About

Bloodcrete is the sixth book in the The Weirkey Chronicles series written by Sarah Lin.

Bloodcrete book cover

Blurb

Betrayed. Murdered. Reborn. One last chance, to make it right. Theo's adventure ended with his mentor's hands around his neck. The betrayal cost him his friends, allies and everything he had built... but not his life. Though broken and powerless, Theo has one last chance to enter the Nine Worlds, wielding the knowledge and expertise of his first life. This time, he needs more than just power, he needs to unravel the deception that killed him once... and is coming for him again.

Review

🛈 This is a spoiler review.

As usual, I read the previous book in the series (Bondsfungi) as preparation for the latest book. Summary of prior events are included at the start of the book, but I find rereads more rewarding. And these books are short and fast paced, which makes it easier.

For most part of the book, the trio (Theo, Nauda and Fiyu) were on their own. In Theo's case, it was soulcrafting combined with mini missions. The book started with Theo sailing the sands of Arbai, getting to know about rumors of vast sublime beasts in the depths and finding black sand for his soulhome. Then Fithan politics led him to a plateau ripe for a war between the Asplundats and Ruling Cities. The titular bloodcrete turned out to be an explosive rock that leaked red liquid. And surprise! Senka was back and Krikree's reaction was hilarious — wonder how Krikree will feel once Senka is fully recovered (if that's even possible).

Senka and later some kind of eldritch horror (higher dimensional being?) from the House of Lost allowed Theo (and us readers) to get to know more about the higher tiers of soulcrafting and Vistgil's possible motivations. A lot of it will probably make more sense as the series progresses further. Vistgil seems to be somehow weaponizing probability/chance to entice wars from trivial reasons — and also seems to be limited in some ways.

Theo's visit to the fortress near Gold Wastes was brief but interesting. Apparently the Tymetron continent has a Dominion-level soulcrafter and deploys demonic materials — but somehow being held back by another Dominion-level soulcrafter from the Wastes.

Nauda continued progressing her relation with music producing leaf beetles, and accidentally leading them to adding statues to their art skills. Didn't really get why she was assigned to use the compass for retrieving a weirkey (Tythes could've probably done it in a day instead of weeks for Nauda). Anyway, I did enjoy the worldbuilding details about the termite city and the more industrious beetles. Will be interesting to see if the gift from the royal bees will turn out to be significant part of Nauda's soulhome. Nauda going back to meet her Tatian mentor was nice. And Nanjuma even got the epilogue chapter, which seemed to indicate Deuxans (part of the same multiworld organization that sponsored House Crimson on Fithe?) were trying to bring the planet under their control.

Fiyu finally ascended to Ruler tier. At the end of Bondsfungi, I thought she was well past the requirement for ascension. Instead, she needed sublime materials to match her personality and soulhome as well as soulcrafting to be polished to the peak. Which meant multiple weeks and visit to Siata (amazing planet, even more wondrous than Arbai/Ichil/Slest) and Fithe. While visiting the depths Fithans, we got to know about a sublime creature far beyond the Dominion stage. Given the beast rumors at the start of the book during Theo's visit to Arbai, I'm guessing such beasts are present in all the worlds. And probably the cause for planet-wide cliff on Nauda's world.

Fiyu's ascension involved corporeal floor (one of the Five Transcendant Monuments mentioned by Senka). Wonder if Guchiro already knew those details. And wonder what Guchiro and Senka discussed when Fiyu came back to the Blacksilver House.

The trio finally came together for the climatic battle, which was nice even though they mostly fought away from each other. Theo holding against the fleshmasker authority was impressive (Krikree did well too). Fiyu and Guchiro fighting together at the end was awesome, using their stealth techniques to great effect. Nauda made a grand entry from her world (as did Tythes :D). The twists with the bloodcrete golem, Dhan advancing to Stronghold and Homez damaging the demon artifact were all nice. I kept expecting Theo to advance even though he mentioned needing to visit Noven multiple times.

Can't wait for the trio along with Senka and Guchiro traveling the world of Noven (has nine Suns!). But sad that Krikree was left behind due to injury. And Navim was still not ready to travel with the team yet. Wonder if Homez will join them later on. Speaking of Navim, I liked that he was shown to ponder the nature of Krikree's questions, and not just trying to frame the answers to suit Krikree like Theo and the others.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What others are saying

From Justin's review on goodreads:

The series keeps getting better and better, I love the unique magic system. It's tough wait between books, but luckily sarah keeps those waits short.

Bingo

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