Name: Adeline's review of The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding
Item: The Ember Blade
Rating: 4
Author: Adeline

Chris Wooding

Empires rise, civilisations fall and one culture comes to subsume another. It's the way of the world . . . sometimes ways of life are improved, sometimes they are not. But the progression of change is huge and - usually - unstoppable. In this story, the Ossian way of life is fading and the Dachen way is taking its place and Aren is comfortable with that. Even when his parents are accused of treason he supports the establishment and maintains there's been some mistake . . . which is all it takes to get himself and his best friend arrested . . . Thrown into a prison mine they plan their escape - only to be overtaken by events when they're rescued, and promptly find themselves in the middle of an ambush. By the time they've escaped, they're unavoidably linked to Garric - their unwelcome saviour - and his quest to overturn to Dachen way of life. If they leave Garric now, they'll be arrested or killed by their pursuers. If they turn him in, Garric will kill them. If they stay with him, they'll be abetting a murderous quest they don't believe in. There are no good options - but Aren will still have to choose a path . . . Designed to return to classic fantasy adventures and values, from a modern perspective, this is a fast-moving coming-of-age trilogy featuring a strong cast of diverse characters, brilliant set-pieces and a strong character and plot driven story.

The Ember Blade

someone on twitter said they are at the same page mark as me and it’s the best book they’ve ever read 😭 what am i missing 

aurelia

Adeline

4.5 While the plot is kind of classic and old school, I actually devoured this thanks to the interesting world building, nice twists, complex characters and great writing.

meh. nothing new here, very traditional fantasy story line making it predictable. didn’t care for the characters and found most of them annoying. this would’ve been better for me with 400 less pages. i had to switch to an audiobook to get through this

Fraser Simons

2.5 rounded up

Absolutely nothing about this is novel. But it is a straightforward old-school fantasy story updated with some subversions in an otherwise predictable plot. 

It is 100% boys 2 men, best friends/friends off/best friends again for the two main characters. However, if you like altruistic, moral absolutist classic fantasy, and you pick up what is being dropped in regards to the two main characters' best friends as boys, then you’ll probably like it quite a bit. For me, all of the other characters were more interesting than that. One or two, in particular, kept me reading. As much as some of the problems are overcome in a way that may defy expectations, the overarching plot is not a subversion, but an attempt to invoke classic fantasy tropes in a slightly different way. But those tropes and story beats are pretty played out for me. 

Serviceable prose, good characterization, and development, granular specificity, and worldbuilding, just as you’d expect with fantasy like this. Because I prefer imparting a setting only that’s pertinent to the specific story, the 824 pages felt long and, in parts, overwritten; especially the beginning. Pacing takes a long time to get the ball rolling. 

That being said it kept me reading as I found a couple of characters I liked and I was curious enough about the dangling threads to know what happens. Probably don’t care enough to read the next one, but who knows. The idea that a magic sword could unite the country against oppressors when the entire populace is too apathetic to rise up after years and years of rule, feels very Eurocentric and British to me. If the central conceit had been more interesting to me, I’m sure I’d have liked it more.

kym &
The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding

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The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding