I have been a fan of fantasy writer Anne Bishop since I first read The Black Jewels Trilogy in high school (and at least five more times since then). Last year in my Valderi Valdera blog, I posted an Ode to Anne Bishop with a focus on the world of the Black Jewels (excerpt below).
In the world’s three realms (the living Terreille, the dead Hell, and the shadowy Kaeleer), there are those who are the gifted Blood (read: magical) and those who are not. The Blood races must adhere to a strict hierarchy of power, determined by their social caste (Warlord, Witch, Priestess, Queen, etc) and the strength of the jewels they wear – the darker the jewels, the more powerful the wearer. To further complicate matters, the entire trilogy revolves around the corruption of this hierarchy (read: nothing is as it should be) and the determination of one vulnerable, but extraordinarily powerful young woman to save the realms by putting everything back in order.
Even attempting to summarize the world’s many nuances is enough to make your head spin, but Bishop has put so much thought into the details, that the balance of power, realms, and races unfolds beautifully within the series and its companion novels.
Although I am a fan and have read all twelve of her books, I will not deny that Bishop’s writing has flaws. She has the tendency to overuse her own brand of character archetypes – overly headstrong and fiercely volatile women and men who are either too quick to anger or too easy to pushover.
Within the Realms of the Blood (aka: the world of The Black Jewels Trilogy), there is quite a bit of repetition in the plotting and how the characters respond when provoked. They are constantly in a state of emotional flux that can get old after a while, especially when it’s the same characters who are overreacting and making the same mistakes in each new book.
Last weekend my boyfriend and I picked up Bishop’s two latest books from the library (Tangled Webs and The Shadow Queen) and took turns reading them. Within the first 50 or so pages, we both had the same reaction of it’s nice that there’s another book in the series, but talk about deja vu…
And that’s when I had the realization that Bishop’s books deserve their very own drinking game*. Rules below!
* This is all in good fun, with no disrespect intended to the author or the series. The game will only work with the books in the Realms of the Blood series (Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadow, Queen of the Darkness, Dreams Made Flesh, The Invisible Ring, Tangled Webs, The Shadow Queen), and how drunk you’ll get really depends on which volume and how fast you read. If you don’t have any yarbarah on hand, red wine is recommended.
ANNE BISHOP DRINKING GAME!
Take a drink every time:
- Someone has a glass of yarbarah
- Someone says “Hell’s Fire/Mother Night/May the Darkness be Merciful” or any combination of those
- The males engage in a “pissing contest” or someone describes an encounter as a “pissing contest”
- Jaenelle’s eyes change color and/or she speaks in her midnight voice
- A Warlord Prince or Jaenelle “goes cold”
- Daemon Sadi seduces another man (or at least makes the other man hot-’n-bothered)
- Friends debate internally (or out loud) if they have the strength to kill someone they care about
- Someone rides the winds, travels via a coach, or uses a Portal between the Realms
- A Warlord Prince rises to the killing edge
- There’s a sex scene or sexual banter that makes you blush
- A controller ring is used on a male
- A birthright jewel is worn in place of another jewel (usually to deceive an enemy)
- A Blood’s strength is drained back down to birthright jewel status
- Someone weaves a tangled web
- A headstrong woman ends up in bed (or considers ending up in bed) with a man she previously despised/spars with
- A man fusses over a lover, a wife, or a queen
- The Sadist makes an appearance
- A woman refers to a man (in thoughts or verbally) as “snarly”
- A frazzled man wants to (lovingly) strangle Janelle or another woman
- The witchblood blooms!
Any other suggestions for the list?
