Timothy's Reviews > The Emperor's Edge

This book was recommended by my wife, and it's easy to see why. The Emperor's Edge is clearly written for women, not so much because of its strong female protagonist, but because the details that are embellished upon cater to (heterosexual) women. Having just finished the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, I am in a good position to elaborate on what I mean, before continuing with my mostly positive review.

In Mistborn, a street urchin named Vin is recruited for a caper and trained to play the part of a noblewoman. Much is made of her difficulty with dresses, her growing love of being feminine, and her self-doubts about her ability to play her role.

In The Emperor's Edge, one of the only female enforcers (like town guards or police), named Amaranthe, recruits a gang of misfits (all men) for a caper. Much is made of her difficulty with getting them to work together, her self-denial of femininity and, most of all, how the guys smell, look and arch their eyebrows at her comfortableness with their varying states of undress.

Both are good stories and both are worth reading, I think it's just important to point out a writer's audience often determines what elements of a story get focused.

This is not to suggest that The Emperor's Edge is a thinly veiled romance novel; far from it, this first entry into the series takes great pains to have the protagonist deny that any such feelings may develop. No, this story is primarily about Amaranthe's quest to save the emperor of her kingdom from an assassination attempt. Her methods are a little mundane, but that actually made me more interested, not less. Too often, a fantasy trope involves what I call the Howitzer Effect: Using far too much fantastic force for what is required. It would have been easy, within the context a steampunk fantasy setting, to use deus ex machina in the form of steam science and magic to propel the plot forward and upward, to such lofty and fantastic heights that only an equally epic resolution would be required. The auther avoids that by keeping the plot grounded in semi-reality, only bringing forth the steampunk and fantasy elements where they make sense. Unfortunately, there is one element that is fantastic and does too often serve as deus ex machina.

If I had to describe The Emperor's Edge in one sentence, it would be, "An episode of the A-Team, played in reverse, if they were all strangers and the plucky woman client hired them individually." I'd probably have to use two sentences, though, because, "Oh, and instead of Mr. T, there's a godlike inhuman assassin with a troubled past for all the ladies" is kind of an important detail.

I don't much care for Sicarius. He is a little too much the 'troubled superman anti-hero' cliche for my tastes. I realize this is a fantasy series and he is a fantastic character, but so much time is spent on showing how dark, brooding and superhuman he is that it's hard to consider him more than walking, (sometimes) talking fan service, there to rescue our damsel in distress and be mysterious.

It wasn't until the last chapter or two of the book that I saw any character development, and grudgingly at that. I hope that he continues to develop further, but I also understand that he is probably a big draw for many of the readers. I never read Twilight, but I imagine that Sicarius reads very much like Edward Cullen. Dark, mysterious, brooding, and superhuman. Every woman's dream....(?)

All in all, I would recommend this book to male and female readers alike, because despite what I've said about it being geared towards women, it also has plenty of things that all readers can appreciate: humor, well-written dialogue, and a well-paced plot.