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A review by christopher_dilts
The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding
5.0
Wow! After a summer of mostly lacklustre reading, I burned through this 800-page book in less than a week. What an amazing find.
This book has it all: action, intrigue, politics, the unknown, romance, mystery and more. The scope and depth of this book was impressive, although admittedly it starts out a bit slow. Wooding does dark fantasy right. In fact, it was nice to see a fantasy novel with Game-of-Thrones-level of tone and concepts without excessively and flamboyantly using tropes of adult literature: incessant swearing, graphic sex, and overly descriptive violence. That being said, there are some adult concepts in this novel, but it feels like the thematic choices and development of the characters is supported and enhanced by these choices, which don't seem to be made arbitrarily.
I see this novel as a more contemporary Fellowship of the Ring, and Wooding's worldbuilding, characterization, and use of Lovecraftian horror to describe all the beasties in his story are impressive. Even some of the plot tics are similar to LoTR, and the dynamic progression of the protagonist is believable and authentic. 2023 isn't over, but I am confident this will be my favorite novel of the year. For any fantasy reader, read this book NOW.
This book has it all: action, intrigue, politics, the unknown, romance, mystery and more. The scope and depth of this book was impressive, although admittedly it starts out a bit slow. Wooding does dark fantasy right. In fact, it was nice to see a fantasy novel with Game-of-Thrones-level of tone and concepts without excessively and flamboyantly using tropes of adult literature: incessant swearing, graphic sex, and overly descriptive violence. That being said, there are some adult concepts in this novel, but it feels like the thematic choices and development of the characters is supported and enhanced by these choices, which don't seem to be made arbitrarily.
I see this novel as a more contemporary Fellowship of the Ring, and Wooding's worldbuilding, characterization, and use of Lovecraftian horror to describe all the beasties in his story are impressive. Even some of the plot tics are similar to LoTR, and the dynamic progression of the protagonist is believable and authentic. 2023 isn't over, but I am confident this will be my favorite novel of the year. For any fantasy reader, read this book NOW.