Name: The Emperor's Blades
Rating: 4.06 (50 reviews)
ISBN: 9780765336408

Brian Staveley

The children of an assassinated emperor try to stay alive and avenge their father's death while continuing down their individual life-paths, one in a monastery, another training with elite soldiers, and one appointed a minister determined to prove herself to her people.

The Emperor's Blades

The circle is closing. The stakes are high. And old truths will live again . . . 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. Yet before Valyn can take action, he must survive the mercenaries' brutal final initiation. 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. When an imperial delegation arrives, he's learnt enough to perceive evil intent. But will this keep him alive, as long-hidden powers make their move?PRAISE FOR THE SERIES"A vividly imagined story of conspiracy and empire" Col Buchanan"Following in the footsteps of George R. R. Martin, Joe Abercrombie and the like . . . Brutal, intriguing and continuing to head toward exciting events and places unknown" Kirkus"I loved every second of it ... As more and more people discover what a talent Staveley has for creating a full, immerseive, magical and exciting world, with characters to match, his popularity will soar." Fantasy-Fiction.com "A complex and fast-moving fantasy set in a world where treachery and intrigue are everywhere" L. E. Modesitt, Jr

Sunny

Michael Cowell

Great start to a series that will only get better as the author refines he's writing. Can't wait for the next book.

altlovesbooks

Huh, well, I disagree with a large number of reviews here. 

To be vague and brief, there's an ancient race(?) of evil(?) people, returned again and bent on revenge. That's the high level Big Bad we don't see much of after the beginning. The low level Big Bad of this particular book is a coup that kills the current emperor, leaving the children to pick up the pieces. Kaden is the oldest (and now the emperor), and was sent to a remote monastery ostensibly to learn monk things, but also for other more specific plot reasons. Valyn, his younger brother (and the more interesting of the two, IMO) is training to be a Kettral, highly skilled bird warriors who can do basically anything and do it with style. He finds out about the coup and wants to go protect his brother/the new emperor, but is waylaid with his training and unravelling his own set of plot problems before he can do so. Adare, their sister, is in the capitol at the time of the coup, survives, but cannot take the throne because, whoops, she's a girl. Instead, she's been made Minister, and is evidently highly skilled at politics or somesuch. She thinks she knows who's behind the coup, and wants to see them punished. We don't see much of her in this book.

I didn't think it was a perfect fantasy book by any means, but I don't think it was slow (a common problem I see mentioned here). I agree Valyn's storyline was the most interesting of the three, but I also think Kaden's was necessary to set up his development as a character, and also establish what he can do later on. I think both characters suffer a bit from the Chosen One(s?) trope, where they both seem incredibly capable by merit of being the main characters, though. And Adare, who exists in this book, definitely needed something more to keep her apace of her brothers and not made to feel like she's a less capable sibling. 

All that said, I thought the story that's set up is interesting to me, and I do feel compelled to continue to see where it goes. It's not a perfect fantasy book, but if it's fun for me to read and interesting enough for me to want to continue with it, that's enough for me.

Prashanth Srivatsa

The path long ago taken by Erikson and Abercrombie is filled with bones, blood and decaying Empires. Staveley here walks on that path with purpose and clarity, creating a world that has rot at the heart of it, but one that promises to be healed by the hands of a dead Emperor's children. The plot feels derivative at times, a land that reveals familiarity in its strangeness, but the execution and language more than make up for the scattered feelings of deja vu. One of those beginnings which, if HBO has a sneak peak of, will be picked up and made into a show.

In The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley, the emperor of Annur is dead, slain by enemies unknown. His daughter and two sons, scattered across the world, do what they must to stay alive and unmask the assassins. But each of them also has a life-path on which their father set them, destinies entangled with both ancient enemies and inscrutable gods. Kaden, the heir to the Unhewn Throne, has spent eight years sequestered in a remote mountain monastery, learning the enigmatic discipline of monks devoted to the Blank God. Their rituals hold the key to an ancient power he must master before it's too late. An ocean away, Valyn endures the brutal training of the Kettral, elite soldiers who fly into battle on gigantic black hawks. But before he can set out to save Kaden, Valyn must survive one horrific final test. At the heart of the empire, Minister Adare, elevated to her station by one of the emperor's final acts, is determined to prove herself to her people. But Adare also believes she knows who murdered her father, and she will stop at nothing—and risk everything—to see that justice is meted out. Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne The Emperor's Blades The Providence of Fire The Last Mortal Bond Other books in the world of the Unhewn Throne Skullsworn (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne

Fraser Simons

DNF 29%. Dark fantasy, I feel, needs better writing than average and a more socially aware person. Because otherwise it’s just the same tired posturing to make it “dark”. More often it seems like short hand for the writer to put in content that isn’t pertinent to the plot, but signals their perception of “realism” and the crueler aspects of life. Of course this just means sexual assault and violence against women are normalized but it’s okay because it’s daaaark.

As such, dark fantasy is just trite to me. And this is sadly no different. 

The setup is somewhat interesting, with the death of the emperor and the children trying to unmask assassins. But in reality it’s mostly military fiction, something I don’t get on with either, usually, and so coupled with the, you’re being trained to be a Real warrior/man stuff, I’m just not finding anything to like about this one. 

The only dark fantasy I’ve been impressed with are the Second Apocalypse books, which have the “dark” outlook and tropes, but use them as an allegory to communicate that misogyny (literally) destroys the world. 

Meanwhile in this book during a 2v2 training exercise, in which platoons are watching, a woman is tricked into falling and the rival thinks it’s funny to make her mad by sexually assaulting her, which nobody does anything about except her sparring partner and narrator, who is made to feel bad because he can’t get to her and save her and he failed. 

Aren’t we passed this yet? I sure am.

Amira BEN

Ana V. 

Love multiple POVs books. This one follows a warrior facing the ranks, an assassination attempt, challenges, and trials, his brother an acolyte wanting to understand what beast is killing near the temple, and their sister, a princess amid politics and intrigue in court. Their father, the emperor is dead and they're coming for the heirs. 
It sets the world well but didn't make me continue with book two.

The Emperor's Blades is the first novel in Brain Staveley's epic Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne series. The circle is closing. The stakes are high. And old truths will live again . . . The Emperor has been murdered, leaving the Annurian Empire in turmoil. Now his progeny must prepare to unmask a conspiracy. His son Valyn, training for the empire's deadliest fighting force, hears the news an ocean away. And after several 'accidents' and a dying soldier's warning, he realizes his life is also in danger. Yet before Valyn can act, he must survive the mercenaries' brutal final initiation. The Emperor's daughter, Minister Adare, hunts her father's murderer in the capital. Court politics can be fatal, but she needs justice. Lastly Kaden, heir to the empire, studies in a remote monastery. Here, the Blank God's disciples teach their harsh ways, which Kaden must master to unlock ancient powers. But when an imperial delegation arrives, has he learnt enough to keep him alive, as long-hidden powers make their move?

Sheila

I loooooooooved this! Despite some unnecessarily long info dumps & Valyn acting like a typical teenage boy in nearly every one of his chapters, I got inexorably drawn into this book. The chapters are set up much like GoT where each chapter has a focus on one of the three children of the Emperor; the eldest Adare had the fewest chapters but the best reveal at the end (I began to smell it out at the beginning of that very chapter but it was still a big omg moment). Since this book was focused on the characters so much, we didn't get to learn a lot about the world or its societies & I hope that's elaborated upon in the next book. There's a whole hierarchy of gods - some 'younger' ones that even personally meddled in affairs?! - but they don't sound Malazan-esque so I don't think I'll have to steel myself for that level of carnage lol

I'm kind of kicking myself now for having sat on this book for so long, but if anything it does mean I can jump straight into the 2nd book now!

Annelies Van Rossen

Pro: the characters, the intrigue, the subtle magic

Con: cleverness of the characters

When the Emperor dies, his three children are left to fend for themselves. These three characters are amazingly well developed. Also, the side characters were enjoyable. We learn about the world from three hugely different perspectives which made the variety between description and action exactly right. Right from the start, we have mystery elements, which I did quite enjoy. The brutalness of some characters and their way of manoeuvring through life was a great aspect of the book. Through the book we also get tiny hints of magic, which I am hoping will develop more in the second book. Only thing that sometimes bugged me was that the characters were sometimes a bit too clever, a bit too good in what they were doing.

Faith

Amber Torkos

Considering I originally picked up this book from my local used book store because of the cover and it’s condition was like brand new. I have already purchased the second book in the series. Super easy read and interesting magic system. This book had me rooting for all three POV’s. Cannot wait to pick up the sequel. 

Dani C

4 1/2 stars easy!! REALLY looking forward to reading the next one!

Jeff Byrnes

Brilliant, well-written fantasy of the highest sort

Epic storytelling, strong characters, solid use of "show don't tell" (allowing the reader to work out on their own who or what a thing is), and a gripping, slowly building storyline.

The Emperor's Blades

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