The Emperor's Blades (Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne Book 1)

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In his eagerness to save his brother, he had led his Wing directly into harm’s way, had ignored the signs, spurned sensible caution, and now, unless he figured some way to cut them all loose, they were going to die here in the shadow of an unnamed mountain at the end of the world. I don’t know about you but to me, that sounds like a recipe for a badass narrative. 🤞 Well... it’s also a recipe for half the fantasy books out there but... we’re not gonna dwell on that. Girl’s tryin’ to make a point here. The Annurian Empire, in terms of population, level of technology, extent of trade, etc, is similar to Tang era China. It is NOT Tang China, there are hundreds of differences, but that provided a jumping-off point.

LEGION M CURRENTLY HAS AN OFFERING OPEN AT STARTENGINE.COM. PLEASE READ THE OFFERING CIRCULAR AND RISKS RELATED TO THIS OFFERING BEFORE INVESTING. THIS REG A+ OFFERING IS MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH STARTENGINE PRIMARY, LLC, MEMBER FINRA/SIPC. THIS INVESTMENT IS SPECULATIVE, ILLIQUID, AND INVOLVES A HIGH DEGREE OF RISK, INCLUDING THE POSSIBLE LOSS OF YOUR ENTIRE INVESTMENT. YOU SHOULD NEVER INVEST MORE THAN YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE IN LEGION M (OR ANY STARTUP). Now, is it time for me to ignore all my ARCs and responsibilities and read The Providence of Fire? I think so! Seriously, I need more of this world. I whole heartedly recommend you giving this series a shot, because I think very few will walk away disappointed. As a female lover of fantasy the other thing I really liked about The Emperor’s Blades is how many strong female characters there are. Even though the majority of the book is told from Kaden and Valyn’s perspectives some of the strongest characters were female. They made difficult decisions and just because a woman was a warrior didn’t mean she couldn’t have emotions and complexity. He allowed his female characters to be strong without making them into a bitch, they come across as independent, not needing to be saved by a man or anyone else. I appreciate the intricacy that Mr. Staveley put into every one of them. I'll admit, I was a little biased towards Adare's point of view, because her storyline has such a strong feministic undertone. Unfortunately, Adare also gets a considerably less amount of chapters than her brothers, but I was enthralled each time we got a glimpse of her story in Annur. I have very high hopes for her in The Providence of Fire, especially with the impact of that cliffhanger. Like, I'm here for Adare, and I'm rooting for whatever she has to do for her kingdom.Fast forward a few thousand years (far enough that the unaging race of logic monsters is nothing more than a myth), and our story is mostly told from the alternating perspectives of two brothers, both the sons of the Emperor, both sent away as boys to train, but to different places, for entirely different purposes. no—literally, u gaiz—i do not exaggerate. that was literally and actually a thing written in this literal and actual book. When Gwenna got so angry about Valyn not harnessing himself in properly when we first met them (b/c distraught over news of father's death), I'd hoped it was b/c she liked him.

Their personalities are also problematic. Girls are either dangerous like Gwenna with her terrible temper, or pathetic, like Rianne, or hopelessly inept like Lin and Adare. Alfonso • Amaia • Carmen • Garcia • The Endspeaker • The Last Knight • Rocinante • Thiago • UlpianusThis review has been a long time coming, as Emperor’s Blades is still one of the best books I’ve read this year (actual Goodreads update: “5/5 stars! And a new addition to my small shelf of favorites!”). But for some reason I’ve been stalling on writing the review. Maybe because I know logically the book had a few problems and won’t work for everyone, but I tell you, every single aspect of the story worked for me. So I’m going to proceed fangirling as if I was unaware of of the things others found fault in. ;P this one's hardly a surprise, given the recent history of the great american doorstopper—but man, what a disappointingly het male gaze. every woman's body is lavishly described (unlike those bigassed birds). also, they're always either hysterical or cold as ice—from princesses to assassins to whores, i shit you not, if they are female, they are either super-upset or frigid—but either way, an aaaaaaawful lot of words go into speculating about their bodies. as a result, i swear i know what every titty in this book looks like. Here's what I actually got: A kind of, coming of age story of the siblings - each going through their own struggles and inner conflicts as they try to deal and come to terms with their new reality. While it’s true that the plot for me was intriguing, the pacing can be a bit too slow at times. This didn’t bother me at all because I found the main character’s—especially Kaden and Valyn—storyline to be captivating. The Emperor’s Blades do, however, reminded me of The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie in terms of pacing and structure; what I meant by this is that this first book felt more like a buildup for the sequels.

Kaden, the heir, is sent to live with a bunch of monks. Presumably to learn discipline, humility, etc. Brian Staveley introduces himself to the field of epic fantasy as a storyteller to watch with an exciting first salvo involving Machiavellian politics on multiple levels, an intriguing world of magic,and three protagonists whose personal journeys after the murder of their father - the emperor - may not only save or destroy everything they hold dear but will also keep the reader impatiently waiting for the next book!” if a crucial plot point requires several persons be thusly concussed all in a row, and then conveniently revived by firm slaps to the face a minute later, you should probably never write anything else again write several sequels because my people at Tom Doherty and Associates love that shit, apparently.

New in Series

The story takes place when The Emperor of The Annurian Empire is murdered leaving 3 kids behind him. His three kids are Kaden who is being trained under monks far away somewhere to be more disciplined, Valyn who is also away training as a part of the empire’s deadliest fighting force and Adare who is now the finance minister and is investigating her father’s death. Mr Brian, thank you for this -great- book. I’m an art student who has been devouring fantasy books while painting (34 audiobooks in a year and counting), and your book definitely stood out from the rest. Even though I’ve started getting more skeptic when it comes to really digging a fantasy book because of all the cheesy clichés I’ve encountered, you certainly captured me with the raw emotion and hardships your characters had to face. Personally, that’s exactly what I look for in fantasies: have a cool world/magic/monsters if you want, but most importantly, have compelling characters to move the story forward. And you certainly had all of these in your story!