Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop (a review)

This story, as you would maybe expect in a fantasy novel, begins with a prophecy 'She is coming' The 'She' in question is Jaenelle, destined to be a Queen more powerful than any before her, the saviour of the land etc etc, not just a witch but Witch. After the prophecy 700 years pass. The realm is an even darker place now, ruled over by Dorotea...and by dark I mean REALLY dark. Males break witches before they come into their power, through rape and torture. Those witches who escape the 'breaking' torment the males out of vengeance (don't even get me started on the psychic controlled cock rings!!!!!) When we meet Jaenelle, she is only a young child, with childish questioning which helps set the scene, and draws a good picture of the realms. She is destined, as the prophecy stated, to become the leader of a Brave New World but will need the help of her 'defenders' Lucivar, Saetan and Daemon Sadi - the names kind of give things away a little. This is not an 'elves, unicorns and fluffy bunnies' type of fantasy - this is dark and at times quite disturbing book but if you stick with it you may well find yourself enjoying it more than you would expect. One thing I did find a bit troublesome is the jewel based magic system, consisting of 13 different jewels ranging from white (least powerful) to Black (the most powerful). There is a guide at the front thankfully, I did find it useful, I must say. At times I did find this a bit disturbing and unsettling but once into the story I found myself quite looking forward to the next in the series. For a dark and, at times slightly disturbing novel there is a story here that makes the occassional squirming worth while 3.5 out of 5 stars