The Emperor's Blades

Well this was a waste of my life.


This is the first book I've read where I have actively wished that the multiverse was real. Because I would like to meet a version of me that read this book at the exact same time but by myself and without a discord buddy read where nearly everyone disliked or was meh on it. Then again, I'd also like to meet a version of me that just didn't read this book and read something better. Or hey, a universe where Brian Staveley wrote a good book. That'd be the ideal one.

Okay, enough with the multiverse stuff. But it should be obvious by now that this book and I didn't get along. This was a buddy read as part of Library of Allenxandria's channel read, and I was, without a doubt, influenced by the people who started before me and had negative things to say. I accept that. This book, under different circumstances, could possibly have rung a three or even, dare I say it, a 3.5 star out of my generous soul.

But it is not this day. This day we fight.

I could list all the things I didn't like, but it'd be easier to list the things I did: the fact that there was a military branch that rode giant birds was pretty metal. And the fight scenes were decent. There were a couple semi-interesting secondary characters. But Staveley's internal logic for this world almost never holds up, there were plot holes everywhere. The way he treats female characters is male gaze personified, the most interesting POV is an afterthought, the twists were very easy to call, the plot does the less interesting option almost always. The main characters are relentless tortured by their teachers to show how BRUTAL the world is, how BAD ASS they need to be to survive, and then when they survive, they are BRUTALIZED again because that's what it takes to be TOUGH. Also over half of this book is essentially training that should have been montage'd. That's what montages are for!

As a last ditch effort, I skipped 9 chapters of this book...and felt like I missed nothing.

The more I talk about this, the less I like it. I'm glad this is over.

3.5/10