Review: The Emperor's Edge

The Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Genre: steampunk fantasy adventure

Publisher: indie/self-published

Where I got it: Smashwords

Warnings: violence

The review (spoilers past this point):
Amaranthe Lokdon is an Imperial Enforcer who excels at her job. She's also a woman, which means her tubby, slacker partner is far more likely to get a promotion than she is.

A routine night on the job soon turns into anything but, as Amaranthe foils a robbery, uncovers a startling series of murders and attracts the attention of someone that changes the course of her life entirely.

To my knowledge, I've never read anything that might be considered "steampunk", but because I love the author's blog, I decided to pick up all of her novels. I started with The Emperor's Edge and I'm so glad I did.

The word I'd use to describe this book is "fun". Everything struck the right cord for me. The plot is excellently constructed with foreshadowing and minor details coming to play later in surprising ways. The main conflict is resolved, but the "tag" at the end, promises much more adventure and danger, and I, for one, will be following along for the ride.

The characters are a joy. Every one of them has strengths and flaws that bring them to life in cinematic flavour. Their interactions with each other are wholly believable and endearing. In fact, most of what made this such an enjoyable book is their interplay.

I could quite easily picture this story transformed into a screenplay and brought to life on the big screen. It's not a text that wastes any time, and that makes it perfect for those of us who are more visually minded. Plus, it has, I thought, an extremely strong female character that outshines most "strong" female characters on-screen these days, simply because she utilises her own strengths, rather than tries to mimic a man's.

The style of writing is crisp and easy to get sucked into. It was, as another of my beloved on-screen characters might say, electromagnetic candy. Read it when you're having a bad day, and it will certainly perk you up.

Final word
A fun, well-planned romp that introduces an intriguing fantasy world and a curious grouping of characters.



View all my reviews

The rise of indie books (in my budget) - exciting times for readers

I've always been a judge a book by its [cover/title/author] kind of gal. I walk into a book store and grab the first book I see with an attention-grabbing title, fantastic looking cover or emblazoned with one of the names from my known, dependable set of authors.

I've tried reading web fiction, but as awesome as some as it is - and believe me, there are a slew of amazing, talented writers on the web - I have no patience for reading online. I like to curl up on a couch and forget those floating bytes and bits that distract me on a daily basis.

In November 2010, I was given a Kindle.

By April 2011, the way I view books had changed dramatically.

In the beginning, I stayed with the big guys: George R. R Martin, Brandon Sanderson, Nail Gaimon... but eventually I noticed two things: one, many traditionally published authors were unavailable on the Kindle for my region (regional restrictions in a digital age - really?), and two, a majority of the books recommended to me by Amazon were a fraction of the price of the big guys.

I'm not saying price is the only factor in my decision to start buying more and more indie authors, though it certainly doesn't deter the cash-challenged. It's just sheer fun discovering new authors that don't make it to my mainstream book stores.  It's also a heck of a lot easier to find recommended new reads if you start moving in the indie circles too.

Don't believe me?

Purchasing my first Indie book, Susan Bischoff's Hush Money, a YA superhero novella, led me to try Kait Nolan's Forsaken by Shadow, which somehow led me to Amanda Hocking and Vicki Keire, which led me to JL Bryan, which led me to... you get the picture. (By the by, I do recommend that you try the samples from each of the above authors.)

The best part - every day there is a new discovery. Indie authors seem to be able to find the best of each other and pay this forward to us, the readers and willing slaves to awesomeness. I have so many samples of books I want to buy that I wonder how I'll ever read it all. In the first few months of 2011, I've doubled my annual amount of reading and book purchases.

There is a down-side, of course. Some books that have been released into the wilds were let go too early. I've purchased at least one book that became downright unreadable because of poor formatting and editing, and another book that could have benefited from some tightening of the plot and characterisation. But all in all, I've had some great luck in the indies I've read.

My strategy is not terribly complex or original:

• Read recommendations from people whose opinion you value, for example, all of the authors linked to above also have goodreads accounts; it's a good way to keep your finger on the indie pulse in your favourite genres.
• Download and read the kindle samples first - don't skip this part unless you really, really trust your recommender.
• Follow indie authorities like the Indie Book Collective - also on twitter.
• Keep track of the Amazon and Goodreads ratings - I don't read the nitty gritty of each review because of spoilers, but I try and stick to books that average above 3.5 stars.
• Judge the book by its cover - well, this one is a more personal choice, but I've found that the books that have professional-looking covers are also more likely to have been well-edited on the inside too. I could be proven wrong in this point at any time, but I'll stick with it until I am.
• Finally, if you've loved an indie book, say so! I've actually realised that I need to read a book twice before I can review it properly with my current methods, so while I figure out a better, faster way to spread the love, I do try and tweet/blog my book/author recs whenever I can. If you want to see some gorgeous covers, check out Phatpuppy Creations.

Up next: questions I want to ask indie authors.

Cover art belongs to their respective rights holders. For more details on either of these books, please see post for links.