The Ember Blade

This came highly recommended from several sources. As I am already a Chris Wooding fan (The Tales of the Ketty Jay remains my favourite steampunk fantasy). I hoped for a fun adventure story and this did not disappoint.

The starting point of the setting, where our heroes are from a losing culture that has been partially assimilated by an invader gives an interesting edge of conflict right from the start. It is unusual to see heroic fantasy presented from this kind of perspective, and it works well.

This is most definitely heroic fantasy, so it has a few of the classic tropes (a chosen one type main character, a mythical sword of power etc), but when it is written in such an entertaining style it is easy to forgive the more generic elements. This tale lifts it up with some interesting twists though - even though it is trope laden, it does manage to twist them into some interesting directions!

A highly enjoyable romp of a fantasy. As a modern heroic fantasy it work well as an exercise in entertainment. I look forward to continuing the journey!