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maitrey_d 's review for:
The Emperor's Blades
by Brian Staveley
There are a lot of good things to talk about Brian Staveley's début book. It is engaging, well written and some of the characters are interesting. Unfortunately, the negatives are too glaring in this one for me to pass.
The Emperor's Blades starts like many a typical fantasy novel with the death of an emperor. His children are now thrown into a dangerous world with schemes and plots aplenty. What however catches your eye is where these sons are training. The elder son and heir, Kaden is in a monastery in the mountains (with a faux-Buddhist/Shaolin temple vibe) training to be a monk. The younger son, Valyn is in a medievalish-special forces brigade, complete with big birds, snipers, explosives and small tactical units. The eldest child and daughter Adare unfortunately is the least developed character of the lot. Although she's elevated to finance minister by her dead father's last testament, her arc is like 10% of the total novel. What should have been an edgy, political, court scheming plot is reduced to Adare having bizarre slanging matches with a nascent pope-like figure (which is resolved lamely) and even some hanky-panky with another minor character.
The brothers however have decent arcs with a lot of screen-time so to speak. Their training in their respective fields mirror each other with their ups and downs. I for one however didn't like the violence inflicted on Kaden, the monk and heir, in the guise of training. Seriously, who whips people into unconsciousness in the name of enlightening them? When Kaden is not beaten bloody, he is put through myriad exercises which are meant to "train his mind" which to somebody passing familiar with Buddhist and Hindu philosophy sounds hokey (I can't speak about influences of Zen Buddhism, not to mention Taoism and other east-Asian beliefs). I think I'll reserve judgement on his whole arc till it is resolved in the forthcoming sequels. Valyn, the badass commando has a more believable, not to mention a more readable training period. If anything, after reading these sequences, I think I'll pick up a non-fiction or fiction even of real training and missions of our special forces such as the SAS or SEALs.
However my biggest grouse remains Staveley's treatment of women, especially in Valyn's arc. Valyn's friend and love interest Lin's treatment in the book screamed of lazy plot development. If it weren't for the fact that this is Staveley's first book, I think I would've given up for the whole thing all together. And this isn't just about women characters, it rankles that neither of the brothers, or other male characters is brushed aside, or used as cheap plot-moving devices. Quite a bit of Valyn's arc is dictated by murdered whores, lesbians coming out of the closet, and almost-rapes (if such a thing even exists). Sigh.
What works you ask? The Emperor's Blades has what promises to be good world-building. There are enough hints and nudges to tell there is far more to this world than this novel has shown. The standard non-European setting (the Annurian Empire has a vague Chinese empires such as the T'ang or the Ming feel to it) is a welcome relief. And honestly, the audiobook narrator did the trick for me. The subtle accents and voices where definitely what kept me engaged. If it weren't for the fact that I had the audiobook, I don't think I'd have enjoyed it as much as I did.
The treatment of it's women characters is a deal-breaker for me. But for fans of fantasy that are looking for a book that doesn't play around with tropes but rather venerates them, the Emperor's Blades is an easy choice. Otherwise, there's nothing special I'd recommend in this.
The Emperor's Blades starts like many a typical fantasy novel with the death of an emperor. His children are now thrown into a dangerous world with schemes and plots aplenty. What however catches your eye is where these sons are training. The elder son and heir, Kaden is in a monastery in the mountains (with a faux-Buddhist/Shaolin temple vibe) training to be a monk. The younger son, Valyn is in a medievalish-special forces brigade, complete with big birds, snipers, explosives and small tactical units. The eldest child and daughter Adare unfortunately is the least developed character of the lot. Although she's elevated to finance minister by her dead father's last testament, her arc is like 10% of the total novel. What should have been an edgy, political, court scheming plot is reduced to Adare having bizarre slanging matches with a nascent pope-like figure (which is resolved lamely) and even some hanky-panky with another minor character.
The brothers however have decent arcs with a lot of screen-time so to speak. Their training in their respective fields mirror each other with their ups and downs. I for one however didn't like the violence inflicted on Kaden, the monk and heir, in the guise of training. Seriously, who whips people into unconsciousness in the name of enlightening them? When Kaden is not beaten bloody, he is put through myriad exercises which are meant to "train his mind" which to somebody passing familiar with Buddhist and Hindu philosophy sounds hokey (I can't speak about influences of Zen Buddhism, not to mention Taoism and other east-Asian beliefs). I think I'll reserve judgement on his whole arc till it is resolved in the forthcoming sequels. Valyn, the badass commando has a more believable, not to mention a more readable training period. If anything, after reading these sequences, I think I'll pick up a non-fiction or fiction even of real training and missions of our special forces such as the SAS or SEALs.
However my biggest grouse remains Staveley's treatment of women, especially in Valyn's arc. Valyn's friend and love interest Lin's treatment in the book screamed of lazy plot development. If it weren't for the fact that this is Staveley's first book, I think I would've given up for the whole thing all together. And this isn't just about women characters, it rankles that neither of the brothers, or other male characters is brushed aside, or used as cheap plot-moving devices. Quite a bit of Valyn's arc is dictated by murdered whores, lesbians coming out of the closet, and almost-rapes (if such a thing even exists). Sigh.
What works you ask? The Emperor's Blades has what promises to be good world-building. There are enough hints and nudges to tell there is far more to this world than this novel has shown. The standard non-European setting (the Annurian Empire has a vague Chinese empires such as the T'ang or the Ming feel to it) is a welcome relief. And honestly, the audiobook narrator did the trick for me. The subtle accents and voices where definitely what kept me engaged. If it weren't for the fact that I had the audiobook, I don't think I'd have enjoyed it as much as I did.
The treatment of it's women characters is a deal-breaker for me. But for fans of fantasy that are looking for a book that doesn't play around with tropes but rather venerates them, the Emperor's Blades is an easy choice. Otherwise, there's nothing special I'd recommend in this.