The Emperor's Blades

Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, Book 1

By: Brian Staveley

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Now includes special bonus content. Stay tuned after the audiobook to hear “The Last Abbot of Ashk’lan,” a short story by Brian Staveley.

The emperor of Annur is dead, slain by enemies unknown. His daughter and two sons, scattered across the world, do what they must to stay alive and unmask the assassins. But each of them also has a life-path on which their father set them, destinies entangled with both ancient enemies and inscrutable gods.

Kaden, the heir to the Unhewn Throne, has spent eight years sequestered in a remote mountain monastery, learning the enigmatic discipline of monks devoted to the Blank God. Their rituals hold the key to an ancient power he must master before it's too late.

An ocean away, Valyn endures the brutal training of the Kettral, elite soldiers who fly into battle on gigantic black hawks. But before he can set out to save Kaden, Valyn must survive one horrific final test.

At the heart of the empire, Minister Adare, elevated to her station by one of the emperor's final acts, is determined to prove herself to her people. But Adare also believes she knows who murdered her father, and she will stop at nothing - and risk everything - to see that justice is meted out.

©2014 Brian Stavely (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

so far so good

great job with the storyline. the plot has a really cool, well-written theme to it. better than most; having read quite a few books - or listen to them rather - there are more than I'd like to have found that have a tendency to twist within the twists, and this book is twizzler, not fractal :- if you please.

finally

Any additional comments?

Unquestionably the first good book I've read all year! Interesting plot, lots of twists and turns, wasn't boring, not even once, not even a little bit. Every time the plot was in danger of slowing down or getting tedious, something I didn't expect happened. The characters had emotions that felt raw, powerful and non-trivial. Nice. Very nice. Too bad book 2 is a year away.

Good listen but ending pointedly said "series"

If you could sum up The Emperor's Blades in three words, what would they be?

Well woven tale

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It is a saga with interwoven tales so was fun to listen to on a set of long drives

Great story

Where does The Emperor's Blades rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Could become my one of my top book series. Can't say until the other books come out.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Emperor's Blades?

Following the son in mercenary training. Great character development with an awesome mystery/suspense twist

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The caves at the end of the training

Any additional comments?

Excited for the sequels to come out.

Excellent

Very good storyline and good characters. Moves at a good pace and perfect narration. Excellent

Good, but it made my teeth grind

The story is good, with interesting new factions, politics, and a great magic system. But the author tells us too much.

With a plot driven almost solely by treachery and deceit, we are given all sides or otherwise given zero doubt as to who is trustworthy or not. We know exactly when someone is being betrayed, being too confident, making a blindingly obvious mistake, et cetera. As a result, I couldn't even count how many times I rolled my eyes or audibly groaned at the nauseatingly idiotic characters who are supposed to be trained soldiers with more than a child's sense of people and their surroundings. He has also filled his novel with despicable characters that are always sneering or smiling smugly, which makes the fact that he tells us in advance that they're going to win in scene after scene that much more difficult to stomach.

However by the end I am invested in the story just enough to want to finish the trilogy. I imagine you will be too, if you can get over being angry at the characters.

Quickly Addictive. Great First Novel!

This novel starts a little slow and pretty conventional, but heats up quickly. It wasn't long before I was listening to it every free moment I had.

The early plot involves two royal brothers, each sent away as youths for training, one to a monastery and the other to Air Assault Ninja School. That in itself seems like a pretty derivative beginning, but the brothers are quickly dunked in intrigue when their father dies. The action, plotting and mystery remain pretty thick for the rest of the story. The main characters are put into many different challenging and life-threatening situations which move the story along. Also, since you keep switching back from one brother to the other at suspenseful points in the narrative, it is really difficult to find a good place to put the book down.

Staveley does an excellent job of keeping you on your toes. You are never allowed to get comfortable in your expectations. There are twists in this book, but the artful part of the twists are that some of them aren't twists at all.

The supporting characters are very well described. But for a few character traits, the main characters are written a little bit blank. Vance does an excellent job bringing them all to life. He is so good I will make special point of seeking out his narrations in the future.

I would recommend this book to any fantasy fan. The foibles of being conventional disappear quickly and are easy to forgive when you realize your being drawn into an exciting fantasy mystery.

Amazing

This is an amazing book. Its been awhile since I could get really excited about a series. The Emperor's Blades is outstanding in every way. Its very well written and is set in a sweeping and imaginative world. The characters are likable and surprisingly deep. The action in this book is both fantastic yet gritty and real. This book really grabbed me and got me swept up in the story. Overall, I think this is a must have.

Solid four star epic fantasy

The book moves between the stories of 3 protagonists, all of them children of an assassinated emperor. The three siblings each face their own challenges as the threat shifts to them.

I really liked Brian Staveley's writing style and found each of the individual plot lines well thought out. The protagonists are interesting and likable. I thought Brian Staveley did a good job of weaving between the individual stories. Interesting world. Simon Vance is great. I have moved to the second book in the series.

Refreshing Start in a Super-Saturated Genre!

Where does The Emperor's Blades rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In terms of the fantasy genre it made it immediately to my top 5 & overall book it placed in my all-time top-50. The story started out VERY GOOD, the litmus test will be the 2nd book from basically a debut author (he might have had 1 other addition to novella's with Mark Lawrence & Tad Williams. Considering the fantasy books I've read over last year, this book catapulted its way into my life lol... I'm quite antsy & upset every author feels the need to write trilogies or 4+ books in series

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Emperor's Blades?

Going thru each POV of the main protagonists... This has been done in similar way by David Durham in 'The War with the Mein' but Staveley IMO was able to split the POV up better & the cohesiveness of the complete book is woven into a masterpiece using poetic storytelling, in-depth characters, fantastic world building, plenty of action, intriguing 'magic system' & of course... court intrigue with backstabbing

Which character – as performed by Simon Vance – was your favorite?

That is an extremely hard question to answer because the character POV make up almost entire book, Valyn is my favorite.... BUT all the POV are worth reading

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I tend to read 3-4 books at a time, jumping from books & genre's to keep things 'fresh' but similar to 'Lies of Locke Lamora' & 'Red Knight' when starting this book all the books on my 'currently reading shelf' ranging from thrillers to Sci-Fi were put on hold

Any additional comments?

Simon Vance is an excellent narrator as always & HIGHLY recommend this book, spend the credit, get this book, many times I would figuratively say "a perfect book to take up time before the next installment of book X comes out or will get your mind off how book X ended, etc.." but read this book because you will want more after its done & fantastic debut novel from Brian Stavely... its refreshing & worth the time... along with the credit.