The Emerald Blade The Landkist Saga Volume 2 Steven Kelliher Books
Download As PDF : The Emerald Blade The Landkist Saga Volume 2 Steven Kelliher Books
One Sage is dead. Five remain.
For Kole, Linn and the newly-minted heroes of the Valley, their victory is short-lived in light of new revelations.
The King of Ember is alive. But the man who once led his people against the forces of darkness is changed. His path now takes him to the north and a land called Center, where he intends to bring his power to bear against another would-be God.
While Kole and Linn gather a small company to follow the King, another group heads for the northern deserts, intent on discovering what power the Emberfolk left buried in the sands.
The Dark Months have faded, but the light cannot last. The time for hiding is over.
It’s time for the World to meet the Landkist.
The Emerald Blade The Landkist Saga Volume 2 Steven Kelliher Books
I wrote an extensive review of The Valley of Embers, Book 1 in this series, so I won't go into lot of detail why I love this book. Suffice it to say I was enamored with Kelliher's prose style, lyrical plotting and dreamlike description in the first book - and I think this one does it even better. It's bizarre, sometimes unsettling, and always mesmerizing. An amazing follow up, and if Kelliher isn't careful, this could end up being one of my favorite fantasy series ever. I'm watching you, Mr. Kelliher...Product details
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The Emerald Blade The Landkist Saga Volume 2 Steven Kelliher Books Reviews
Rocky start The first 40-50 pages were slow going, could have been made tighter with no loss in information imparted. I guess this was more evident because the first book opened with a bang. Not that an action-packed opening is necessary or even desired, but the slowness and repetition of the first 10% made for a rocky and noticeably contrasting start.
The first book, VALLEY OF EMBERS, introduced the characters and the world—including the beliefs and history that purportedly shaped it. Book 1 essentially and ultimately laid waste to what the people believed to be their origin and the nature and reasons for the current plight. It saw the world as they knew it stand on a precipice, no longer certain of truths taken as gospel for as long as the oldest living resident could remember. Most everyone emerged from the first book changed--physically, psychologically, philosophically--ushering a period of adjustment.
Book 2 delves deeper into the world and the lives of the characters. It wears its heart on its sleeve as relationships start to form or become apparent. Being more emotional, Book 2 necessarily makes you care more about the characters, to be invested in their survival despite a growing suspicion that they will not all likely endure much less survive.
Steven Kelliher ratchets up the intrigue. First, he casts doubt on his own protagonist Kole, constantly calling into question his motives, doubting the source of his power, and suggesting that his power controls him rather than vice versa. Second, he casts doubts on Kole's friends and allies—questioning whether or not they truly are working towards the same objective or even that any such common objective is desirable or worthy of their efforts. Third, he multiplied the number of apparent foes, forcing his protagonists to fight on multiple fronts. Fourth, he obscures the nature, impetus, and ultimate objectives of the designated antagonists. If their version of history is correct, then they might not be enemies at all. Or perhaps all enemies are not created equal. Is the enemy of your enemy truly some kind of an ally or simply an enemy on a different front? Is aligning with a not-quite-ally merely delaying a war until a common foe is vanquished? Fifth, Kelliher subtly suggests that foes are not outside the realm of redemption—that a seeming foe is as likely to turn right as left. If such person indeed stands at a crossroads, should efforts be exerted to steer him towards the true road or should he preemptively be vanquished as a precautionary measure? A complex, sophisticated antagonist is a requisite to a multi-layered story.
All of this is put in play because Kelliher has lined up a wide array of players, each one injecting their own demands and interests, most or even all rather reasonable, where many appear to be neither friend nor foe. There exists several versions of "the truth", each plausible or believable and not necessarily mutually exclusive. Questioning the very origin and history of the people who populate his world adds layers of complexity and sophistication to the story. In calling everything into question, gods become less divine, kings become less regal and more capricious, wars become less necessary. He laid the foundation to make The Embers—the humans with mysterious elemental powers—equally likely heroes or pawns. The magic is not neat or tidy, it is mysterious as it often should be—appreciated and wielded with pride but often arbitrary rather than deserved or in any way predictable or even understandable. The story feels more realistic, more believable—life's choices are rarely between black and white, most are varying shades of grey—and certainly more engrossing.
In all the subtlety of the machinations going on, I almost forgot to mention the fights. Almost. There is nothing subtle about the gnarly skirmishes, clashes, scrimmages, dustups, etc. Flames are thrown about, wind directed to and fro, the very land under their feet upended, moved and reduced to dust. Okay, there is some subtlety--when a power exists that rends one from the inside out. The fights have a lot of heart and sometimes literally crushes hearts. Battle rating On Fiyah!
The story ebbs and flows, sometimes not so seamlessly, stalling or bogging down the narrative at some points. The prose occasionally lends itself to repetition, seemingly untrusting of the writing skill or perhaps the reader's ability to grasp it with only a singular impression. Yet Kelliher will sometimes deliver a startling jolt, succinctly creating visual images, calling forth a palpable atmosphere, or evoking powerful emotions with brevity and a remarkable turn of phrase
“Brega knew this land better than the rest of them. He knew how it could betray travelers too weary or too proud to think better, just as he knew it could take a man in an instant beneath the same boughs that had sheltered him moments before.”
“This was a town both large and small enough to lose something without losing sight of it.”
“'If there's anything more dangerous than a Sage who fancies himself a god,” Wend said, “it's one who fancies himself a man.'”
“How quickly the wielder could become the wielded. How quickly archer could become arrow.”
“But we're in a dance with gods now, Linn—or forces that consider the sun and stars their kin rather than their betters.”
xxx “the sounds betrayed an abundance of things that killed to live and died to let others do the same.”
“They passed under branches that might have been roots and over roots that might have been branches.”
“It took a fire to fight, but a coldness to kill.”
Like the series, Steven Kelliher is geometrically growing with and in the telling of The Landkist Saga. While the first book showed clear promise, this second one makes good on that promise and commits to new ones—it fleshes out characters to cheer for even if they falter, makes desirable the survival and endurance of an imperfect world, and delivers a conflict that is complex, possibly impossible to entirely resolve, yet worthy of the effort.
A promise is a promise, Mr. Kelliher. I have high expectations for Book 3.
Great read. Definitely want to read the previous book to keep the flow going, but it is a great world and a fantastic read.
Good book and entertaining. Leaves you wondering what will happen next. Actually one of the sequels that improved on the original
Hell of a sequel to the first book, definitely hooked on the series!
I really enjoyed the first novel. Lots of action, decent characters and the plot caught my attention. This book was sort of the same. What I wasn't expecting was a lot more word building. The pace seemed to really drag. The writing was fine and the story was good just wasn't expecting this kind of change in writing style. I will definitely read the next installment.
The Emerald Blade showed a huge improvement compared to Valley of the Embers, hence the 4 stars I gave this one.
The world building and the plot are still going strong, though the pace sometimes is off a bit. Sometimes it felt a bit dragging, especially where the characters were going from one place to another for pages and nothing much happened except some inside monologue of one character or other. Maybe it would have been better if the end were built up better. All the battles were explained long in details, but the last somehow felt short and a bit off for some reason. Maybe I was just too tired at that point (2 am...). Though I liked it ended up with a surprising turn of events which makes you wonder what happened and what will come now.
About the characters. Their interactions improved as well, the first quarter of the book was well built up with recapping the first book and having some exchanges between the characters. Linn grows some during the book, but I still can't connect to any of them. Misha irritates me, Kole and Linn do nothing but stare at each other all the time which gets annoying at a point. On the other hand, I like T'alon Rane and the Shadow, because they are mysterious, and make you wonder what happened to them. I like how we get glimpses into T'alon's past, though some explaining about Resh would have been appreciated. Maybe in later books?
I have to accept that epic fantasy isn't really for me and while I like this book, Kelliher style of writing is just not for me. Even though he has good imagination and built up a vivid, interesting world full of life and deadly creatures. And I have to give points to him for writing characters who aren't plainly evil or good. They are complex, they have good qualities and flaws as well, and you can't help but wonder exactly who is on the right side, if there is one at all.
I wrote an extensive review of The Valley of Embers, Book 1 in this series, so I won't go into lot of detail why I love this book. Suffice it to say I was enamored with Kelliher's prose style, lyrical plotting and dreamlike description in the first book - and I think this one does it even better. It's bizarre, sometimes unsettling, and always mesmerizing. An amazing follow up, and if Kelliher isn't careful, this could end up being one of my favorite fantasy series ever. I'm watching you, Mr. Kelliher...
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