So last night, with 100K reached, and an evening's break needed before plunging into a 3-week writing marathon, I settled down with The Emperor's Knife and found it to be a very nice reward indeed. Epic fantasy just the way I like it, with plenty of intrigue, characters in shades of gray, and interesting magic and cultures. In classic epic fantasy fashion, the novel features multiple viewpoint characters: an aging assassin, a vizier seeking glory for himself and his empire, a mad, imprisoned prince, and a windreader girl from the steppes who is meant to be the prince's bride. Each of these felt fully developed as characters, with flaws, passions, and interesting parts to play in the overall story. I particularly liked the fever-dream feel of some of Sarmin (the imprisoned prince)'s sections - the prose had me wholly convinced I was in the head of someone whose lifelong captivity had driven him more than half-mad. I also appreciated that Mazarkis refrains from infodumping or spoonfeeding the reader, both for worldbuilding and for secondary character motivations. (I much prefer novels that slowly reveal the world as the story progresses, and require me to engage my brain a bit.) And of course, it's always nice to read something set outside the traditional quasi-western-european setting so common in fantasy - I loved the desert descriptions, which were spare but lovely in their economy.
If you like classic epic fantasy combined with more modern shades of gray, then by all means, run go read The Emperor's Knife. For those leery of unfinished trilogies, I found that The Emperor's Knife came to a satisfying conclusion on its own, so you needn't fear some nail-biting cliffhanger. But I'm very much looking forward to the second book in the trilogy, Knife-Sworn - I can't wait to see where Mazarkis goes with the world and characters.
I picked this up because Teresa, and you, talked up Maz's work. I haven't read it yet, but I plan to tackle it early this year.
ReplyDeleteGiven what is on my to-read pile, it might very well fit in with an unintentional theme for early this year--non Western fantasy.
Sooo, will you be reading it on Kindle? (I so love your Kindle tweets - so fun to get a reader's-eye view as you go. Though I admit I'm far too lazy to do that myself while reading. Haven't even figured out how to use any functions other than flipping pages in the Kindle.)
ReplyDeleteYes, since I have the ebook version, when I turn to reading it, it will definitely be on the Kindle, with tweets along the way.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing that with the last two books I've been reading to get back into the habit after that spate of physical books I've had
I only just saw this, or else I saw it before and in my Knifesworn fever, forgot. Anyway, thanks!
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