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.

David Attenborough Voice

If you like David Attenborough (I do!) then you’ll love this narration. Overall not my favorite fantasy series but it caught my attention enough to get me excited for the other two books. Definitely a bit slow and in some books but the storyline has a good trajectory. If you’re looking for a series like The Kingslayer Chronicles, or Wheel of Time this won’t live up to your expectations.

A lot better than expected

Definitely getting the next book. Interesting story and characters. Hopefully it just gets better with the next book. So far I don’t have many complaints with the book and it was very entertaining

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.

Great narrator saves a mediocre book

As others have said, this is a... good... story. There aren't many new ideas here, but the usual old tropes are... good. I liked the world and the factions and look forward to finding out more in the next book. I liked having the siblings with their own story lines and perspectives. The plot was clunky and not very nimble - you kind of know what the deal with the bad guy is way before the reveal - but still enjoyable. But I also agree with others who say that the book was way too long and could have been greatly improved with some heavier editing. We are familiar with the super mental monk trope, and we are familiar with the super ninja killing trope. No need to spend half the book describing it.

My biggest complaint was that there were a bunch of contrivances to create the current situation. Dad the emperor didn't do a very good job raising his kids to inherit the empire. In fact, teaching the younger son super-assassin powers is a downright terrible idea if the goal is to avoid sibling rivalry and challenges for the throne.

But if you can get past these flaws, the book really is... good. I like the characters, and I'm interested in what happens next. I thought this one ended well. Simon Vance does a great job as always and makes this an easy listen.

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.

A gem..

If your tired of mediocre and are looking for a gem, you've come to the right place. Reminiscent of the Misty borne trilogy.. Depth of characters, tense and interesting plot twists, and contemplative..

Fantastic

I've been drawn in to a fantastic new series. I was hooked from the beginning and I can't wait to jump in to the next book!

Slow at the beginning, but great at the end

OK, I almost put this one back down after chapter one, but some little voice said grit your teeth it might get better. So I did and lo and behold, somewhere around chapter 3, it got a bit better. The ending was awesome. Glad I stuck it thru. Took me a while to figure out I was listening to three different story lines. Transitions between character plots could be better. And everyone need not have a Scottish accent-but this got better as time went on too.

The next installation needs to be a bit snappier. It made me laugh and it made me cry. Thumbs up. I recommend giving it a try. Just keep the coffee going for the first three chapters. It made me want to see what happens next. Don't wait too long to get it out there or we'll all forget because there were a lot of fine details that happened in Book 1.