Blood Reunion by JCM Berne

Blurb:

People are dying, their corpses left savaged and drained of blood. The obvious culprit: vampires. But vampires shouldn’t be able to sneak around Wistful undetected or shadowstep freely inside her body. Soon the station herself becomes oddly uncooperative, leaving Rohan and Wei Li bewildered and all her inhabitants in danger.

Finding and defeating the killer will require a deep dive into the ancient history of Wistful and of the il’Drach people. Into the connections between the Ursans, the wormholes, and the races that preceded them. Into the dark past of a tormented space station that yearns only for death.

Rohan will be forced to fight, and maybe even to kill. He’ll have to face those who bear grudges from his past, the Empire he once served, and his own reluctance to again become the warrior he sometimes needs to be.

Review:

I love the Hybrid Helix. Rohan is one of my all-time favorite protagonists, and that belief keeps strengthening with every entry as make my way through this awesome series. Now, I loved the first two entries. Despite the epic scale of conflicts that Rohan and his friends face, the cozy character moments between scenes of kinetic action really makes this series a beautiful experience. 

With Blood Reunion, Joe seems to have really upped his game. Because, of all the three books I’ve read so far, Blood Reunion was the best by a significant margin. 

At this point, I feel like I have the formula for this series figured out. Every prologue starts with Rohan in a near-beat-up state, wisecracking his way against an obviously more powerful adversary. Cut to a few days earlier, and we’re on for an adventure that’ll somehow lead us to knowing how and why Rohan ended up in that situation. You might think… won’t that get old? Wrong! I love trying to figure out how, despite all our protagonists’ efforts, everything still ends up with Rohan getting beat up. Plus, almost always, these scenes lead to major reveals of lore that give you a deeper glimpse into the true scale of the conflict that’s brewing in the background. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the review…

SPOILERS AHEAD!

What I Liked:

Right off the bat, Rohan is a gem. But, this time around he really gets thrown in the Hybrid meat grinder. Without going into spoilers, I’ll say that this book has him essentially decommissioned and on the brink of death, which—despite the serious implications of the situation—Joe manages to beautify with spurts of Rohan’s ill-timed humor. It’s brilliant. Rohan’s entire arc in this book, from facing an immortal soul-eating vampire to coming to terms with his father’s reappearance was perhaps the most emotionally compelling conflict that our Hybrid Tow-Chief has faced in the series yet. Rohan might be a loud-mouth, but underneath the façade of annoying humor, there’s a real person with feelings there, one who’s mature enough to take the tough decisions when needed. And Joe has built this character expertly, which means you never question the reasoning behind Rohan’s actions; you simply understand them.

And building off the main character, the supporting cast too is just as interesting. Wei Li and Ursula play the biggest roles here, but we got a lot more involvement from the mysterious engineer Tollan, whose origins somewhat come to light, revealing more about this world, the il’Drach empire, and the grander conflict brewing in the background of that imperial dominance. And if that’s not enough, Dhruv (Rohan’s dad) further expands that lore building with his absurd personality. Each of these characters plays a crucial role in Rohan’s arc, supporting his story but living their own adventures in the background. Their personalities balance out Rohan’s in a way that makes their interactions feel organic and entertaining, often giving insights into real human emotions. This is one of Joe’s strengths that I absolutely love. And I’ll keep saying this: these character moments between spurts of action are what really make this series so special to me. 

Other than that, what stands out the most with Blood Reunion is the plot. It’s much tighter than the first two instalments, and the conflict feels genuinely daunting. The way al’Tahur—the immortal soul eating vampire—tests Rohan’s limits raise the stakes exceptionally, constantly maintaining an air of tension and dread throughout the 400-page story. The threat feels real, the simple solution being amoral and the more challenging solution testing everyone’s patience and skills. I won’t say more, but Joe’s navigation of this story with an intelligent blend of character development and world-building, without once compromising on narrative and pace is something worth lauding. If the first two books didn’t make you fall in love with this series, I’m sure book 3 will do it. 

I’m deliberately keeping some things out of my review because those I really do not want to spoil. Other than that, I enjoyed this book more than both its predecessors. I really cannot wait to jump into the next instalment and see where this epic superhero space opera is headed. But more importantly, I’m excited to see where Rohan’s story takes him.

What I Didn’t Like:

Okay, I’ll admit it. Even with all its brilliance, I did find something to complain about. And that’s the finale. It’s not a bad finale by any stretch of the definition. However, I was a tad underwhelmed with how easily Rohan was able to defeat al’Tahur. It made sense from a logical standpoint, but I did expect a slightly more eventful battle. After all, al’Tahur was built up throughout the book to an almost Thanos-level threat. But, regardless, the way things ended was satisfying and emotionally fulfilling, which I believe are the more important aspects of an ending. 

Apart from that minor complaint, there are smaller nitpickings that didn’t work for me. Like for example, some of the reveals felt a little too easily discovered by exposition. It’s not that I didn’t like the dialogue which led to them, but it made me wonder if there could’ve been a better way to convey those things. Plus, Wistful’s absence for the most part was apparent, and with everything happening, the building tension between Wistful and the Empire seemed to have diffused a little too easily with little-to-no repercussions. Unless, it only seems that way for now, and we’ll see the repercussions in the next instalment. 

Other than that, I genuinely loved everything about this book. It was near-perfect. 

In Conclusion:

Tight plot, awesome action, epic finale, and absolutely brilliant character moments... JCM Berne really takes things to a whole new level with Blood Reunion.

TL;DR:

What I liked: Rohan, supporting characters, tight plot, world-building and expansion, lore

What I didn’t like: Almost nothing, TBH