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joeri81 's review for:
The Emperor's Blades
by Brian Staveley
This is my first fantasy series after almost a full year MBotF and ME, and it now shows it was a difficult competition to undergo for 'The Emperor's Blades'. I really liked this book, but it just can't compete with Malazan.
This book does a lot of things good but nothing really exceptional. The book follows the story of the three children of the Emperor after his death. The story line that got me intruiged the most was the one from Valyn and his Kettral training; it was by far the most exciting one. Valyn is training on a remote island to become a Kettral, an elite soldier for the empire, the deadliest fighting force they have.
Kaden, the heir of the throne, resides at the far end of the world at a monastery. He has to learn the ancient teachings from the monks that follow the Blank God. It provided a pleasant read but was already far less fascinating than Valyn's story.
Finally we have Adare, the daughter who stayed at the capital with her father. She has risen to minister of finance after her father's death. Her story line was far too short to give a good grasp of everything.
Main characters are also the children. We have several interesting side characters, but I didn't feel someone really stood out. I feel I still need to read more to see some characters grow before they can really grab me.
The world building was interesting, but also here I still have to see more to fully be convinced of the potential. After Malazan I'm just accustumed to so much more. I hope that Staveley can provide this in the next two books.
Conclusion:
A decent start for this new series, a debut for Brian Staveley. I thought his writing was very good for a starting author, but the story hasn't fully convinced me and neither did the characters and the worldbuilding. Still a good read to start of the year.
Rating: 7.3/10
This book does a lot of things good but nothing really exceptional. The book follows the story of the three children of the Emperor after his death. The story line that got me intruiged the most was the one from Valyn and his Kettral training; it was by far the most exciting one. Valyn is training on a remote island to become a Kettral, an elite soldier for the empire, the deadliest fighting force they have.
Kaden, the heir of the throne, resides at the far end of the world at a monastery. He has to learn the ancient teachings from the monks that follow the Blank God. It provided a pleasant read but was already far less fascinating than Valyn's story.
Finally we have Adare, the daughter who stayed at the capital with her father. She has risen to minister of finance after her father's death. Her story line was far too short to give a good grasp of everything.
Main characters are also the children. We have several interesting side characters, but I didn't feel someone really stood out. I feel I still need to read more to see some characters grow before they can really grab me.
The world building was interesting, but also here I still have to see more to fully be convinced of the potential. After Malazan I'm just accustumed to so much more. I hope that Staveley can provide this in the next two books.
Conclusion:
A decent start for this new series, a debut for Brian Staveley. I thought his writing was very good for a starting author, but the story hasn't fully convinced me and neither did the characters and the worldbuilding. Still a good read to start of the year.
Rating: 7.3/10