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Blade of Empire  By  cover art

Blade of Empire

By: Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory
Narrated by: Kate Rudd, Christopher Lane
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Publisher's summary

USA Today and New York Times bestselling authors Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory continue The Dragon Prophecy, which began with Crown of Vengeance. Set in a masterful fantasy world filled with elves and demons, unicorns and goblins, and mages and warriors, Blade of Empire continues the legend of Vieliessar Farcarinon, the first High King.

As Vieliessar confronts the first waves of the forces of Darkness, her destined Bondmate, Runacar, leads a rag-tag group to war. For centuries, the Elves have hunted the Otherfolk - minotaurs, gryphons, dryads, and more - considering them beasts. But they have a complex society, Runacar discovers, and though he is an Elf, takes it as his mission to help them reclaim their lands from his former friends and allies.

The Dragon Prophecy is a tale of loyalty and betrayal, of love and loss, of sacrifice and salvation. And of the never-ending battle between Light and Dark.

©2017 Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

What listeners say about Blade of Empire

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Continuation of a great story

I have read the other two trilogies to this series. This set is my favorite of them. I was disappointed that it was shorter than the last and more so now that I'm done and have another year or two to wait for the final book.

However, I understand that while we're dealing with a lot of storylines, I wish there had been better delineation between them. I frequently lost track of who was talking when they switched between lines.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Where is Bk 3?

I was excited to listen to the back story of the 2nd and 3rd trilogies that make up this world. I am dismayed and very disappointed the authors have neglected their fans so long in producing the 3rd book. Many fans have sought information and various media platforms are full of their bewilderment at the lack of response by Lackey & Mallory. I would suggest you hold off on books 1 & 2 because they have left us hanging at a very critical point in the story. The writing is as great as ever as well as the audio actors, which makes the lack of conclusion all the more disappointing.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Doesn't make sense

The main male character just suddenly had no qualms about murdering his own people but sobbs when one of his new friends dies? Wtf is the difference? It's like he's suddenly has a heart. But it only works on the beast friends, when he kills a member of his own race, no problem. It's just doesn't make sense. He used to be their general. Now he's doing his best murder them. it's just confusing and not fitting together. I can understand feeling bad for battle, watching friends die. But it's so Cold hearted towards one side it's confusing.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

please don't use this reader again.

It woud be going along jus fine until the female reader would say minataur as mine-ataur, instead of min-ataur. It jangled the story for several sentences before I could get back into the Story.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

engrossing

a very engrossing sequel that loses nothing in the storyline. loved it a great deal!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Self-derivative to a fault

Enjoyable if you are not very familiar with the other books set in this world. If you are a fan, be aware that this book borrows so heavily from the other books in the series it's practically plagiarism. I had high hopes for this series, but it fell very short of its potential. As an audio book, the Elven names are difficult to keep straight, making the plot hard to follow. Lane's performance is admirable. Rudd's performance is robotic. I wouldn't purchase another audio book in this series.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A bit of a struggle

Hard to get through this one. Its all battle and bloodshed without much forward momentum until the last couple of hours. probably the weakest of the entire series so far.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • DT
  • 07-10-18

Good, but....

This was a lot of story with little actual movement of plot. Well done movement of plot, but I wish there was more.

I enjoyed the character building and getting to know the Other Folk. There are a lot of names and locations in this story so you may find yourself wondering who is being mentioned but overall it doesn’t have too much of an impact on the story.

Definitely set up for at least 2 more books. It took so long for this one to come out, though, so we may be waiting a decade or so for the story to be finished.

Overall I enjoyed this as I am a huge fan of both Mallory and Lackey and lived the other series’ they have written.

Narration was good. Both narrators were easy to understand and didn’t grate on the nerves. They added a lot to the story, I think.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

good story

the flow of the book can be choppy at times, however the story itself makes up for that. good book

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

What happened to the pace

Book one was like a mad dash all the way thru. This was not as exciting. I hope the the next book goes back to the layout of book one.

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1 person found this helpful