The Ring of Eman Vath

I have now read two of Hal Emerson's series starters, and they're the equivalent of fantasy comfort food. They are kind of the sort of thing you can read and finish when you really don't feel much like reading, they draw you in, they give you some nice characters and an ending with familiar tropes, and they don't do much else.

I thought this one was far better than The Exile, if a little less emotionally charged. We had three stock characters: the farm girl who has magical powers, the fighting rebel with bloodlust, and a young thief who has a secretly noble parentage.

The execution of it is fine, if the exposition is a little long. Perfectly readable, in the top echelon of self published books in terms of writing. There's no reason writing-wise this couldn't be traditionally published, but the content is reminiscent of early Sanderson, about twenty years back in terms of topical trends. I will probably pick up another Emerson book if I can't figure out what to read in the future, but it's still a little too stodgy for my liking.