The Ember Blade (The Darkwater Legacy)

Product Information

Overall, this was still very enjoyable for me and I can’t wait to continue on to the next book. I highly recommend this for fantasy readers who like traditional fantasy stories, but want one with a more modern twist. Cade is a good character but the author didn't devel

In this story, the Ossian way of life is fading and the Dachen way is taking its place and Aren is comfortable with that. Even when his parents are accused of treason he supports the establishment and maintains there's been some mistake . . . which is all it takes to get himself and his best friend arrested . . . 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. All of these people end up coming together and forming a rag tag team. Okay, they are not rag tag, well, Grub could be rag tag all on his own =) I love him so much! Hellhole Prison: The work camp at Suller's Bluff is little better than a death sentence, since the prisoners are forced to work to exhaustion because the Krodans figure its cheaper to get fresh prisoners than it is to properly feed or rest the ones already there. And that doesn't go into the the fact that the mineral they're mining produces a highly combustible oil byproduct that can trigger massive explosions in the mines with little to no warning.The Caper: The entire third act of the novel features the implementation of the plan to steal the Ember Blade from the fortress of Hammerholt on the eve of a Royal Wedding. 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.” For example, we have a couple of characters, Kade being one of them that offer a sense of humour to the situation and a character who comes along later who goes from being despised to a loveable character who you won’t be able to help yourself from loving by the end. Lady and Knight: Orica and Harod. She is the Bright Lady (albeit not an aristocat) but Harod has vowed to protect her. He takes her death hard. The Krodan Empire is a fantasy Expy of Nazi Germany, with an stereotypical Aryan phenotype, an obsession with rules and regulations, a brutal secret police, and is rounding up an ethnic minority into concentration camps and carrying out a genocide against them.

Fantasy Gun Control: Partially averted. Even though firearms don't exist in the setting, Xulan military engineers have been known to dabble in explosives as siege weapons and Garric's true plan revolves around using a dozen barrels of elarite oil (a dangerous byproduct of elarite mining) as a make-shift bomb to destroy the fortress of Hammerholt.

Tropes featured include:

I don’t know about you, but if you’re like me and you’ve read and loved The Ember Blade, then we might be in agreement that believable characterization is Wooding’s strongest skill as a writer. In The Shadow Casket, readers are introduced to many new characters. And although none of them were as compelling as the main characters we knew from The Ember Blade, they helped increase the complexity of the conflict. I truly appreciate the way Wooding handles characterizations. As I said, this is not a grimdark fantasy series, but the genuine moral dilemma the protagonists and antagonists constantly encounter was superbly written. In times of war and revolutions, as Aren said, the world endlessly tries to change them into someone they’re not. Someone who needs to cheat and do ruthless things to win. Whether they succumb to cruelty or not, that’s for you to find out. However, betrayal, deception, schemes, and forgiveness are some of the key themes in the narrative. Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Krodan religion worships a single monotheistic deity called The Primus, which has many cosmetic similarities to Christianity, if of a more martial flavor. The themes of the story help the author to keep a really great balance between an adventure story and something with more of a dark feel to it. There is a big focus on friendship, with lots of different aspects explored within the ensemble of characters. I really loved the relationship between Aren and Garric, and Garric and Keel. The opinions all the characters have about their country and the occupation are revealed throughout the story, and it’s soon evident that everybody has complex, nuanced and deeply emotional opinions on the events 30 years past. The themes of colonisation and rebellion are done really well, and I don’t often find them so compelling as I did here. Such profound consequences from the smallest actions. As if each was a raindrop falling on a lake, a tiny impact spreading ripples outwards, becoming vast.” We follow Aren and Cade, a couple of boys from the town of Shoal Point. They do usual boy things in a fantasy world; they chase girls, get into trouble, and dream of fighting monsters. Then things go sideways when Aren's father is accused of treason by the occupying Krodan empire, and both Aren and Cade end up in jail. Then things get worse... a lot worse! There's deathknights, druids, the Hollow Man, an inquisition, dawnwarders, an abandoned castle full of mystery, and a plot to free Ossia from Krodan occupation. Oh, and a legendary sword: The Ember Blade.

Heroes were simple. They didn’t trouble themselves with consequences. Those who fell by the wayside in their service were left unmourned, at least in the stories. But the stories never told of the quiet times. When the heroes laid down their heads at night and the memories crept in. The lonely meal by the campfire, recalling the smiling eyes of those now dead. The cost in death and grief, one piled upon the other until it was too much to bear, and the only escape was the sanctuary of purpose. They never spoke of what happened when that purpose was fulfilled, and there was nothing to protect them anymore.” Aren is one of the protagonist, from the way the synopsis and plot revolved around him, he's definitely the choosen one that is common amongst classic fantasy. He is of noble blood but his best friend Cade is a carpenter's son. Aren is a strategist and a great swordman, he can get himself out any situation. He is also kind and humble despite his great skills. 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. Now thirty-nine, Chris has written over twenty books, which have been translated into twenty languages, won various awards and been published around the world. He writes for film and television, and has several projects in development.

Menu

There is also this magical element that I can’t say too much about because you don’t learn about it until almost halfway through the story. What I will say is that the female character who has this magic, I adored. She was someone who was determined, but she also seemed to care about the people around her, including the ones she had just met. Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Empires rise, civilisations fall and one culture comes to subsume another. It's the way of the world . . . sometimes ways of life are improved, sometimes they are not. But the progression of change is huge and - usually - unstoppable.In this story, the Ossian way of life is fading and the Dachen way is taking its place and Aren is comfortable with that. Even when his parents are accused of treason he supports the establishment and maintains there's been some mistake . . . which is all it takes to get himself and his best friend arrested . . .Thrown into a prison mine they plan their escape - only to be overtaken by events when they're rescued, and promptly find themselves in the middle of an ambush. By the time they've escaped, they're unavoidably linked to Garric - their unwelcome saviour - and his quest to overturn to Dachen way of life.If they leave Garric now, they'll be arrested or killed by their pursuers. If they turn him in, Garric will kill them. If they stay with him, they'll be abetting a murderous quest they don't believe in. There are no good options - but Aren will still have to choose a path . . .Designed to return to classic fantasy adventures and values, from a modern perspective, this is a fast-moving coming-of-age trilogy featuring a strong cast of diverse characters, brilliant set-pieces and a strong character and plot driven story.

To keep it short like I do these days, I loved the characters, loved the story, was sad at the way it ended to a certain extent, and looking forward to the next book! 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’sThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empireas 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.

Fantasy Books Of The Year

Action? So many adrenaline fueled set pieces you'll struggle to put it down. Always just one chapter more.