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A review by observantraven
The Emerald Blade by Steven Kelliher
4.0
Firstly a big thank you to Steven Kelliher for sending me a arc copy of this book for review.
In August of 2017 I reviewed the first book in The Landkist Saga, "Valley Of Embers" (review can be found here). Now here we are 10 months later and as of 1st June Steven Kelliher has released the second book in The Landkist Saga, "The Emerald Blade".
The Emerald Blade picks up straight after the climactic ending of Valley of Embers and we quickly get to see how everyone is dealing with their actions and the consequences. When I first picked up The Emerald Blade I found it slightly difficult to remember most of the characters actions within Valley Of Embers but thankfully Steven Kelliher has the characters discuss to a certain degree what occurred at the end of Valley Of Embers. Due to this I quickly found my footing in the world and like Valley Of Embers found myself getting lost in the world and its beauty.
The only issue I had with the start of The Emerald Blade is that I felt certain scenes were dragged out due to the over analysis of characters and how they were dealing with the current situation due it being done from multiple character perspectives. Unfortunately this continued on and off until approximately the 20% mark of the book. Even though I somewhat said the same thing about the start of Valley Of Embers I feel it had the stronger start due to the actions scenes. With that though I do understand why Steven has written it the way he did and I believe a lot of people will like this level of interaction but for me I just felt at times this just dragged out a little to long.
There were many times while reading this that I found some of Steven Kelliher's writing style seemed very Tolkien-esque due to the complexities and depth he gives to his characters as well as how deep to which he shows this of from other characters perspectives.
Once I got over the initial hump at the start I quickly found myself delving deeper into new areas of the world and being introduced to some new and interesting characters. For me I really enjoyed the introduction of the Emerald Blades wielder and the personality he brought to the groups dynamic as I feel they brought a well needed balance to the groups attitude towards what they are trying to accomplish, it allowed me to experience the consequences of what is happening from a completely new perspective, which I found a breath of fresh air.
The Emerald Blade is certainly the second book in a series as I found it had a lot of the same problems that many second books face, such as pacing, increased detail orientation and less action. I sometimes find this can hinder your enjoyment of a book, thankfully this wasn't the case with The Emerald Blade as I still found myself enjoying it and I think this is not only because of Steven Kelliher's writing style but also the extremely interesting characters and world he has developed.
All of the work Steven put into developing the story and characters throughout this book pays off big time because I found myself particularly engrossed by the final 20% of the book and the climactic ending (no spoilers, just going to have to read it yourself).
With all of the above in mind I can say that I certainly enjoyed The Emerald Blade, not as much as Valley of Ember but that's because I believe they both have their own individual strengths and weaknesses. If you enjoyed Valley of Embers then I would highly recommend that you pick up The Emerald Blade as you will certainly enjoy it and it will also get you extremely excited for the next book in the series.
In August of 2017 I reviewed the first book in The Landkist Saga, "Valley Of Embers" (review can be found here). Now here we are 10 months later and as of 1st June Steven Kelliher has released the second book in The Landkist Saga, "The Emerald Blade".
The Emerald Blade picks up straight after the climactic ending of Valley of Embers and we quickly get to see how everyone is dealing with their actions and the consequences. When I first picked up The Emerald Blade I found it slightly difficult to remember most of the characters actions within Valley Of Embers but thankfully Steven Kelliher has the characters discuss to a certain degree what occurred at the end of Valley Of Embers. Due to this I quickly found my footing in the world and like Valley Of Embers found myself getting lost in the world and its beauty.
The only issue I had with the start of The Emerald Blade is that I felt certain scenes were dragged out due to the over analysis of characters and how they were dealing with the current situation due it being done from multiple character perspectives. Unfortunately this continued on and off until approximately the 20% mark of the book. Even though I somewhat said the same thing about the start of Valley Of Embers I feel it had the stronger start due to the actions scenes. With that though I do understand why Steven has written it the way he did and I believe a lot of people will like this level of interaction but for me I just felt at times this just dragged out a little to long.
There were many times while reading this that I found some of Steven Kelliher's writing style seemed very Tolkien-esque due to the complexities and depth he gives to his characters as well as how deep to which he shows this of from other characters perspectives.
Once I got over the initial hump at the start I quickly found myself delving deeper into new areas of the world and being introduced to some new and interesting characters. For me I really enjoyed the introduction of the Emerald Blades wielder and the personality he brought to the groups dynamic as I feel they brought a well needed balance to the groups attitude towards what they are trying to accomplish, it allowed me to experience the consequences of what is happening from a completely new perspective, which I found a breath of fresh air.
The Emerald Blade is certainly the second book in a series as I found it had a lot of the same problems that many second books face, such as pacing, increased detail orientation and less action. I sometimes find this can hinder your enjoyment of a book, thankfully this wasn't the case with The Emerald Blade as I still found myself enjoying it and I think this is not only because of Steven Kelliher's writing style but also the extremely interesting characters and world he has developed.
All of the work Steven put into developing the story and characters throughout this book pays off big time because I found myself particularly engrossed by the final 20% of the book and the climactic ending (no spoilers, just going to have to read it yourself).
With all of the above in mind I can say that I certainly enjoyed The Emerald Blade, not as much as Valley of Ember but that's because I believe they both have their own individual strengths and weaknesses. If you enjoyed Valley of Embers then I would highly recommend that you pick up The Emerald Blade as you will certainly enjoy it and it will also get you extremely excited for the next book in the series.