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pastaylor 's review for:
The Emperor's Blades
by Brian Staveley
I really enjoyed this book. I had the audio version, and I found myself staying up late or working out so that I could listen to it.
The cons: there are some clunky 1st book elements, a some over-repeated phrases (the curve of her breast, stuff of nightmares), and it can get a little purple at times, prose-wise. There are not one but two "women in refrigerators, one of whom is the motivation for not one but two characters. So that storytelling trope is in full effect. Also, the one female POV character gets ridiculously short shrift. She has only three or four chapters out of fifty.
Pros: The story was good and engaging, it was paced well, it was split nicely between the two brothers (sorry Adair), there were several strong badass female characters, and even the sexy sexy lady character was more complex than just having boobs and being pretty. I particularly liked that the Shin seemed to be modeled after Zen Buddhists, and some of the magic in the book is based on Zen beliefs. So that was cool. Plus, it was a lot of fun. Dark, but not ridiculously so, fun and popcorny but not frivolous. I definitely recommend it.
The cons: there are some clunky 1st book elements, a some over-repeated phrases (the curve of her breast, stuff of nightmares), and it can get a little purple at times, prose-wise. There are not one but two "women in refrigerators, one of whom is the motivation for not one but two characters. So that storytelling trope is in full effect. Also, the one female POV character gets ridiculously short shrift. She has only three or four chapters out of fifty.
Pros: The story was good and engaging, it was paced well, it was split nicely between the two brothers (sorry Adair), there were several strong badass female characters, and even the sexy sexy lady character was more complex than just having boobs and being pretty. I particularly liked that the Shin seemed to be modeled after Zen Buddhists, and some of the magic in the book is based on Zen beliefs. So that was cool. Plus, it was a lot of fun. Dark, but not ridiculously so, fun and popcorny but not frivolous. I definitely recommend it.