Brian StaveleyBesprekingen

In many ways, this book was bizarre. The perspective was so unrelatable that the characterization never fully took off. However, in the context of the series and the world, it was well executed and an intriguing read. Recommended to people who like the main series.

A solid second entry to the series. I felt that the story developed much more in this book, and unlike many similar mid-tier fantasy reads, this book had the audacity to surprise me at times and feel a bit better than maybe the writing might merit. Not the best series, nor one I would really recommend to non-fantasy readers, but for people who like the genre I think this is definitely a fun and intriguing read.

There are a few things that hold this back from being a 5 star book, but it's a solid 4 and I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Overall, the characterization was pretty well done. There was also a good amount of worldbuilding, terms were generally explained well, and the dialogue was above average. The downsides

1. The main characters are inept a lot of the time. It seems like they're pretty bad at everything for most of the book, and it's not clear why they should be after 8 years of training.
2. The action sequences vary between a bit too long and way too rushed. Action is never a make-or-break aspect of books to me, but in this case it was a bit off and caused me to very temporarily lose interest in the book.
3. The worldbuilding lacks expansiveness. Enough is explained to tell the stories of the main characters and contextualize their decisions, but otherwise the worldbuilding is rushed.

These are all things that separate the good from the great, but I still think this series has a lot of promise. Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

It may seem strange that I rate this book lower than the first. The Providence of Fire was bigger in scale, and more balanced in terms of characters. But, I didn't like it as much as [b:The Emperor's Blades|17910124|The Emperor's Blades (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, #1)|Brian Staveley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1369246817l/17910124._SY75_.jpg|25095579]. Many solutions in the book were a little too convenient.

I still enjoyed it, but the whole reading experience felt dragged on. This could've been at least 150 pages shorter and looking at the 3rd book in the series that is a 1/3 longer, I'm not sure when I will go back to this trilogy.

On a positive note, the female characters in this book shone. The chapters were more equally split between siblings. However, some motivations were confusing and some characters made unbelievably bad decisions. I wish I could say better things about the book after so much time I invested in it.
Favourite characters: Gwena, Kiel, Pyrre and Nira - all secondary characters.

This was not such a stellar novel as much as it was the right book at the right time. This book presents an engrossing fantasy universe with an intriguing enough story and three young characters written for adults. This is a welcome change from all the fantasy, SF and dystopian fiction that borders on YA even when it's not marked as such.

But, the best part of this is that one of the characters is undergoing his training in a remote monastery (inspired by Buddhism, but with a twist) and there is a strong spiritual component to his arc which is rare in contemporary fantasy fiction and which I loved. Kaden's story was the slowest, but the most intriguing for me. It offered a nice respite from Valyn's arc. Adare's chapters were the weakest for me, so I was grateful that there were not as many. I guess this was because the political events in the capital were the only predictable part of the book for me.

I won't go into the stuff so many people write here in the comments about the treatment of female characters, traumatic experiences etc. I strongly believe every writer has the artistic freedom to write about whatever they want and create whatever fictional world they want. It is especially tiring to see every new novel following certain trends that get boring very quickly. In that respect, this novel feels almost traditional, but after so many fantasy novels I've read it still manages to be fresh. It reads like a classic.

This is a rare combo for me in the recent fantasy, hence the 5 stars.

So....I stayed up too late and ignored the family just to finish this one. Scary good but a bummer and a half that I have a very, very long time before this story is finished. Normally, I'd caution anyone to wait til book 3, but the first two are so good that you really shouldn't wait.

My problem now will be to find worthy of reading after this one...

I did not expect to love this book so much. I read the previous three and thoroughly enjoyed them, but this book was just a pure joy to read. While books one to three are somehow very dark and twisted, this one -even though it centers on an assassin priest- ist just filled with so much life and humor that it stands in stark contrast to the rest of the series. I didn’t want it to end and highly recommend it to anyone.

By in large I enjoyed this book. I wasn't particularly interested in the characters til closer to the end, but I did want to figure out yhe world.

I refuse to give any book that's 700+ pages and doesn't give a bunch of closure 4 stars. I don't want to "encourage" that as the standard. I don't want to devote my entire reading life to one series. Back in my day we had novels that were 300 pages and told an entire story, and we liked it!

Seriously though, the writing was great, but EVERY SCENE was too long. I loved the characters, but I think that comes from reading 100's of pages of character development. I want to love characters with 10's of pages of character development spread throughout a story. It was the worst at the end when I was hoping for resolution and the flashbacks and introspection started happening (again) and then I got nothin.

One other problem. Gwenna Sharpe is basically invincible.

Rat was my favorite character. The narrators were great on this one, especially enjoyed the Rat voice.½

The vocabulary in this book was just... *fans self* ... SEXY!!!

In addition to a number of well-developed characters and a dynamite story, this thing had a depth I rarely get to enjoy in a fantasy book. I love the idea of exploring the human capacity/capability through several sets of eyes, all to which I can definitely relate. This thing has swords and monsters and princesses and assassins and everything that makes readers of this genre LOVE the genre, plus a bit of crossover for exploratory readers.

If you are a lover of fantasy and/or new words, definitely read it!

I love when a second book is just as good, if not better than the first. This one is that, in spades! As a rule, I never give a male author 5 stars if he describes a woman by her breasts or makes an abundance of cock jokes (this one had a couple of cock jokes in it that were funny, but completely unnecessary/ added nothing to the situation in which they were used).

So, 4.99 stars from me for incredible depth of character, world-building, plot pacing, and excitement! Additionally, Staveley continued to give me new vocabulary to look up, which I absolutely LOVE in a book! His mastery of language is so enviable, as the words he uses are so precisely perfect for the context in which they are used.

While it seems to be a thing lately to fall back on our known Gods/Goddesses from Greek/Norse mythology, Staveley creates his own unique deities that inform character alliances and decisions throughout the book. I can't wait to see how this one concludes in book three!

Definitely give this series a read. Staveley is, hands down, now on my favorite authors of all time list!

What a beautiful conclusion to what has been a riveting, emotional and, at times, distressing read. I have never highlighted so many beautiful sentences in a single book in my life. Staveley has some truly gorgeous prose, and his word selection is obviously pointed and precise. Though this final book didn't give as many internal snapshots of the story's characters, the foundation upon which it was built was solid enough to keep me invested and entertained. There is depth here, in moments, places, speeches, that captures something few books do: humanity, inhumanity, monstrosity, wisdom. I rarely feel content with endings of books I love, but this ending felt like it came at the perfect place: enough information to make me feel satisfied and enough vagueness to keep my wonder alive at the possibility of more stories within this realm.

Still processing. But I would highly recommend this as a read to lovers of language across all genres!

This was a brilliant display of slow-weaving storylines that don't QUITE connect in this first installment. It's so hard to do that and to keep your readers invested in every story arc, but Staveley is a master of this particular technique. It was so much fun to return to the Annurian Empire from a completely different perspective without returning directly to characters we know and love. A slow burn, the pacing feels right and the action comes right when you worry the prose might go stale. Diverse, character-driven, and full of both Easter eggs and new bright bits of stardust...

Definitely give it a read!

Three words: women in refrigerators.

The Emperor has been murdered, leaving the Annurian Empire in turmoil. Now his progeny must bury their grief and prepare to unmask a conspiracy. His son Valyn, training for the empire’s deadliest fighting force, hears the news an ocean away. He expected a challenge, but after several ‘accidents’ and a dying soldier’s warning, he realizes his life is also in danger. Meanwhile, the Emperor’s daughter, Minister Adare, hunts her father’s murderer in the capital itself. Court politics can be fatal, but she needs justice. And Kaden, heir to an empire, studies in a remote monastery. Here, the Blank God’s disciples teach their harsh ways – which Kaden must master to unlock their ancient powers. It definitely took me a while to click into this book, but that had more to do with my circumstances than with the book itself. The prologue was fantastic. The rest just didn’t sink in and I had to keep pushing to stay interested. Once it clicked? Awesome. Only drawback -- I somehow fell asleep last night with twenty pages left to go, then had to go to work this morning instead of finishing. Fail.

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

Trigger Warnings: Sexual harassment (to male and female characters), sexual abuse (to a male character), the threat of rape (mostly to female characters but it does happen to one male character too), there’s a scene where a male and female character are cornered by rapists but the rape does not take place, verbal abuse, physical abuse (especially to a woman and a child), lots of graphic violence, scenes of torture, branding, mentions of paedophilia.

Straight off the bat, I was surprised to see so much cursing in such quick succession. I’m not against cursing, and I personally curse a lot, but I didn’t expect it within the first few pages of the book. I think what bothered me most about it was that it was unnecessary and completely unimaginative. By unnecessary I mean every sentence did not require ‘f**king’ from the main character Gwenna, and that was the only swear word she seemed to know. Genuine cursing has variety, it’s not just the f-word, it’s s**t, crap, bloody, bugger, bollocks and so on. But for several pages right at the start of the book all I got was effing this and effing that, and it really wasn’t making me take a shine to the book. There was still cursing throughout the rest of the book, but it was down to a normal level which felt natural even when it was exaggerated.

As I got deeper into The Empire’s Ruin it split into three separate narratives and I found it really difficult to see how they had any relevance to each other at first. It took quite a while before two of them began to connect and it was two-thirds of the book before the third one connected. One narrative follows Gwenna Sharpe as she sets off on the voyage beyond the edge of the known world described in the synopsis. The second narrative follows two priests of love, and the third is about the monk turned con-artist also mentioned in the synopsis. Staveley’s writing style is very slow and it was too slow for me. This is a hefty book and 752 pages of slowly plodding on is not my idea of a fun read. There was action at times, but as you can see from the trigger warnings this is a very graphic novel and again, not my type of book.

By the end of the book, I was a little interested in the story and a few characters, but not nearly enough to pick up the next book. I just couldn’t get into this one and it wasn’t because I was coming into a universe at book 5, it was because it just did not grab me in any way. I felt that we were constantly reminded that Gwenna could only do all the things she was able to do, as a woman, because she was Kettral (and thus had extraordinary abilities) rather than her actually being a skilled fighter and demolitions expert. Her entire background as a legendary fighter and a hero seemed to only hinge on her being a Kettral and every time she did something epic the attitude was “well yes, she’s Kettral”. At the same time, there was this consistent insistence from everyone (including Gwenna herself) that she was not in fact Kettral anymore since she had been demoted. It got a little tiresome.

There was also the constant overhanging threat of rape. While it was primarily directed at female characters although it was directed at male characters occasionally, and at one point a male and female character had to defend themselves from rapists. You don’t need to tell me sexual assault happens; I’m a woman, I’ve been sexually assaulted and harassed, and I know too many people who have been as well. It’s a reality that women can’t avoid, but I don’t want to be bombarded with it in books I choose to read as well.

I keep seeing this book described as “epic” and I guess in terms of genre, it fits the bill of epic fantasy. The Empire’s Ruin is more Tolkien style fantasy (albeit with an R rating) and as such, it’s just not my kind of read. It certainly has some decent qualities and an interesting plot, it just didn’t click with me personally.


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Terrible disappointment. After the first book constructed excellent premises for a really epic grimdark series... the second book does absolutely nothing with them. All the Shin training... for nothing. All the Kettral training... for nothing. All the life experiences of the 2 princes... for nothing. In here they are virtually different characters with the same names (and really really dumb ones at that) with a very weak story (not much of a story at all, actually). And the epic struggle expected since Kaden is suddenly Emperor? Not in this book...Will not continue the series (or the book, i gave up at 40% since it was really just wasting my time).

Uncorrected Advance Reading Copy - Not For Sale

This would be a terrific book if all the protagonists weren’t active imbeciles.

A very depressing but well-written ending

This is my kind of epic dystopian gore-fest. Split into three story lines that I suspect will merge in what comes next, it's cruel, dark, full of extremely freaky creatures, gods, magic and endless surprises. It certainly didn't feel like a 735 page book as I read it. I'd fret about getting my hands on the sequel, but it's going to take a while to create and get things right, so I'll be patient.

No pain no gain.

As I finished this book not 10 minutes ago, laying it down on my bed, I sat up and let slip a whispered astonished and awe-filled, "Holy shit."

It has been a very, very long time since a book has hit me this hard and so beautifully.

its 11 at night. im using my nook color to type as i have finished two days straight of reading this book. when i can recover and get my hands on a real keyboard a real review i shall make.

It's possible that I don't give books a good enough "try" before I pass judgement on them and decide between abandoning the story or sticking with it. But there are so many books I want to read, I have to be judicious. And so, with "The Emperor's Blades", I may have given up on it too soon (several chapters into the free chapters available online), but it just didn't grab me.