The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding

Series: The Darkwater Legacy (#1)

Format: 824 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published: May 2, 2019 by Gollancz

Fantasy/own

This was a good old school fantasy.

Aren lives in a country taken over by invaders. He follows their laws, he tries to be like them. Then his dad is killed and he is sent to a prison camp together with his best friend Cade.

Maybe the invaders are not so good after all? Oh it takes a long time for him to get that and we see what a tight grip they have and how they oppress women and others.

There is a talk of an ancient sword to unite the land. They will meet more people and is is a journey to be taken.

Yes I enjoyed it. I will def want more. I need these people to win.

A land under occupation. A legendary sword. A young man’s journey to find his destiny.

Aren has lived by the rules all his life. He’s never questioned it; that’s 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 . . .

But what lies beyond the prison walls is more terrifying still. Rescued by a man who hates him yet is oath-bound to protect him, pursued by inhuman forces, Aren slowly accepts that everything he knew about his world was a lie. The rules are not there to protect him, or his people, but to enslave them. A revolution is brewing, and Aren is being drawn into it, whether he likes it or not.

The key to the revolution is the Ember Blade. The sword of kings, the Excalibur of his people. Only with the Ember Blade in hand can their people be inspired to rise up . . . but it’s locked in an impenetrable vault in the most heavily guarded fortress in the land. All they have to do now is steal it. . .