8.5/10

Chris Wooding is an author who I’m familiar with after the stellar Tales of the Ketty Jay series so when I saw he was venturing into classic fantasy I thought it had potential to be good but I didn’t realise I’d enjoy it as much as I did.

Classic fantasy is something that I like the idea of more than I enjoy reading it, LOTR being a classic example of something I struggle with due to some of the names and locations taking me 3 hours to pronounce. But with the style of writing on offer here I was quickly swept up into the story of two young lads in a ruled land and things turning to shit. Add in a jail break, a trip to a mysterious land and a band of merry troopers there was plenty to enjoy. The writing style flows really well and the characters are nicely fleshed out and I was blazing through the story.

It could technically be read as a stand alone but I’m glad there is another book out in the series I can jump into soon. The only part I struggled with was when they were stuck in a mysterious place being chased where the pacing slowed and felt like there were a number of nights I was reading the same thing over and over but that was only a small portion of the story overall. The rest made this a minor quibble. Happy I’ve read this and look forward to the rest of the series.

I gave this book a quick try, and ultimately decided to DNF -- my tastes have changed since I requested this. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book!

Seem to have requested this book accidentally, and no longer wish to read the novel. Rating it as 3 stars for a neutral rating.

Received from Orion Publishing Group and Netgalley for honest read and review.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one.Started off quite slow,but built from there and turned into a very good read. Aren the main character was a bit flawed in the beginning,but with all good coming of age stories,he stepped up to the plate and delivered.
All the charters very good especially the mad Druidess and a Dawnwarden....
Really good start,to what looks like a very good series.

This is a long story which manages to hold your attention from start to finish.
The characters are engaging and the story line has plenty of twists and turns.
It just leaves you wanting more.

I begun this novel and loved the early portion so completely that I immediately went and purchased my own physical copy, upon its publication, but have failed to actually continue on with it, since this time. The first quarter has ensured me that this will be a five-star read, once I do continue on, and hopefully this will be completed soon!

What an epic! I loved this book and I was so drawn in to the world it feels strange not to still be reading about Aren and Cade.
This story had multiple POVs but it’s not too jarring and confusing and most of the chapters belong to Aren and Cade.
All five stars and I hope there’s more to come!
Perfect for Robin Hobb, Brandon Sanderson and Tolkien fans

Chris Wooding’s fairy tale horror book Poison was one of my absolute favourites as a child, so I was keen to see how he’d do turning his hand to classic fantasy. Unfortunately, this one let me down, a lot…

I’m a big fan of classic swords-and-sorcery fantasy, though I prefer not to veer into the grimdark that’s been such a trend in the last ten years or so. I’m always excited when modern authors try it, because I figure they’ll be slightly more up to date on the racism and misogyny fronts than the 70s and 80s stuff, and I expect them to subvert tropes as well as utilise them. Sadly, I’ve never read such a boring fantasy as this.

Almost all of my annoyance about this book was due to the main characters, Aren and Cade. I’ve come across some eminently slappable teenage fantasy heroes in my time (Garion in Pawn of Prophecy, anyone?) but I can get past that if they a) have interesting surroundings and b) grow up a bit. Aren and Cade do not mature, at all. At the end of the book they’re still the same dumb, hero-worshipping boys, prone to sulking and stupidity. I hated them both so much. I was particularly disappointed by the conversation thrown in towards the end of the book where they decide, in a few lines, that their friendship is worth more than the girl they both have a crush on – ie, classic bros before hoes. It was patronising, and weird, considering that the events of the book are largely kickstarted by Aren’s inappropriate crush directly causing his dad to be stabbed to death. You’d think he’d maybe squash those hormones down a bit.

And that’s the thing. These characters don’t learn, and we never get much of a break from their viewpoint. Aren and Cade are dragged out of their hometown to a labour camp. They escape the labour camp only to be immediately dragged away by a mysterious band of rebels and then dragged on through various challenging circumstances to the plot climax. Then they’re dragged through the climax kicking and screaming. They do NOTHING by themselves. They are wholly useless. I would rather have read about any of the other people in the rebel gang – except they, an experienced bunch of soldiers, etc, also begin to suffer from idiot-itis when put near our heroes. One of the few female characters is a druid, and she has some cool prophecy stuff going on, hanging out with her dog and a big stick, until she turns up to join the gang, heals one of the boys, then promptly falls into a coma for pretty much the rest of the book. It was just lazy characterisation, I felt, where everyone served the plot rather than being the heroes of their own story.

And that’s the thing. This could have been so much more. The world-building is so lacking that I could only tell you the names of two places, and one of those took over the other one. There’s an outcast traveller race that play music and tell stories, and a race that tattoo themselves, speak poor English, and like to fight. There’s no exploration of the magic system – just poof, magic’s done. After a diet of Sanderson’s magic systems and Lynch’s incredible characters, this comes off feeling like the bones of a book rather than anything rich enough to enjoy. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean this was a thin book – it is rather long (824 pages in paperback). I can’t tell you much of what happened between the prison break and the final battle, because honestly, not much did – and certainly nothing to merit that page count. I’ve never been a fan of ‘faffing about in the woods’ fantasy, so this might be on me, but still.

If you’re the sort of person who loves watching stupid teenage boys be best bros and get swept along to glory kind of accidentally, then you might well love this. If you like your fantasy nuanced, feminist, or in any way clever, well, this probably isn’t your best bet. Sorry, but I’ll stick to re-reading Poison! Two out of five stars.

I'm already a huge Chris Wooding fan and this book has only reaffirmed how much I love his work. Brilliant prose, characters so great you just want to spend time with them and a roaring adventure that was always throwing up something new. I couldn't get enough and I'm so pleased there's a second book on the way.

Set in fantasy world with echoes of our own, The Ember Blade is part of the Darkwater Legacy and is one of the most enjoyable pieces of fantasy writing I have had the pleasure to read in some time. The story centres around Aren, a young man living in a country under occupation.

Raised to believe that the occupiers, the Krodans, are superior and that he should emulate them, he is in for a rude awakening when his Father’s past catches up with him.

He finds himself with a band of rebels seeking to regain control of their country’s most sacred relic; The Ember Blade.

This novel was wonderful to read. It reads easily, with good sentence length and vocabulary and a fair pace, but isn’t heavy like so many in the genre can be.

It’s almost like a Young Adult novel which has grown up and lost the “adults are idiots, kids can save the world” undertones which dominate that genre.

I found myself drawn in and empathising with the characters quite quickly, seeing aspects of myself in Aren and his best friend Cade.

I don’t want to give too much away, but there are Druids and demons and various races all rolled together into a smooth flowing narrative.

I am really looking forward to reading the next part of this series and I think I may have found another author to add to my favourites list.

We’ve been fans of Chris’s previous work at SFFWorld for a long while – from The Fade (2007) to his steampunk/bucklepunk series of the Ketty Jay trilogy (2009 – 2013), there’s been a lot we’ve liked.

After a science-fictional YA trilogy, this is Chris’s return to more traditional Fantasy fare – his first since The Braided Path series (2003 – 2005) – and there’s a lot for Fantasy fans to like.

But there’s a big caveat to begin with.

The story begins on very traditional ground.

From the publisher: “Aren has lived by the rules all his life. He’s never questioned it; that’s just the way things are. But then his father is executed for treason, and he and his best friend Cade are thrown into a prison mine, doomed to work until they drop. Unless they can somehow break free . . .

But what lies beyond the prison walls is more terrifying still. Rescued by a man who hates him yet is oath-bound to protect him, pursued by inhuman forces, Aren slowly accepts that everything he knew about his world was a lie. The rules are not there to protect him, or his people, but to enslave them. A revolution is brewing, and Aren is being drawn into it, whether he likes it or not.

The key to the revolution is the Ember Blade. The sword of kings, the Excalibur of his people. Only with the Ember Blade in hand can their people be inspired to rise up . . . but it’s locked in an impenetrable vault in the most heavily guarded fortress in the land.

All they have to do now is steal it .”

I must admit that I did wonder whether I was going to last the distance when I started reading The Ember Blade. Though undeniably well-written, the initial set up felt like typically Tolkien-esque fare. So much of it was similar to things I’ve read many, many times before.

Even fairly new fans of fantasy are going to recognise similarities between this and other work. Aren could be Frodo, with loyal Cade his Sam. Like many other plots, there’s a quest, but this time for a legendary sword, the Ember Blade, not a ring, where the heroes and heroines of our story have to get the sword. As the story develops we meet others that seem familiar – rebel leader Garrick could be Aragorn, a fighter with a secret past, and there’s a degree of mystical flim-flam with Vika-Who-Walks-the Barrows, a druidess with connections to ‘the old ways’…. a female Gandalf, albeit with a loveable and faithful canine companion. Grub is a rough ill-mannered character that kept making me think of Shrek, though perhaps less green.

For the bad guys, the key antagonist, Klyssen, feels like he’s wandered in from Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the addition of an evil side-kick who has personal ambition and a lust for punishment rather than justice. Their minions, the Black Riders of the story, are the dreadknights, who chase our heroes in the hope of capturing them and no doubt doing evil things. (There’s a torture scene at the beginning to emphasise how bad the evil guys are.) They are nasty, but nothing we’ve not seen before.

It further doesn’t help that, moving away from the archetype characters, there’s a number of set pieces that reminded me of other books – a flight through the vast house of Skavengard brought back thoughts of the mines of Moria, for example, albeit a bit less dark. There’s battles across bridges, dashes through passageways, struggles in water and fights on dining tables, all of which are done well, but…. nothing new.

By about a third of way in (c. 250 pages) I was struggling, so disappointed that I was seriously considering dropping the book for something more… unique. I felt that I had read something like it before, lots of times.

Of course, what Chris is doing here is settling readers in quickly and making the reader feel comfortable by focussing on standard characters and settings. Because they are recognisable, there is little time needed getting the reader to work out who they are, what is going on and where. There’s no mistaking that there’s a pace and drive, but managed by following a familiar path.

Once the reader is pretty much resigned into expecting the expected, about half-way through the book – remember, this is after about 400 pages – there’s an abrupt left-turn. Where Tolkien’s story moved from the bucolic rural environment of The Shire to etherial Lothlorien and then the extremes in the mountains of Mordor, here Aren, Cade and the rest of our heroes and heroines have escaped to the Ossian city of Morgenholme, where The Ember Blade is expected to be, and we meet new characters in a new environment. We now feel that we’re into an urban environment, with dark, dirty streets, poverty, disease and original inventions.

And we’re also privy to the real purpose of the story: to obtain The Ember Blade before it is given, in an act of subjugation, to the Krodans. The last part of the book is a heist story, with the eclectic group attempting to get The Ember Blade from the hands of the Krodans and generate a revolution amongst the oppressed Ossians.

The good news is that this last part of the book is on firmer ground. I was pleased that at times our assumptions, used to delimit our original caricatures, suddenly become more complicated. Some of the bad guys are not as bad as we first thought and some of our heroes are given greater depth and a more complicated aspect. The story eventually becomes, in places, something richer, more complex and more gripping. By the end, it is actually an exciting read. Although there is a now-typical cliff-hanger ending, there is enough resolution to make the reader feel that the journey (so far) has been worth it.

And yet….

Chris is clearly a skilful writer, and there’s clearly been a lot of work in putting this together. Any reader wanting the challenge of a big Fat Fantasy will relish such a read and realise from the beginning that The Ember Blade is a story for the long haul. It must be said that by the end I felt that it is an immersive experience, if you give it time to develop. If that is what you want, then this is a satisfying read, building from traditional tropes into a series of set pieces that read well, although not always working well together.

In summary, I’m pleased to have spent time reading The Ember Blade, but in the end I can’t help feeling a little underwhelmed. It’s good, but I have to say that it didn’t wow me as much as say, the complexity of The Fade or the energy of The Ketty Jay series did. It seems to be determined to be more like older style Fantasy books – more Raymond Feist’s Magician, than say, Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade itself, although The Ember Blade is quite messy in places.

The problem with it is that as much as I appreciate a Fantasy novel that is determined to be old-school and not Grimdark, it also has to bring a little of something new to the table as well for today’s demanding readers. Trying to do this by writing a big fat Fantasy is admirable but not entirely successful here. Length does not always equal depth, and this may also be the problem. I think that there’s much that you could remove here and make it a tighter, possibly better, novel. As much as I’d like to say different, I’m not sure this book ticks all the boxes, though the last part shows the reader what could be done. If you can stick with it until the end, it’s an enjoyable read.

In my recent review of Otherearth I talked a little about teenage boy protagonists and how I’m very rarely the biggest fan of them, which is an unhelpful way of phrasing the fact that I relate more to female protagonists than I do to male ones, that’s just me. So with that in mind, there’s obviously going to be a fair amount of subjectivity in this review, that’s somewhat unavoidable if I want to be honest. I did, however, truly feel that anyone reading this book, even those used to teenage boy protagonists, would have got frustrated at these two. It was the problem that many characters face, that many readers get frustrated by and that I simply cannot abide – the ‘just talk to each other conundrum’. In all seriousness, the majority of the dilemmas these characters faced (and I don’t just mean Aren and Cade, I mean everyone) could have been solved or at the very least lessened if people stopped holding on to secrets for no apparent reason. So, that fact, coupled with the moments where these characters would lust after one of the pretty cool female characters in the story just didn’t endear them to me, which is something of a hindrance when you’ve got to get through almost 800 pages.

The length was actually my main problem with this book. Granted, I’m not one to usually read 700+ page books, I know others are, so it’s something of an adjustment for me. But I am of the opinion that something that long had better either be rich in worldbuilding and detail or have a lot of plot in it, and this didn’t really feel like it had enough of either to justify the length. Yes there was a plot there, but if you asked me to recount the events of the book I don’t think I’d need more than half a sheet of A4, and yes there was worldbuilding, but it was nowhere near as detailed as some authors have achieved in much shorter books. The fact that Cade and Aren spend around 200 pages (or at least it felt that way) for want of a better word ‘pissing about in a cave’ before the story really gets started is enough to tell you about the excessiveness of this book.

I will say that this book does pick up towards the end, it was worth persevering through for the final moments. It turns into something of a heist novel and I found those parts of the story deeply satisfying, so maybe if you have a copy of this book you could skip through to the last third or so and read that first? It’s an unconventional way of reading, I’ll grant you, but it will let you read the actually quite good parts of this story.

As I say, there are some great moments, and there are some great characters (Aren and Cade are neither of the great characters just FYI) but the sheer length of this and the amount of, what feels like, filler didn’t truly capture me. Perhaps someone who more frequently reads these kinds of fantasy books might find it a prime example of the genre, for me it didn’t quite hit the mark.

My rating: 3/5 stars

I received a free digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I fell in love with Chris Wooding's writing because of his extremely fun steampunky series, Tales of the Ketty Jay. I love all the main characters, their quirks, their badassery, their shortcomings, warts and all. And most of all, I like the camaraderie of these misfits. The sad parts also shook me to the core. Hell, I even had one of my favorite fantasy 'ships in it.

Ergo, I had such high expectation when I started reading The Ember Blade, thinking I'd get the same quirky, memorable, fun, gut-wrenching fantasy. I did not. The Ember Blade is apparently a more traditional take of fantasy, one of those epic tales of young boys uprooted from their hometowns to embark in a grand adventure, involving a Ring, nope, Blade of Power. Yeah, I know what you're thinking.

It turned out not that bad. The world building was quite good, it has a strong theme of colonization of this Nazi-German-like empire and the political & societal impact to their conquered neighbors. I am a sucker of rebellion story and this one fits me. I also liked most of the female characters especially the druidess with kickass magic and her dog companion.

Nevertheless, I did not feel any connection to the main characters and the plots bored me. The lengthy travelogue, angsty YA outbursts spiced with a love triangle, and the ever-increasing number of their fellowship (they reached number nine at some point) did not help at all. I just did not care of what happened next. Except to the druidess and her dog. Why can't this book just about them?

Overall, the book is perfect for those in favor of traditional fantasy, coming-of-age tales, the staples of the genre. I am sure many of my friends here will enjoy it.

Anyway, I have still three Wooding books to read after this. They're YA/middle grade so I'll be better prepared.

Thank you @Gollancz and @orionbooks for the review opportunity

I had dangerously high expectations when I started reading this book. Chris Wooding is one of my favourite writers, I have a major soft spot for anything influenced by Arthurian legend, and it's been an age since I've read a good old-fashioned epic fantasy that's really caught my imagination. "The Ember Blade" exceeded my expectations.

There's all the aspects you'd expect from a traditional old school fantasy, a rag-tag group of disparate people on a quest, who you become attached to very quickly. All the worse as Chris Wooding is definitely not afraid to kill his darlings: at least two of the deaths were really upsetting because you thought they were safe, but then something came to stop their plans, and there's a rather gnarly suicide scene. But it's the innovations which really captured my imagination: the moments focusing on the Krotan bad guys and humanizing them added a lot to the story; the skarl culture of deeds being tattooed onto their skin so their stories are not forgotten in death; the upsetting subtext of what seems to be happening to the Sards as the Ossians fight for freedom. Yeah, swapping character viewpoints a lot makes the story go slower in places, but I found those alternate viewpoints added to the emotion in certain scenes and it made me care a lot about all the characters, because I'd got to know all of them well.

This isn't just a fantasy quest novel, though it definitely delivers in that region (one sequence in particular definitely put me in mind of the mines of Moria). This is the story of rebellion. All the little nods and explorations into what it is like living under an occupied regime are just brilliant, so I especially enjoyed Mara and Aran's character development for those reasons. I can't wait for the next book in the trilogy!

This book sadly isn't for me. I really like a good epic fantasy however somehow I couldn't get into this story. There is too much going on in the first 5% (which took long to read, as this is a hell of a book)
The writing isn't bad and I don't want to fault the book, but somehow I couldn't flesh out the characters and the story didn't engage me to kept going into this giant of a book. Thanks for this copy, just not for me.

One of the best fantasy books I've read in years. An instant classic! - My view. I have attached the below reviews of 2 of my reviewers who I sourced the book for. I would rate it similarly but I don't think I could add much to their opinions. I will do a mini-review on Goodreads and have spread a great amount of positive information. Good luck with the launch.

Book of the Month

773 pages. 2 days to read. 1 review to write.

On a day that changes his life forever, Aren sees his father knifed to death in the dining room of their own home by a watchman of the Iron Hand, inquisitors who deal with only the gravest threats to the Krodan Empire. Removed to a prison mine with his best friend, Cade, his conviction that somehow the vaunted Krodan justice he was raised to have total faith in will soon remedy their situation is chipped away by the brutal indifference he finds there. Getting out only proves that his life was built on foundations of falsity and betrayal. So far, so normal, right? Let’s be honest now, the blurb doesn’t sound entirely inspiring. But in a perfect example of how to under promise and over deliver, what you might think you’re getting is a typical, somewhat out-dated, young man on a quest to find himself and save the world, and what you’re actually getting is a complex, morally ambiguous, cleverly told story that has 773 pages feeling like something over way too soon.

Picture, if you will, the great works of fantasy in the form of battered warriors, stood shoulder to shoulder, stretching into the past in a line unbreaking. In The Ember Blade, we see echoes of them all: traces in a place, a name, or the fundamentals of character, in the heroic nature of the quest, the prison break, the destiny chased, or the you-shall-not-pass moment. There’s so much in this new arrival that feels like them, but it is no bastard child. Instead, this warrior steps up to take his place beside them, inspired by what came before and offering a respectful and loving ode to their skills, while proving his own worth in every word and deed. And he’s going to do with with a wink and a smile, no less.

What’s history but a series of lessons we didn’t learn?

The Krodan Empire has an obvious connection to the Roman, bringing ‘peace’ to their neighbours by the sword in their own version of the Pax Romana. It reminds us that these conflicts are not only fancies of the author’s mind; the detailed interconnections between the two Empires enhance the veracity of the narrative, one example, of many, is the Krodan religious conversion to the Sword and the Word harking to Constantine’s conversion to Christanity. The book owes as much to Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as anything else and acts as a warning from without: all things change. As in the regions of Roman conquest, the Krodan invasion of Ossia, thirty years past, has left the population deeply divided, each person having an intensely individual response to the occupation, from collaboration to outright revolt. Aren, son a noble made rich by cooperation, is Ossian born, but raised in the Krodan style, conditioned to respect their culture, laws, and religion, while Cade is lower born and Ossian through and through. After all, the struggling classes have a much greater distance from Krodan influence, it’s much more important to indoctrinate those in society who are powerful or useful. If this seems simplistic, it’s because it’s only the set up, there to lull you into a false sense of superiority. As you keep reading you notice that every character has a nuanced, personal, layered, and complicated set of ideas about their country, the occupation, their fellow citizens, the Krodans (as individuals and as a group), the Sards (a traveller/gypsy community), the wrongs of the past, and what should be done about the future. And they change with experiences and new information, making mistakes along the way. The author makes sure that humanity = complexity, it’s exceptionally done.

The modern has its place too. Literary wise, what’s most evident is the kind of subversion of expectations, undermining of heroic ideals, and crushing of hopes that is most often associated with grimdark. And yet, the overarching feeling is far from that, not grimdark but grim reality. Characters are far from perfect, often driven by baser emotions: bitterness, greed, jealousy, pride, fear, despair. It’s a world full of false ideologies and petty resentments, people who aim for misunderstanding instead of acceptance. The group itself is tested by its individualism- it’s no immediate band of brothers, but people with their own fears and secrets, together for convenience and necessity. They have to grow into a team, but the fact that they do, even if it takes the whole book, sets it apart from the truly grim. Honour, friendship, and oaths have value in this world, for some. Even so, there are no real white knights or black hats; a champion might have a racist aversion to the Sards and a torturer might love his family above everything. High ideals are tested, and qualified, again and again. They're well and good in theory, but when a character is forced to make choices that pits lofty ideas against the lives of their family and friends, the ‘right’ answer is less clear cut. Each character’s thoughts and actions raise questions about their personal morality, allowing you, if you dare, to truly understand who you are as such as who they really are. There’s so much in here about the use and misuse of power, slavery, racism, truth and lies that it could read as a primer for the ethical questions of contemporary society. The most important in the book is probably: what makes a hero? Modern translation: what do you, or what should you, fight for? There are some answers here, if not definitive ones. The author never allows the reader to be comfortable with assumptions or easy labels, whether you’re a freedom fighter or terrorist is frequently a matter of perspective.

When it comes to the mechanics of the writing and plot, the author has it down pat. It’s clever and challenging, but also funny. Scenes switch between intimacy and humour and horror and back again with an unsettling rapidity that feels like anything can happen. Nobody is safe. Especially when the Dreadknights turn up. The second half is somewhat slower, as more perspectives are added, and the action-packed journey sequences switch to a greater focus on themes and character development. But the explosive finale has more than enough bang for anyone. The rousing ending has the greatest appeal to classic epic fantasy- a group forged in blood and betrayal, bonded by their oaths to do what needs to be done against any and all odds. I, for one, stand with them. This is the fantasy book we’ve all been waiting for.

ARC via publisher. Thank you to Stevie Finegan and Gollancz.

9.7 / 10 - Emma Davis

I’ll cut to the quick: Chris Wooding’s The Ember Blade is one of the best starts to an epic fantasy series that I’ve ever read. This book is a massive 800-page tome, yet it stays economical in its scope. It is a story filled with thoughtful insights, rousing battles, tense chase scenes, richly drawn characters, and tender moments of friendship and loss. It is a coming of age story, a desperate act of revolution, a struggling morality play, and a meditation on family and loyalty. And above all, it is a story of hope and determination, and the sacrifices made to change the course of a nation.

After the first half of the book focuses on outward conflict, the story shifts focus towards the interpersonal relationships amongst the group. This is really when the book begins to shine: the friendships feel natural and lifelike, but Wooding really excels at depicting broken relationships within the group. There is pure hatred and strife between several of the characters, yet all sides of these relationships feel justified. Each character's journey is given ample time to breathe and grow, and it was incredibly satisfying to see how far our group has come over the course of the story. There are no less than 11 protagonists in our group of heroes, plus some additional side characters that help give depth to other side of the conflict, and no one is neglected from their time in the spotlight. One of the more satisfying decisions I encountered was how Wooding sometimes chose to tell a chapter's story through the eyes of a secondary character, instead of the person who's is the central figure at the moment. We're able to still view the major events of the chapter, but we also learn how the actions affect others in the group, and what emotions and reactions their decisions have influenced.

In most of my book reviews, I like to share some semblance of the plot: describing the main characters, or the overall conflict that's driving the story forward. I will not do that here. I think it will be most rewarding if you go into this book completely blind and let the author piece together this world in your mind. Wooding has woven a tale that perfectly balances a wide cast of engaging, lifelike characters, set inside a richly-developed world that you experience through the characters' eyes.

This is an all-ages fantasy tale with more than a few instances of adult themes. There are traumatic moments that are gleaned from scenes of emotional turmoil as much as character deaths. I audibly gasped several times during the Misson Impossible-style finale that covered the final 200 pages of the story. And when I turned the final page, wiping a curious amount of wetness around my eyes, I felt a deep sense satisfaction and gratification of a story brilliantly told. This is only the first volume of a planned trilogy, but it also functions as an incredible standalone work of fantasy. In short, The Ember Blade is everything I could possibly want in an epic fantasy novel, and so much more. Buy this book as soon as it is available.

9.5 / 10 - Adam Weller

A land under occupation. A legendary sword. A young man’s journey to find his destiny.

Aren has lived by the rules all his life. He’s never questioned it; that’s just the way things are. But then his father is executed for treason, and he and his best friend Cade are thrown into a prison mine, doomed to work until they drop. Unless they can somehow break free.

But what lies beyond the prison walls is more terrifying still. Rescued by a man who hates him yet is oath-bound to protect him, pursued by inhuman forces, Aren slowly accepts that everything he knew about his world was a lie. The rules are not there to protect him, or his people, but to enslave them. A revolution is brewing, and Aren is being drawn into it, whether he likes it or not.

The key to the revolution is the Ember Blade. The sword of kings, the Excalibur of his people. Only with the Ember Blade in hand can their people be inspired to rise up . . . but it’s locked in an impenetrable vault in the most heavily guarded fortress in the land. All they have to do now is steal it. . .

The Krodan Empire has occupied Ossia for decades. The native people have been forced to accept the outsider’s rule, or suffer swift and often violent retribution. There are few, however, who refuse to believe that their country is lost. They seek a symbol that will act as a rallying call to all of Ossia. Can a legendary sword, the Ember Blade, be used to free a nation from its captors?

Aren and Cade live in the small coastal town of Shoal Point. They have never known anything other than Krodan regime. Aren is the son of a merchant, well-educated and, for an Ossian, quite well off. Cade is a carpenter’s son. Though opposites, the two have been firm friends from a young age. Aren is the thinker while Cade is more demonstrative. Aren makes plans and is prone to introspection, while Cade is impulsive and outgoing. They complement one another perfectly.

When Aren suffers a family tragedy, the two young friends are forced to leave their old lives behind. They are drawn into a desperate plan that will decide not only the fate of nations, but of humanity as a whole.

Aren and Cade meet a whole host of characters on their journey. The Ember Blade is a true ensemble piece. When it came to the characterisation, I was reminded of vintage David Eddings. There is a gruff warrior who is about as secretive as you can get, a straight-laced honour-bound knight, a mystical (and often enigmatic) druid, a talented bard and a highly skilled ranger. All pretty standard fantasy fare, but Wooding executes each character flawlessly. I was able to picture each of them easily thanks to the evocative writing. My personal favourite was a self-absorbed, heavily tattooed thief called Grub. Crude and totally lacking anything close to subtly, it is quite clear that in his own mind Grub is the hero of the adventure. Makes sense, he comes from a culture where mighty deeds denote standing. The more ink he has, the more heroic feats he has accomplished. Grub’s character could easily have been two dimensional, but Wooding makes him far more intriguing than that. Grub is a little bit sleazy and wonderfully ill-mannered. He also talks about himself constantly in the third person, a clear sign of an over inflated ego. Needless to say, I warmed to him immediately. The author has real skill when it comes to making his characters memorable.

The Ember Blade is epic fantasy with capital E. The story explores the politics of occupation at ground level. Aren and Cade are thrust into a plot that is bubbling over with revolution and insurrection. Ossia has been under the yoke of its tyrannical neighbour for too long. The country is a powder keg that just needs one single act of defiance to awake a sleeping giant*. It makes The Ember Blade quite the immersive experience. I got so caught up in the relentless action, the writing even managed me to make me exclaim out loud “Oh no!” after reading one of the more dramatic scenes. I should stress that very rarely happens. I think the author deserves additional credit for this achievement. If you like your fantasy on a grand scale, then I can guarantee The Ember Blade is the novel for you.

One thing, there is no getting around the fact that The Ember Blade is an enormous book. Goodreads tells me it clocks in at approximately eight hundred pages long. There are one hundred and eight chapters for goodness sake! I’m fortunate, I was lucky enough to read an electronic copy. Those not wishing to suffer a potential wrist injury may wish to pursue this option if possible. I’m sorry that the rest of you are going to end up with forearms like Popeye.

My soundtrack recommendation to accompany The Ember Blade is Morrowind by Jeremy Soule. Its suitably stirring fantasy fare that compliments a suitably stirring fantasy novel. Simple really.

The Ember Blade is published on 20th September by Gollancz. I’m looking forward to book two in The Darkwater Legacy already. Book one was an absolute blinder. Highly recommended.

*Not a literal giant, a metaphorical one. Just wanted to clarify, it is a fantasy novel after all. Who knows, perhaps there will be actual giants in book two?

A young hero emerging into adulthood, a band of plucky adventurers uniting against an oppressive Empire, a talismanic weapon, an enormous page count....Chris Wooding's latest is a throwback to the classic fantasy I devoured in the 80s, your Belgariads and your Riftwars. But that's not to say it's deaf to the changes in the genre since then. There's an element of grimdark fierceness and a willingness to embrace shades of grey rather than a straightahead good/evil divide, but at its core this is good old fashioned epic fantasy. It's not difficult to spot the influences and antecedents (one lengthy scene is almost a rewrite of Moria), but Wooding makes it work with energy and brio, and his story is engaging and engrossing. It's a big book that doesn't feel like a big book, and it makes for great comfort reading. It's not challenging or groundbreaking, but it is a lot of fun.

(I am docking it a star for being too eager to use the woman as nagging shrew trope, mind you. We can do better than that these days)

This was a good book, but something just didn't quite work for me personally. Although the characters are well written, I wasn't invested in them and found the main character to be quite frustrating at times. The world building was good and the plot was well thought out. It was perhaps a little bit longer than it could have been though. Overall it was good but maybe not for me at this time. It's very much a case of it's not you, it's me. I would recommend checking this book out if you are a big fantasy reader, especially coming of age fantasy stories.

I’ll cut to the quick: Chris Wooding’s “The Ember Blade” is one of the best starts to an epic fantasy series that I’ve ever read. This book is a massive 800-page tome, yet it stays economical in its scope. It is a story filled with thoughtful insights, rousing battles, tense chase scenes, richly drawn characters, and tender moments of friendship and loss. It is a coming of age story, a desperate act of revolution, a struggling morality play, and a meditation on family and loyalty. And above all, it is a story of hope and determination, and the sacrifices made to change the course of a nation.

After the first half of the book focuses on outward conflict, the story shifts focus towards the interpersonal relationships amongst the group. This is really when the book begins to shine: the friendships feel natural and lifelike, but Wooding really excels at depicting broken relationships within the group. There is pure hatred and strife between several of the characters, yet all sides of these relationships feel justified. Each character's journey is given ample time to breathe and grow, and it was incredibly satisfying to see how far our group has come over the course of the story. There are no less than 11 protagonists in our group of heroes, plus some additional side characters that help give depth to other side of the conflict, and no one is neglected from their time in the spotlight. One of the more satisfying decisions I encountered was how Wooding sometimes chose to tell a chapter's story through the eyes of a secondary character, instead of the person who's is the central figure at the moment. We're able to still view the major events of the chapter, but we also learn how the actions affect others in the group, and what emotions and reactions their decisions have influenced.

In most of my book reviews, I like to share some semblance of the plot: describing the main characters, or the overall conflict that's driving the story forward. I will not do that here. I think it will be most rewarding if you go into this book completely blind and let the author piece together this world in your mind. Wooding has woven a tale that perfectly balances a wide cast of engaging, lifelike characters, set inside a richly-developed world that you experience through the characters' eyes.

This is an all-ages fantasy tale with more than a few instances of adult themes. There are traumatic moments that are gleaned from scenes of emotional turmoil as much as character deaths. I audibly gasped several times during the Misson Impossible-style finale that covered the final 200 pages of the story. And when I turned the final page, wiping a curious amount of wetness around my eyes, I felt a deep sense satisfaction and gratification of a story brilliantly told. This is only the first volume of a planned trilogy, but it also functions as an incredible standalone work of fantasy. In short, "The Ember Blade" is everything I could possibly want in an epic fantasy novel, and so much more. Buy this book as soon as it is available.

9.5 / 10