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elenajohansen 's review for:
The Emperor's Blades
by Brian Staveley
DNF @ 12%. I see, skimming other reviews, I stopped short of meeting all three children of the dead emperor, but I doubt I'm missing much.
I found this to have a fairly smooth and readable style, but not to be anything I felt was worth reading about.
I'm simply not interested in a story that has devoted so much world-building time to pain. Kaden is physically abused, supposedly in the name of teaching him their ways, by the order of monks who raised and sheltered him. The order of elite fighters that Valyn belongs to is apparently so violent in its training that many cadets don't make it to their Trial, plus the cadets like to beat each other up on top of that. As I didn't get to the female protagonist, the Emperor's daughter, I've been spared whatever horrible and painful upbringing and daily life she's got, but I'm sure it's awful, based on her brother's lives.
I get that having the protagonists suffer is an important way to demonstrate conflict, but on a plot level "suffering" should mean the much broader sense of them struggling or failing to achieve their goals, or losing something important to them. It doesn't mean that the characters have to be introduced as victims of abuse, especially when the author doesn't seem to view them that way (even in my limited reading so far.) They're clearly supposed to be badasses tempered by their harsh environment, or whatever, but all I see is misery, and I don't want to keep reading about it.
Also, though I have far fewer examples and won't go into depth because other reviewers have done it better, there's some rampant misogyny and fatphobia already on display, even this early. Bored with it, moving on.
I found this to have a fairly smooth and readable style, but not to be anything I felt was worth reading about.
I'm simply not interested in a story that has devoted so much world-building time to pain. Kaden is physically abused, supposedly in the name of teaching him their ways, by the order of monks who raised and sheltered him. The order of elite fighters that Valyn belongs to is apparently so violent in its training that many cadets don't make it to their Trial, plus the cadets like to beat each other up on top of that. As I didn't get to the female protagonist, the Emperor's daughter, I've been spared whatever horrible and painful upbringing and daily life she's got, but I'm sure it's awful, based on her brother's lives.
I get that having the protagonists suffer is an important way to demonstrate conflict, but on a plot level "suffering" should mean the much broader sense of them struggling or failing to achieve their goals, or losing something important to them. It doesn't mean that the characters have to be introduced as victims of abuse, especially when the author doesn't seem to view them that way (even in my limited reading so far.) They're clearly supposed to be badasses tempered by their harsh environment, or whatever, but all I see is misery, and I don't want to keep reading about it.
Also, though I have far fewer examples and won't go into depth because other reviewers have done it better, there's some rampant misogyny and fatphobia already on display, even this early. Bored with it, moving on.