The Emperor's Blades
I didn't read nearly as much as I thought I would while on vacation, so now I have a few books to work through slowly. I try not to get too invested in new series these days, but I picked up The Emperor's Blades for some fantasy reading after seeing it mentioned around. The story follows the two sons and one daughter of a recently assassinated emperor.
There's a lot of good stuff here. The Kettral are a high point for me - essentially a fantasy special operations unit that mixes SEAL-like training with giant birds as squad transport and a dash of supernatural to give them an edge. Most of the characters are solid or better, and I especially liked the chemistry among the Kettral trainees. Valyn may not be the brightest character around, but his plotline was the most interesting to me.
Of course, there's also some cliche stuff - not necessarily bad, but not particularly unique or novel, either. There's the Shin, a monk order that trains in esoteric arts connected to the rising ancient threat that everyone has forgotten (including most of the monks). With a big conspiracy on about who was behind the killing of the emperor, there's a lot of trust issues and background plotting going on. Kaden, heir-apparently monk in training had some ups and downs in my view.
And then there are some weak elements. Some of the central schemes and mysteries were more transparent than I'm used to (as a jaded reader). I mean, I often want to bop a character and say "you're missing something," but this one had me instead saying "gah, it's all right in front of you and you're putting it together wrong!" The plotline that plays out in the capital also feels sort of hollow, leaving expecting a lot more out of Adare since she's supposed to be good at politics. I wanted to see more of her, but given how much she flails around, maybe it's good she got less screen time than her siblings. Also the "reveal" of the emperor's plan left me thinking "that's almost a good idea, but really not very well thought out."
It's interesting to me that the three characters/plot threads came out so easy to rank for me. Overall, it could be the start of an interesting series, and I think I'll follow it into the next volume at least, but it does feel like it missed its potential somewhat. I believe it's the author's first published novel, so inexperience could be a factor.
There's a lot of good stuff here. The Kettral are a high point for me - essentially a fantasy special operations unit that mixes SEAL-like training with giant birds as squad transport and a dash of supernatural to give them an edge. Most of the characters are solid or better, and I especially liked the chemistry among the Kettral trainees. Valyn may not be the brightest character around, but his plotline was the most interesting to me.
Of course, there's also some cliche stuff - not necessarily bad, but not particularly unique or novel, either. There's the Shin, a monk order that trains in esoteric arts connected to the rising ancient threat that everyone has forgotten (including most of the monks). With a big conspiracy on about who was behind the killing of the emperor, there's a lot of trust issues and background plotting going on. Kaden, heir-apparently monk in training had some ups and downs in my view.
And then there are some weak elements. Some of the central schemes and mysteries were more transparent than I'm used to (as a jaded reader). I mean, I often want to bop a character and say "you're missing something," but this one had me instead saying "gah, it's all right in front of you and you're putting it together wrong!" The plotline that plays out in the capital also feels sort of hollow, leaving expecting a lot more out of Adare since she's supposed to be good at politics. I wanted to see more of her, but given how much she flails around, maybe it's good she got less screen time than her siblings. Also the "reveal" of the emperor's plan left me thinking "that's almost a good idea, but really not very well thought out."
It's interesting to me that the three characters/plot threads came out so easy to rank for me. Overall, it could be the start of an interesting series, and I think I'll follow it into the next volume at least, but it does feel like it missed its potential somewhat. I believe it's the author's first published novel, so inexperience could be a factor.
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