The Emperor's Blades cover art

The Emperor's Blades

Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, Book 1

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The Emperor's Blades

By: Brian Staveley
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

Now includes special bonus content. Stay tuned after the audiobook to hear “The Last Abbot of Ashk’lan,” a short story by Brian Staveley.

The emperor of Annur is dead, slain by enemies unknown. His daughter and two sons, scattered across the world, do what they must to stay alive and unmask the assassins. But each of them also has a life-path on which their father set them, destinies entangled with both ancient enemies and inscrutable gods.

Kaden, the heir to the Unhewn Throne, has spent eight years sequestered in a remote mountain monastery, learning the enigmatic discipline of monks devoted to the Blank God. Their rituals hold the key to an ancient power he must master before it's too late.

An ocean away, Valyn endures the brutal training of the Kettral, elite soldiers who fly into battle on gigantic black hawks. But before he can set out to save Kaden, Valyn must survive one horrific final test.

At the heart of the empire, Minister Adare, elevated to her station by one of the emperor's final acts, is determined to prove herself to her people. But Adare also believes she knows who murdered her father, and she will stop at nothing - and risk everything - to see that justice is meted out.

©2014 Brian Stavely (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Military Fiction

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All stars
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Really enjoyed the story and performance. Characters well crafted and story is promising. Easy listen with good narration. I'm excited to see what else is in store.
Only criticism is maybe that there was a whole lot of scene setting and not a great deal happened, having said that I was gripped by the story and like the direction it takes. There is some conclusion which makes the end satisfying but leaves enough doors open to make me want to read more.
A really good start in my opinion.
Bring on the providence of fire!

An enjoyable setting of scene

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Original plot, with excellent narration. A gripping story that leaves you keen to crack on with the next book in the series. Highly recommended to fans of epic fantasy with a more mature twist such as books by Joe Abercrombie

An excellent first book in a fantasy series

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well read, really enjoyed the story, lots of twists to keep you guessing & a preview of the next book at the end.

Thoroughly enjoyed !

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Great narrator and gripping story. Vivid depiction of the book's world and it's history. Looking forward to the next part.

Very enjoyable

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A great find. Whilst I have read my way through most of the 'Best Ever' list I always live in hope that there are other great books out there ...This is one of them. I particularly like the fast pace. No need for chapters of character building. I have already downloaded book 2.

A great read :-)

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A really good listen looking forward to hearing the second book hope it's as good as this one

Brilliant

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This is my first audio book and it's definitely enticed me into listening to more.

Good story and good narrator.

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Absolutely loved it and will be starting the next one immediately. Brian Staveley has built a world that feels complete with its own history and lore while only hinting at it throughout. The narrative was rewarding and compelling with rich characters that were easy to invest in. While they were not all explored equally, I found myself equally gripped. For me it found the right balance between keeping the tension and switching between points of view to maintain the suspense but not torturing you with it and maintaining an exciting pace throughout. The narration was phenomenal too; Simon Vance does an amazing job of bringing so many characters from a plethora of backgrounds and regions within Brian Staveley's world to life. Fantastic dramatic performance and a must experience story for any fantasy fan.

Absolutely loved it

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I was totally against audio books until a podcast steered me towards them. I didn't think I would be able to handle someone talking for 20hours. how I was wrong the performance of the narrator was incredible. great character voices and a flow that made it a joy to listen to.

outstanding.

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As I started this I was a little unsure because of the narration. Several of the characters seemed to meld into one another which meant following it to start a little irritating. There are a lot of character names and places but the way the book is structured it makes it easy to identify the different character names and places which is great.


The 3 main characters are all interesting if not frustrating at times but what helps make this book stand out are the secondary characters which add a great depth to the book and I found myself leaning to several of those as my favourites.

I am on the 3rd book of the series (it is a trilogy with a separate stand alone book set in the same world) I would recommend this as a series for me so far this was the best of the 3 books.

Great World Building

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