The Emperor's Blades: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, Book I (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, 1) Paperback – Illustrated, August 26, 2014

This book tells the story of three siblings, Adare, Valyn, and Kaden, the children of the Emperor of Annur.Well, they were his children. The Emperor has been assassinated. The Emperor’s Blades, the first book in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne trilogy, investigates what happens to each of them immediately after his death.Adare, living in the capital, has to deal with the most immediate effects of her father’s death, and attempt to hold the empire together until the heir to the throne can return and become emperor. At the same time, she attempts to hunt down her father’s murderer.Kaden, Adare’s brother, is the heir to the throne. He has spent the past eight years in a remote monastery on the edge of the empire, training in the ways of the monks, yet never understanding why. He must now try to figure out what he was sent to learn before it is too late–it will be crucial to his success as emperor.Vayln, separated from his siblings by an ocean, is learning to be a Kettral; an elite soldier who, working with a team, flies into battle on the back of giant hawks. But before he can return home and grieve for his father, Vayln must pass the grueling but mysterious test to become a full Kettral, as well as avoid possible attempts on his life.————There are a lot of decent books being published these days. I have read, and enjoy a large number of these, even if they don’t make me incredibly excited.There are even a good number of good books being published, ones that I truly enjoy and would recommend to my friends, and give high ratings to. These are not as common, but they are not too hard to find if you look through the reviews.And then there are great books. Books that will blow your shoes off and leave you stunned because the author has done such a magnificent job in their craft. These are the books that you recommend to all of your friends, and are often annoyed if they haven’t read them.The Emperor’s Blades falls firmly into the third category. I read the book during the semester, with my full load of classes. My copy comes in at 476 pages, and it’s certainly not a short book by any means. I have been rationing myself this semester, forcing myself to read slowly so that I have time for schoolwork and other activities that I need to finish.I read The Emperor’s Blades in 4 days. Once I started, I could not put the book down. The pacing and tension that Staveley builds throughout is incredibly well done. The chapter switches, from viewpoint to viewpoint, quickly reached the part where, at every single viewpoint switch, I thought “No! I want to stay with this character!” even though I had thought the same thing when I left the character I was returning to. It takes a skilled writer to make you feel this way about all of the characters in a book, and Staveley has done it magnificently well. The pacing will leave you breathless as you tear through the book, so be warned.The book was not perfect. I would have preferred to see more from Adare’s viewpoint (She definitely did not have 1/3 of the screen time.), and some of the plot devices and world-building (the monks in particular) felt well worn.However, those shortcomings are greatly outshone by the rest of the book. In addition to the pacing, the characters were compelling. While I would not classify any of them as “lovable”, they are relatable, and that, perhaps more than anything, is the most important thing. Vayln, in particular, seems to just want to leave his island and get back to the kingdom, but must struggle through various trials first. Because I, too, wanted him to be able to leave, I sympathized with him.The ending was well executed, bringing various threads together into a satisfying and brutal climax, which left a lot open for the next two books. This book is not a “fun” book, the amount of death and other brutality is high, but it gives a very realistic sense to the world, and I wouldn’t want it even a notch lower.The world-building was interesting. There is, obviously, a lot going on behind the scenes here that we don’t know about yet, which I assume we will find out a lot more about in the next two books. I am going to with-hold judgement on the full extent of the world-building until more of the world is revealed, but what I have seen–including the chilling prologue–is excellent.And on that note… Ninja assassins on giant flying hawks? Why has no-one written that before? The Kettral are flat out awesome. I can’t even begin to describe how totally cool they are; you have to read yourself to get the full impact. And I highly recommend that you do so.I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and recommend it to everyone. Brian Staveley is an author to watch, and I predict this will be one of the best debuts, if not the best, of 2014. If you're still not sure, check out the seven free chapters, they're awesome.Without question, I give The Emperor’s Blades five stars, and a high recommendation. Go read it!Original review from my blog([...]).

The Emperor's Blades starts off a bit slow, then gains momentum, and will have you excited for Book 2!StoryThe Emperor has been assassinated and his three children will set out to find who is behind the assassination and get their revenge. Although the children are scattered around the empire, they'll set off on their own quests to find their father's killers. Kaden, the heir to the throne, is training to be a monk in a secluded monastery in the mountains. Valyn is studying to be a Wing Commander, which is the fantasy equivalent to the special forces. These units consist of a commander, a mage, an archer, a demolitions expert, and a flier and are deployed from the talons of gigantic birds of prey. Adare is in the capitol as a finance minister and she must put down a religious cult who is attempting to wrest power from the throne. As the children endure harsh trials, they get closer to exposing the traitors to the empire.CharactersThere are some tropes here, but most of the characters have personality. The good guys have shades of grey, but they play off of each other nicely and actually grow together as the plot unfolds. The bad guys are pretty straightforward. The funny characters are actually funny and play off of the other characters. It's refreshing to actually have funny characters in fantasy. So many fantasy novels attempt humor, but it comes off as something a snarky guy rolling a 20 sided die would say.World BuildingThis isn't a story about medieval Europe and it's not as story about ancient China, but a nice blend of the two. It's the PF Chang's of Fantasy! In the past, there were emotionless immortal races whose children had emotion, but human life spans. The ancient Csestriim, saw these children as diseased and stoically put them to death, which led to a war. This story begins centuries later. There are some fantasy creatures, a bit of magic, some gun powder-based explosives, swords, monks, bows, assassins, and gods.Writing StyleYou can tell this is Brian Staveley's first book because his writing style flows better as the book progresses. It starts off a bit rough, but around page 100, it really improves. The scenes get better, the story arcs flow better, the characters become more likeable, and the pace picks up. The language and dialogue used is contemporary and it's more of a fun read for grownups rather than classic literature.ActionThere are brawls, sword fights, a bit of magic, some assassination attempts, and some monsters. The action scenes are pretty good and you'll feel the impact of the sword blows. Most importantly, the action has consequences.MaturityThere's a lot of modern day swearing in the book. F bombs, and the like. There's some torture, bloody fights, and a bit of sex. It's definitely not for kids.OverallThis was a fun read about three children who are growing up in a harsh world and must avenge the assassination of their father, the emperor. It's a unique blend of genres. It's part quest / part mystery. It's part Asian, part western. It's part magic, part gunpowder. Aside from a few rough spots here and there, it's a good book. I'm excited for the next one.

Dès les premières pages on est entraînés dans l'histoire, il n'y a pas de temps mort.Le complot est vite annoncé, mais tellement de questions se posent qu'une page après l'autre ne nous aide pas à éclaircir l'histoire.Les personnages sont attachants, l'univers créé est solide, évocateur.Cet auteur a un bel avenir s'il continue sur cette lancée.Il y a bien longtemps que je n'avais pas lu d'histoire de cette qualité. Bravo !

(Spoilers)This was a fantastic read. I'm not surprised it has such a high rating.The book focuses on three siblings; all living in different parts of this fantastic fantasy world and all with their own struggles. Adare - the eldest - cannot sit on the throne due to her gender, but has been appointed Minister of Finance and has set about trying to prove who murdered her father: the Emperor.Kaden, the eldest male, will now be Emperor. But he's been sent to a Monastery - just like his father - to learn inner discipline that will one day enable him to rule.Finally, there's Valyn. Sent away whilst very young to train as an elite soldier. He has to survive gruelling trials as a cadet in order to lead his own 'wing' - a small select group of soldiers loyal to him.This is just the outline, the book itself is full of incredible world building, intrigue and conspiracies. Looking back, the main reason I loved this book and will definitely read the next is due to the care taken by the author. He has created a fully realised and deep world. Each sibling and the characters they interact with feel fully fleshed out.The journey throughout the book is very enjoyable; Valyn's trials (really original scene setting and scenarios from the author here) and life as a cadet are fascinating, as is Kaden's inner journey, trying to find the ability to 'empty yourself' and achieve a deeper understanding of his true purpose as Emperor. There's clever mysteries throughout that need to be unravelled.The writing is straight forward in a positive way but rich at the same time. Events happen, pushing the overall plot forward, but the stories and events themselves are fantastic outright. I was happy to inhabit the world as opposed to being eager for it to hurry itself along which is always a good sign.One slight disappointment was that the three stories were given around a 45/45/10 percent split, with Adare's story being given the least time. Hopefully the distribution is a little more balanced for the next book. Also, the bad guys were a little thinly sketched but it's implied that there is something grander awaiting the protagonists in the next book.Excellent stuff.9/10.

What a wonderful read after such a dry spell! Thank you Brian Staveley!P.S. I really hope you're working very hard on Book 3 - I'm almost done with The Providence of Fire :-)

This was an excellent fantasy book (no spoilers below that aren't in the book description). The first book in a planned trilogy that should thankfully release every year so the wait times are reasonable. This is fiction in a Game of Thrones type setting and it focuses on the three children of the Emperor. The two sons get by far the most attention with Kaden, the oldest son and heir to the throne, who was sent to train as a monk and the younger son Valyn, was sent to train with the Kettral (the country’s elite military division). The oldest sibling is daughter Adare who remains at the capital. She has a minor role in the first book.This is not a coming of age book. It’s a well written story focusing on the lives and training of the two sons and things are escalated due to the murder of their father the Emperor. I loved both characters and the supporting cast around them. There are many side characters that are interesting and pivotal to the story. There are also a number of mysteries in the book with the largest surrounding the Emperor’s death. They push the story along and hooked me in.The fantasy elements themselves in this book are low key. There are many different gods and there is an underlying belief that they may affect things but for the most part this is a tale without god interference, without dragons (although a few non-earthly creatures exist) and largely without magic.At the end of the day if you love fantasy fiction I can’t imagine you not loving this book.

Muy buena historia, con una buena definición de personajes y una trama emocionante. La historia consigue crear mucha tensión en el lector y cuesta dejar de leerlo