Seven Deaths of an Empire

By: G. R. Matthews

Narrated by: Wayne Forester

Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

The emperor is dead. Long live the Empire.

General Bordan has a lifetime of duty and sacrifice behind him in the service of the Empire. But with rebellion brewing in the countryside, and assassins, thieves and politicians vying for power in the city, it is all Bordan can do to protect the heir to the throne.

Apprentice magician Kyron is assigned to the late emperor's honour guard escorting his body on the long road back to the capital. Mistrusted and feared by his own people, even a magician's power may fail when enemies emerge from the forests, for whoever is in control of the emperor's body controls the succession.

Seven lives and seven deaths to seal the fate of the Empire.

©2021 G. R. Matthews (P)2021 Penguin Audio and Rebellion Publishing

Very good except for a few caveats

I really enjoyed most of this book. Although it is set in a fictional world, it is very clearly based off of Rome and the Gaelic wars, and the author does a great job with the stand-in Romans. The first 3/4ths of the book were reminiscent of the opening scenes in Gladiator and make the book worth reading in my opinion.

However, while the empires legions are depicted well, there are a lot of noble savage and evil church tropes that are pretty annoying. The tribes are depicted as having a basically peaceful and utopian philosophy that seems to draw a lot from star wars. This was emphasized because the narrator sounds quite a bit like Obi-Wan Kenobi when voicing a few of the characters. Also, while most of the book is good, the ending feels pretty rushed.

Not bad, but one dimensional characters.

I liked the audio book version and I finished it. But it's not one of the greats. Especially the villains are done poorly.

A Solid 3.5 Read for me

I'm struggling trying to decide if the story was a 3 or a 4 star.
I liked the narrator, did a great job, I always prefer a single narrator who can do multiple voices for characters than an ensemble cast - but that's just my opinion. This one does an excellent job, and probably is a very good part of why I finished the read. :)

I liked the book and the story.
It's the first time in a long time that I've only "liked" a book so it feels weird to rate it 3 stars.
It was a good read, feels nicely rounded and complete but I also wouldn't be too surprised to see a sequel in the future. Which is a refreshing type of ending.

I had to push through, especially towards the middle, I had to convince myself to keep going because it was fairly underwhelming mid-book. But the plot was consistent, writing was good/enjoyable. The characters were fine also.

There are a couple things I wish we had explored more, but they didn't feel frustratingly unexplored.

Perfectly fine and enjoyable read. But nothing life changing.
I've been reading lots of Sanderson lately, and I recently finished the tower of Babel series. Those are HEFTY 5 star shoes to follow. :)