The Ember Blade: A breathtaking fantasy adventure (The Darkwater Legacy)

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I am absolutely in love with this book! . . . I was on the edge of my seat a few times. I laughed and I cried . . . I loved the characters, loved the story' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 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. The beginning of a new epic fantasy series that is heavy on world building and light on its focus that ultimately left me wanting on so many levels.

Aren has lived by the rules all his life. He has never questioned it; that is just the way things are. But then his father is executed for treason, and he and his best friend Cade are thrown into a prison mine, doomed to work until they drop. Unless they can somehow break free . . .

Grub worships the Skull God who seems to be a Crystal Dragon Odin; especially given he's seen as a judge of the dead and crows are sacred to him. As a consolation prize, in a few months I’ll be able to tell you about the game I’ve been working on, so there’s that? Sequel Hook: As may be expected in the first book of a planned trilogy, the novel leaves several plot threads hanging to be resolved in sequels. To wit: My conclusion is that this story is probably “the prologue” to the real story, and that it should never have been written. Instead, everything in this book should have been implied and/or woven into the actual story, which is going to start much later. There is some very direct foreshadowing by a druidess about “something dark that is coming” that felt akin to the phenomenally poor foreshadowing that we’ve seen in the Justice League movies referencing the character of Darkseid. This is likely where the story is headed from here. It’s possible that the next part of the story is going to be incredibly awesome and actually epic, instead of whatever this was. A beginning like this has seriously scared me off though.

Ossia seems to be based partly on various Celtic cultures with a tradition or irreverent oral stories and druids who travel from place to place serving their gods. One of those things that I CAN, however, talk about is that I spent several months of last year working as a Narrative Consultant on The Creative Assembly’s new video game IP, helping with worldbuilding, story and character design, and all kinds of goodies thereabouts. I can’t tell you anything more about the game since it’s not been announced yet but it’s gonna be soooo good! Have read the Ember Blade, loved it, cant wait for the next book. I am a big fan, have read and re-read the Ketty Jay series and actually appreciate that you put so much work into your writing instead of blog updates. Wishing you a very happy and prosperous New Year. Chris is clearly a skilful writer, and there’s clearly been a lot of work in putting this together. Any reader wanting the challenge of a big Fat Fantasy will relish such a read and realise from the beginning that The Ember Blade is a story for the long haul. It must be said that by the end I felt that it is an immersive experience, if you give it time to develop. If that is what you want, then this is a satisfying read, building from traditional tropes into a series of set pieces that read well, although not always working well together. Physical copy release date in the US is TBC but you can buy it now from Book Depository who will ship worldwide for free.It was a this point that I realized this story was being told from the wrong perspective character. But “epic fantasy” stories always start with young boys, right? Well, this one shouldn’t have. Not as it was told, anyhow. It takes a while for the details to come to light, but once they do it becomes immediately apparently that this is the case when one of the new adult POV characters is directly connected to… wait for it… the land of Darkwater. This is “The Darkwater Legacy” after all. The main issue with this is that neither of the boys is now central to the story. They begin the main plot of the story in a tragic way, but seeing them struggle and cope was inspiring. If you want good examples of complex, strong characters in fantasy, look no further. Worldbuilding Secret Police: The Iron Hand is the organization charged with stamping out all dissidence in the Krodan Empire, both among the conquered peoples and within its own population. Eldritch Abomination: The Beast of Skavengard, and unholy mass of tentacles, eyes and mouths that is trapped on the island-palace of Skavengard. It was summoned from another dimension and slaughtered everyone on the palace centuries ago. Just a glimpse of it is enough to pretty much break Keel's mind. That break came along when I got the chance to write for a super awesome AAA videogame, and since the end of March that’s what I’ve been doing. Details will be forthcoming when I’m allowed to but for now that’s all I can give you. What that means is that I’ve got a lot less time to write the Ember Blade sequel, but in reality I was going so slowly anyway that it’s not made much difference to the overall progress. The difference is that before I was spending all day ploughing onward and generating a small amount of words and a lot of frustration; now I write joyous and swift whenever I get the chance.

In my 70s introduced my sons to fantasy when they were babies. New Zealand needs your story to be made into a movie. Rusty (son) worked on the Hobbit and wants to do same for you. Please come. Seeing as it’s been about a year since the last update I was curious how progress has been on book two. All the best to you and yours in the new year! I’m a big fan of your work!A well-written tale of revolution, dark magic, and a quest for an ancient game-changing artifact set in a well-built and well-realised epic fantasy world. In scripty news I wrote the pilot ep for a TV adaptation of a bestselling YA series which may or may not arrive on your screens in due course. I did a bunch of other stuff that has to remain secret. Also I’m hoping to have some major news very soon about one of my own projects but then again, I may very well not. As ever, I’ll let you know as soon as something concrete happens. Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The various Ossian resistance groups opposed to the Krodan occupation have been known to go to some pretty nasty extremes in their pursuit of freedom, carrying out assassinations against collaborators and informers, as well as considering butchering their families to discourage collaboration with the Krodans. Garric's plan after the failure of open rebellion at Salt Fork is to smuggle a dozen wine barrels two thirds full of elarite oil into Hammerholt fortress on the eve of a royal wedding and detonate them. This would create an explosion powerful enough to destroy most of the fortress and burn the rest, killing crown prince Ottico, the entire Krodan high command in Ossia, and hundreds if not thousands of Krodan soldiers... but also hundreds of Ossian servants and wedding guests, including foreign dignitaries and children. 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.

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.

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. Excited about The Ember Blade. Looking pretty…uh…lit? As the kids say. Also, I think its a mixture of 2016/2017 and Mr.Wooding. The combination is almost unbearable, but we got this.