Le sang des 7 rois is a mixture of suspense, politics, clandestine war and subtle magic... The resourceful characters are described in depth; the pace of the story is fairly unhurried but fast enough to keep up the interest. A competent first volume that has created a solid foundation for the subsequent volumes to build on!

As we can see, the implications of the story are starting to unfold. Some Kingdoms become more substantial: they always seem bigger than the map at the beginning of each novel portrays – even if we still only have a blurred and disembodied notion of them. The protagonists go through trials and changes, have more self-knowledge, get stronger, take sides, meet up with each other... All they do and say rings true. Each character or group of characters is interesting to follow and you never get bored, especially when the destructive violence of Lothar and his men plunges the seven Kingdoms into chaos. This opus, like the one before, exposes the horrors of slavery and large-scale massacre, with echoes of the Holocaust.  This leads us to reflect not only on the questions of humanity, violence and power, but also on differences, the way a country and its people are managed, love and the feelings that unite human beings. The author gradually reveals that his medieval universe and its magic actually belong to the world of science fiction, as the short chapters had already indicated in the preceding volumes. But the action moves up a gear and we still don’t know where or how it’s all going to end. So much the better! Volume 5 is due out in 2015...

François Manson, Galaxies n° 31