The Emperor’s Blades

Brian Staveley splashed down into the cold, dark sea of epic fantasy back in 2014 with his debut novel, The Emporer’s Blades. My girlfriend at the time consumed it in about 13 microseconds and then proceeded to tell me, for roughly the next year and a half how I should most definitely drag my eyeballs across its pages.

For whatever reason I was slow to the party. I blame the never ending mound of books continually being stacked atop my to be read list. But, what’s done is done, and now The Emperor’s Blades has officially been consumed and filed away in my gray matter.

So…how was it? Should you drop that Hot Pocket and scamper over to Amazon immediately to grab a copy?

The verdict is: It depends.

Holy non-committal Batman!

There are a lot of things to like (maybe even lurv, if you’re one of those sorts of people who are capable of feeling more than just a maudlin haze of indifference). But there are also some issues that I would classify as…significant. Your enjoyment of this book will entirely depend on how you navigate these issues.

Now, for those of you not in the know about how I select books to review for One Lazy Robot, just know that I never review a book that I think is irredeemably bad. The only books that make the cut are ones that I would in fact recommend. There are many reasons for this, but the gist of it is I think the world is filled with enough negativity. I don’t need to add to dumpster fire with my own negative thoughts on somebody else’s works.

I mention this so that you understand while I had issues with The Emperor’s Blades, it is, on the whole, a pretty good intro to the epic fantasy genre. In fact, I’d go so far as to say if you’ve never really dove into epic fantasy, this would be a solid launching off point.

Okay, so let’s talk story and why parts of The Emperor’s Blades left me psyched and why some parts left me wanting to throw the book at a balloon-animal-wielding-clown (not that you ever really need a reason to throw a book at a balloon-animal-wielding-clown).

The Good

The book revolves around the three children of the recently murdered emperor of Annur: Kaden, Adare, and Valyn. These three were separated in preadolescence and sent to varying corners of the globe to develop the necessary skills to rule the Unhewn Throne and battle back the sociopathic immortal monsters known as the Csestriim.

Kaden is sent to train with some Shin monks in the mountain where he undergoes a brutal training to learn how to empty himself in service of the Blank God.

Valyn trains with the Kettral (the epic fantasy version of a special-ops team) to become an all-around sword wielding badass capable of killing anything and everything.

art by tiko at deviantart

Adare is the feisty sister who got to stay at the capitol while her brother’s were sent away. She studied under her father, learning the art of statecraft and finance. But because she’s a woman fighting the patriarchy, there are limits to how far she may ascend.

Kaden inherits the throne, though his training with the Shin monks hasn’t even prepared him to run a banana stand much-less an empire. Seriously, he spends most his time making pots, digging holes, filling holes, then digging more holes, and generally learning the art of not-giving-a-fuck.

Of the three, Valyn’s story is by far the most compelling (and most well-thought out). I argue that Staveley could almost have done away with Adare and Kaden entirely and just told us Valyn’s story as it was a rich coming of age story mixed with a murder mystery. A recipe for success if you ask me.

There is nothing original about The Emperor’s Blades and I think perhaps (surprisingly) that’s where it shines. It rehashes a lot of well-worn ideas and tropes, but does so in a fun, adventurous way. Staveley’s writing is easily consumed and the story is brisk, meaning you are pulled through the book at a fairly quick clip, which isn’t always so much the case with epic fantasy.

For this reason alone, because Staveley isn’t breaking the bounds of epic fantasy and pushing the envelope, I would recommend this book for a new reader to the genre. I think there is a lot to enjoy here and the story, on the whole (though basic), is compelling enough to keep the reader hooked for nearly 1,000 pages.

The Bad

Okay, I’m not going to spend to much time dissing trash on The Emperor’s Blades, but I have 2 issues with the book at large and it would be a disservice to pretend they simply don’t exist.

First, the treatment of women in this story is almost unforgivably bad.

No, I don’t mean the women are tortured every other scene. I’m talking about the fact that they are pretty much only present to push the story forward, be on the receiving end of some ogling, or you know, be badasses who’s very aptitude makes them the source of continual distrust by our main characters.

The most blatant example of this is Adare who, by all accounts, is the most competent of the three siblings. She’s spent her entire life in the capitol training under her father with a chip on her shoulder. She is intelligent, ambitious, and eager to prove herself. At the outset of the story she has risen of her own accord to Minister of Finance, which we are told over and over again has never been accomplished by a female.

Yay, that’s awesome! Right? Well, no, because this fact is continually used so that the author can say “See, I have a strong, badass women doing strong, badass things,” but then that same character goes and does some terribly cliché, stereotypical things.

Example? She falls in love with the powerful, charismatic general figure who seduces her within 3 seconds flat. Adare is supposed to be this hardened, political creature who knows how to guard her emotions, and yet she reverts to a tittering teenager at the barest flick of the eye from this general.

Oh, sure, she does plenty of awesome things thoughout the story (as many of the females inevitably do), but their presence is continually punctuated by their sexuality. Also, one can’t help but feel that oftentimes they’re just hanging in proximity to Kaden and Valyn as a convenient Damsel in Distress, should the need suddenly arise for one of our two boys to do something heroic.

The second issue with The Emperor’s Blades is the fact that this is book one of a three book series, and shit if it doesn’t show. Seriously, this is not a stand-alone novel. In fact, I hesitate to even call this a complete novel.

The story ends abruptly with absolutely zero resolution. The expectation, of course, being that you’ll run out and grab the second book and start reading. Other reviewers have made similar comments and while I can’t vouch for the quality of the second and third books in this series, it is incredibly frustrating to invest your time into 1,000 pages of story only for it to hit a brickwall with zero closure.

Now, this isn’t really such a big issue because the other two books are now available for mass-consumption, but it’s something to be made aware of.

The Verdict

Overall The Emperor’s Blades is pretty good. I think it’s worth checking out if you’re new to the genre. If you’re a seasoned veteran, however, I think you’d be better spending your time elsewhere as there is nothing terribly original about the story or its execution.

[box] Have you read The Emperor’s Blades? What did you think? Get down to the comments and let me know what you thought of it? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment?[/box]