The Emperor's Blades

The world Brian Staveley introduces to us in this book is interesting and well thought out. The story is good, but it's missing something from being awesome. There is in my mind a good reason to why the viewpoints of the story are split like they are, I know some people dislikes parts of it and I also get why. Most of the plot progression from Adares point of view could probably have been told from either Kadens or Valyns PoV in regards to the story of this book. However certain nuances would be lost and we would se less of the brilliant world building that underpins this book. The three main characters while not revolutionary in any ways work well, and the way they are used to show different parts of the world works really well. I would love to see more of the Ketteral stuff as that's partly written in a very cinematic way that I enjoy so much to read.

If world building is what you read books for then definitively read this one. If it is for story then I'd suggest you give it a try I think you'll be surprised.

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.

I really like the book. It captures my imagination and despite the traditional fantasy tropes of siblings being arranged against each other, it feels fresh.
Why then only 3 stars?
While the writing of the story is good, the actual technical writing is bad. Bad characterization (cookiecutter women, all hot and we know the cup-sizes of every one of them, and either cold as ice or emotional sillies). Language and traits are repetative and the level of miscommunication/dumb planning just ridiculous. I'm all for furthering the plot by creating a misunderstanding, but does it have to be sooooooo obvious all the time?

But despite those beginner mistakes of bad writing, the story is immensely entertaining. This writer has good potential, after he takes some extensive classes on characterization and maybe go out in the world sometimes and discover that there are more than those two kinds of women. And that breasts aren't all that there is about them. No, really. Not kidding here.