The Empire's Ruin

Did I love it? Did I hate it? Was it meh? Who knows! I will be revealing my thoughts live with my friend Benghis Kahn, fellow previous-and-perhaps-continual Staveley hater, this week. Tune in next time on Dragon Ball Z!

It's been a long wait for this one(partially explained in the afterword). Brian Staveley's Unhewn Throne books helped revitalise my interest in epic fantasy after a fallow period, so I'm happy to say they're back, and as good as they've ever been.

There's a good sense of place throughout, with very evocative descriptions that put you right alongside the characters. Staveley writes great action, and isn't afraid of the old ultra violence, with a visceral glee that will get you right in the gut. There's good character work as well, with internal conversations convincingly rendered and characters developing and having an actual arc. There are flaws, but they're typical first book of a series ones. Of the three storylines, only one comes to any sort of conclusion and the others are cut off in mid flow. Almost mid-scene for one of them! And those storylines don't crossover with each other at all (yet), spare a few very minor elements, so the effect is almost like reading three short books set in the same world spliced together. I trust that by the end of the trilogy these will look like silly moans and everything will come together and resolve, but I also hope it isn't another four year wait for the next volume!