages just by enjoying a good story. Having read the first two instalments I look forward to book three!

Bloodline Rising is the sequel to Katy Moran's first book, Bloodline. Like the first, it is historical fiction, with a hint of fantasy/magic. It is aimed at the 12+ readership, although as an adult, I still enjoyed it. Moran's grasp of history is sure, and the book provides a realistic atmosphere of what it might have been like to live in the era portrayed. In the first book, the scene was set in the English Dark ages, but this book starts in a similar era a few years later, when the family have moved to Constantinople, already a well known city even that long ago. The central character here is Cai, Essa's son. Aged thirteen, he is already one of Constantinople's most cunning young criminals, living on his wits. But he is about to be shipped back to Britain, which is foreign to him despite being the land of his parents.It's a good sequel, and can be read as a stand-alone novel. I'm not sure that it quite reached the level of the first book, nor am I entirely convinced that Moran has done enough to make the reader desperate to buy the final book in the trilogy, but she's still definitely an author worth watching.