Reviews

The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding

pattyspages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

🗣💬:  “To speak from the heart required more bravery than any physical risk. To heal a wound was so much harder than to cause one.” 

👩🏾‍🏫 𝔾𝔼ℕℝ𝔼: SFF /Epic Fantasy / High Fantasy / Adventure 

📄 ℙ𝔸𝔾𝔼 ℂ𝕆𝕌ℕ𝕋:  824

🎡 𝕋ℍ𝔼𝕄𝔼𝕊: Friendship / Honour / Family / Betrayal / Journey /Quest

✍️ ℙ𝕃𝕆𝕋: 
A land under occupation. A legendary sword. A young man’s journey to find his destiny.

Aren has lived by the rules all his life. He’s never questioned it; that’s just the way things are. But then his father is executed for treason, and he and his best friend Cade are thrown into a prison mine, doomed to work until they drop. Unless they can somehow break free . . .

But what lies beyond the prison walls is more terrifying still. Rescued by a man who hates him yet is oath-bound to protect him, pursued by inhuman forces, Aren slowly accepts that everything he knew about his world was a lie. The rules are not there to protect him, or his people, but to enslave them. A revolution is brewing, and Aren is being drawn into it, whether he likes it or not. 

💭 𝕍𝕀𝔹𝔼𝕊: ADVENTUROUS - HOPEFUL - TENSE - MYSTERIOUS 

💟 𝔽𝔼𝔼𝕃𝕊:
This is a fantastic start to a high fantasy trilogy and strikes a brilliant balance between epic and grimdark fantasy.
I adore that fantasy as a genre has opened up so much but I feel like a lot of the 'opening' has been been about sacrificing plot for smut. To read something new that incorporates classic fantasy vibes was refreshing and fun!
It has "I would have gone with you until the end" vibes and honestly opens in a way that is so intriguing and emotionally captivating. 
The characterisation was wonderful and even with a lot of bad choices made, it is hard not to love them. 
Ultimately, this book was a great start to what will clearly be an epic journey with moments that will make you want to weep and gasp is astonishment. 
A true success to the genre.

captain_moon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

aidanmcaleenan's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

kelsey_white's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

rebeccareader's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book should have worked for me in every way, and at the start it. The first couple of hundred pages I really enjoyed. The prison setting was superb and I felt so attached to Aren and Cade.

However, I found that as soon as we left the prison and started on the “quest” I kept on losing interest. Firstly because of the group of characters. Some I really liked but others I had no interest in and finally the plot. I get the importance of The Ember Blade but it also didn’t feel important whilst reading so I didn’t care enough about the quest aspect.

A book I can absolutely see working for so many people, it just sadly overall didn’t work for me, in the end.

cathik411's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

4.5

A really good fantasy adventure story. Engaging characters and plot. Going to read the next in the series. The only reason I didn’t give it five stars is that it borrows heavily from other great fantasy series most notably LOTR. Still it’s a great book!

victorious's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

suetran's review against another edition

4.0

3.5? - Was really good at the beginning but struggled a bit throughout, the ending was disappointing.

Keel's death rocked me and made this book forever memorable. I vividly remember how numb my brain was after it happened.

helenjanewakefield29's review against another edition

5.0

T H E E M B E R B L A D E

jbookwarehouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

3.0