Having read The Ketty Jay series by Chris Wooding I couldn't wait to read The Ember Blade. It's an epic fantasy that has an old school vibe to it. It's fast paced, action packed with lots of twists and turns - I forgot to breathe on more than one occasion.
I loved the characters and look forward to catching up with them in the next adventure.

Wooding strikes a magnificently fine balance between classic epic fantasy and grimdark fantasy and is a magnificent start to a new trilogy.

To be honest, I feel like the love for classic fantasy has started to dwindle these days and has been replaced with a thirst for grimdark or fantasy with darker tones; most likely due to the fame garnered by the Game of Thrones TV show. This isn’t actually a bad thing, and I have to say that I kind of feel the same. The reason behind this is that classic fantasy is starting to feel too familiar with the majority of books following the same kind of good versus evil structure that’s getting more and more predictable. Reading classic fantasy now is in my opinion like coming home to something incredibly well known; it’s always comfy and you’re highly familiar with it. Readers want new adventures, something unpredictable and fresh, not the same kind of adventures they’ve already experienced time and time again. This is where The Ember Blade will come in and change your mind. Rooted heavily in classic epic fantasy but imbued with the element of the morally grey character found in grimdark Wooding has created a hybrid in this book and the result was amazing. Imagine coming home and there are pleasant surprises to be found; you open your fridge, crack open an egg and you get two yolks instead of one. That’s how it felt reading this book.

The Ember Blade storyline started as highly inspired by typical classic fantasy tropes, with two teenage boys—Aren and Cade—encountering an event that would soon change their lives forever. However, I can guarantee you that 10% in, you’ll soon realize that the story starts to differ from the norm and keeps on getting better. It was gripping, well-paced, and unpredictable. The first half was full of dangers for the main characters and honestly speaking, I’m usually not a fan of this kind of storytelling structure; I prefer characterizations first and dangers later. I don’t mind how slow-paced the book is, because I need to care about the characters first and foremost. This is another great example of why Wooding’s storytelling was surprisingly wonderful to read for me. Despite all the dangers in which he placed the characters in the first half, he made sure to not neglect any characterizations here and there that made me truly care about the characters’ predicament. Where the first half focused majorly on Aren and Cade, the second half of the book slowed down the pacing by introducing a more detailed and well-executed multi-perspectives narration; this made EVERY single character compelling to read. I have to admit that some parts in the first half, where the characters were in Skavengard, went a bit too long for me due to the lack of familiarity and characterizations with the new set of characters that were introduced there, but the second half of the book made up for this minor issue masterfully.

I haven’t read any of Wooding’s work before this, but if his characterizations are as good as those in this book, then I’ll have to make sure to get his preceding series; characterizations always make or break any book, and those I found here definitely made the book shine for me. The characters’ fluctuating emotions and motivations could truly be felt; they were realistic, nuanced, and complex. What made it even better was that the grimdark element ensured that none of the characters were truly what they seemed at first. These characters, and I mean ALL characters with perspectives, were incredibly complex. As good or bad as they may seem, they have their own problems and agendas to deal with. The morally grey characters resulted in a very gripping narrative because it was difficult to predict what the characters would do. The execution of the situation where we as the readers know their backgrounds, thoughts, and secrets while the other characters didn’t was, in a word: greatness.

“To speak from the heart required more bravery than any physical risk. To heal a wound was so much harder than to cause one.”

Although the characters at times were morally grey, this doesn’t mean that it was hard to love them; it was actually very easy to love these characters. The way I perceived it, Wooding placed the heaviest value in this book on friendship and honor. Aren and Cade’s brotherhood for one became one of the strongest driving factors of the book for me. Wooding really knows how to create a situation that will keep the reader coming back to the questions: “will they come back from this?” or “will he/she do it?” and I couldn’t be happier with it.

“A friendship of half a lifetime shouldn’t be broken by a few harsh words.”

Let me say once again that this isn’t a grimdark book. It’s a classic epic fantasy told in a modern narrative to which was added some of the aspects of the morally grey character from the grimdark genre; the tone of the book itself was never bleak. The characters do live in a grim and oppressive world but the themes of hope, kindness, and grand adventure contained in your beloved classic fantasy were always there to balance things out.

“In her lessons, as in life, they’d often find themselves dealt a hand that was less than fair. She’d teach them to overcome a disadvantage any way they could.”

From the excellent characterizations to the relentless chase, from breathtaking set pieces to the intricate world-building, everything was written with finesse. It seriously doesn’t matter whether you’re a fan of classic, epic, or grimdark fantasy (even better if all three), there’s a place for you here. The Ember Blade is a book every fantasy fan will feel right at home with, and yet will find new adventures in it. It's a book that fantasy readers will love to revisit and inhabit longer and longer with every visit. The Ember Blade has been forged to stand the test of time and I sincerely hope you'll wield the blade yourself.

The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

A story of a legendary sword and a country forced to accept the doctrines of another country that has tried to obliterate their society’s religion and culture. A recipe for bloodshed and revolution. Aren is from a privileged backround and Cade iwho is from a more impoverish life are fast friends. The two friends find themselves incarcerated and forced to work in a mine after the execution of Aren’s father.. Aren begins to see what Cade has known all of his life that the occupiers believe if you are not one of them, noble family or not you are worthless.
Aren doesn’t know what to believe anymore. The two friends escape from the prison compound and are forced to bring with them the abominable Grub whom they would rather have left behind. The escape seems to be rather like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. We are gradually introduced to other characters some good and some decidedly evil. Lies deceit and revenge loom on the horizon leaving Aren unsure who to trust or what to believe is true.
Followed by dark forces Aren is convinced that the only course is for him and his companions to at least attempt to retrieve the legendary Ember Blade which is the symbol of his country and would unite his people in an effort to oust the invaders. A diverse collection of characters which interact well and excellent worldbuilding. Having read previous novels by Chris Wooding which I enjoyed immensely I feel this is written in a slightly different style. It is not written from one point of view but from several. What seems as the usual plot line of a country under occupation , a legendary sword and a fight for freedom is given life and pace. Looking forward to more of the same.

ARC copy provided by Netgalley. All opinions are my own
The Ember Blade is a very ambitious novel and that is both a good and a bad thing. It is trying to be an epic fantasy novel in the vein of Tolkien and it does have a retro feel when viewed alongside more contemporary fantasy novels, which feels strange and refreshing at the same time. The plot is very simple: it’s an adventure story at its heart. It’s about a young man coming of age, realising the world is not all that it seems and joining a gang of rebellious men and women who want to change the world. It’s simple yet effective.

The two main strengths of The Ember Blade are its characters and its world building. Aren is a good protagonist and Wooding takes his time to introduce him and allows the reader to get to know him before the plot kicks off. He also does this with Cade, Aren’s best friend. This makes both characters incredibly sympathetic as their worlds are torn apart and Aren realises that his entire upbringing has been a lie. Of all the characters, Aren is my favourite. He undergoes so much in the first hundred pages that I found myself bonding with him quite quickly. Aren was born to an Ossian but raised a Krodan after his father “sold out” so to speak and accepted Krodan rule. The journey Aren goes though is the heart of the story and he was the most likeable character. As for the others, most of them were also enjoyable and, if not completely likeable, interesting. Vika, a druidess, was a very intriguing character, mysterious and fascinating. The members of Garric’s gang were also well written and I especially liked the insight into Keel’s family life. The only character I wasn’t overly fond of was Garric. His pig headed insistence that Aren was somehow responsible for what happened with Garric and Aren’s father was really annoying to me for quite a lot of the book. The other characters kept saying how honourable he was but his treatment of Aren was anything but. Also, Garric is the epitome of honour before reason which is what gets them into a lot of trouble in the first place. He does improve later in the books once you find out his backstory but I still didn’t like his attitude early on in the novel. On the whole, though, the characters were well written, well realised and felt realistic.

The world building is the other aspect of The Ember Blade that I really enjoyed. Wooding has created a very rich world with a deep back story and a huge vein of discontent. I will be the first to admit that I love a story where a revolution is brewing and this is what drew me to this story. I like reading about how the Krodan invaders subjugated the Ossians and how they have treated them over the last thirty years. There has obviously been a lot of thought put into he creation of this world. I loved that aspect of the story.

The thing that surprised me most about The Ember Blade was the length. I was not expecting it to be so long and, in some ways, that works to its detriment. I can see what Wooding was trying to do, he wanted to write something epic in the vein of Tolkien but there were too many parts of this book that felt fillerish. Scenes go on far too long and they don’t feel like that they add anything to the overall story. At over 700 pages, it is simply too long. It would have been better to have been a shorter story and concentrated more on the quest rather than padding out the page count with overly long filler scenes. It starts very well and from page 500 onwards, I was absolutely hooked and didn’t want to put it down once the pace picked up; it is just the middle section that could have used trimming down. If The Ember Blade had been a couple of hundred pages shorter then it would have been an excellent read rather than just a good one.

On the whole, I enjoyed most of The Ember Blade. The characters were well realised and the story was an interesting concept. The execution of the novel, however, was not perfect. It was too long and the pacing was sometimes a little off. I did enjoy the plot, though, and it ends in a way that makes me want to keep reading what happens next.

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

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