encal202's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
itkovian_books's review
2.0
How many times can she end a chapter with “Death! Death! Death!” before she realizes it comes across as cringey instead of the dark, edgy aesthetic she’s going for
the_coycaterpillar_reads's review
5.0
A Court of Broken Knives is the crowning of the Queen of Grimdark, Anna Smith Spark. A fantastical story that resonates with power and struggle. I can’t wait to delve into the Empire of Dust series once more.
Am I glad that I picked up The Court of Broken Knives? Oh boy, am I ever. I put out a call on Twitter to get my fellow bookworms to suggest fantasy books that might get me out of my fantasy reading funk. In 2022, I read the First Law Trilogy in its entirety and had the biggest book hangover. Nothing in the Fantasy genre was scratching that grimdark itch, it was the characters, the settings, and the escapism that I was craving, and no disrespect to those authors, nothing was catching my interest. Then along came The Court of Broken Knives…
It didn’t take much to get me hooked. The first chapter was like staring into a deep, dark pool of water. I was hypnotised, the individual ripples capturing all of my interest, like the water it could have swallowed me whole, and I wouldn’t have given a damn!
“A wise man who’s ignored is about as effective as an idiot who’s listened to.”
You see a series is only so good as its characterisation – does it give you time to explore lives and scenarios through the different strands of a plot? Do you find yourself becoming distant from the protagonist and more sympathetic toward the antagonists? I know what side of the coin I’ve fallen on, but I’ll keep mum about that until I’ve finished the series. The imagery, however, just flayed me alive! I felt like I was there, I was treading through the deserts, witnessing a dragon (yeah, if your story has a dragon, you’ve already got me there 95% of the way.) and slicing through flesh, the blood spray is warm and sticky and you can feel the heat burning through your clothes. As I say, the imagery was everything.
The story starts with a mercenary band of differing characters. Each brought something fresh to the grimdark table. Wit, brutality, and mystery. They are on they’re way to Sorlost, think of it like the royal seat of the country. It’s where all the political manoeuvring happens and they have a special mission – assassinate the Emperor. They don’t get far before being apprehended by a dragon. NOW, these descriptive scenes are some of the best I have read regarding dragon attacks. The flesh melting off the bone, the heat of the fire, the absolute terror running through the mercenary’s bones. Marith, the new recruit who appears to be a bit wet behind the ears when it comes to weapon mastery manages to slay this dragon. How? How is that even possible? Let me tell you I had a lot of questions, and none were answered but instead, we find out that Marith is not all he appears. Talk about getting the tea!
“Soldiers do not believe in gods until they do something to offend them.”
As I have often said – fiction can never be too dark. And the proclaimed Queen of Grimdark delivers it all like DPD on crack. Marith is a character that you find yourself inwardly chastising about liking. You can’t help it; I think we can all find parts of ourselves in him. Never quite lived up to a parent’s expectation. Massive expectations on top of your shoulders, experiencing grief that has no outlet except for unhealthy outlets. Thalia, the high priestess, does some incredibly inhumane things in the name of religion but she doesn’t know any different. This has been her calling since childhood, she knew what would await her when she drew the red lot. But when the attack on Sorlost happens she grabs her opportunity to escape. Why? Because she chooses something else. She cannot be blamed for living her life.
Am I glad that I picked up The Court of Broken Knives? Oh boy, am I ever. I put out a call on Twitter to get my fellow bookworms to suggest fantasy books that might get me out of my fantasy reading funk. In 2022, I read the First Law Trilogy in its entirety and had the biggest book hangover. Nothing in the Fantasy genre was scratching that grimdark itch, it was the characters, the settings, and the escapism that I was craving, and no disrespect to those authors, nothing was catching my interest. Then along came The Court of Broken Knives…
It didn’t take much to get me hooked. The first chapter was like staring into a deep, dark pool of water. I was hypnotised, the individual ripples capturing all of my interest, like the water it could have swallowed me whole, and I wouldn’t have given a damn!
“A wise man who’s ignored is about as effective as an idiot who’s listened to.”
You see a series is only so good as its characterisation – does it give you time to explore lives and scenarios through the different strands of a plot? Do you find yourself becoming distant from the protagonist and more sympathetic toward the antagonists? I know what side of the coin I’ve fallen on, but I’ll keep mum about that until I’ve finished the series. The imagery, however, just flayed me alive! I felt like I was there, I was treading through the deserts, witnessing a dragon (yeah, if your story has a dragon, you’ve already got me there 95% of the way.) and slicing through flesh, the blood spray is warm and sticky and you can feel the heat burning through your clothes. As I say, the imagery was everything.
The story starts with a mercenary band of differing characters. Each brought something fresh to the grimdark table. Wit, brutality, and mystery. They are on they’re way to Sorlost, think of it like the royal seat of the country. It’s where all the political manoeuvring happens and they have a special mission – assassinate the Emperor. They don’t get far before being apprehended by a dragon. NOW, these descriptive scenes are some of the best I have read regarding dragon attacks. The flesh melting off the bone, the heat of the fire, the absolute terror running through the mercenary’s bones. Marith, the new recruit who appears to be a bit wet behind the ears when it comes to weapon mastery manages to slay this dragon. How? How is that even possible? Let me tell you I had a lot of questions, and none were answered but instead, we find out that Marith is not all he appears. Talk about getting the tea!
“Soldiers do not believe in gods until they do something to offend them.”
As I have often said – fiction can never be too dark. And the proclaimed Queen of Grimdark delivers it all like DPD on crack. Marith is a character that you find yourself inwardly chastising about liking. You can’t help it; I think we can all find parts of ourselves in him. Never quite lived up to a parent’s expectation. Massive expectations on top of your shoulders, experiencing grief that has no outlet except for unhealthy outlets. Thalia, the high priestess, does some incredibly inhumane things in the name of religion but she doesn’t know any different. This has been her calling since childhood, she knew what would await her when she drew the red lot. But when the attack on Sorlost happens she grabs her opportunity to escape. Why? Because she chooses something else. She cannot be blamed for living her life.
theamazingmrg's review
4.0
Well, this book of horrible people doing horrible things was positively delightful.
thedashdude's review against another edition
5.0
The Court of Broken Knives: 5/5
The pacing was all over the place, but in the best possible way. I never quite understood what direction the story was going, but it always went there with spectacle and wonderful writing.
The Tower of Living and Dying: 5/5
Delivered on the epic conclusion to book 1, intrigue and bloodshed aplenty. Always delivered well.
The House of Sacrifice: 5/5
Epic conclusion to the series. Meandering and with enough atmosphere to carry it through to an ending that shouldn't have worked but landed perfectly and was practically comical in its aptness.
The series never had normal pacing, but was always entertaining. The endings were always great. Anna Smith Spark has an impeccable sense of style. Moody, poetic, and grand.
Why we march and why we die,
And what life means... it’s all a lie.
Death! Death! Death!
The pacing was all over the place, but in the best possible way. I never quite understood what direction the story was going, but it always went there with spectacle and wonderful writing.
The Tower of Living and Dying: 5/5
Delivered on the epic conclusion to book 1, intrigue and bloodshed aplenty. Always delivered well.
The House of Sacrifice: 5/5
Epic conclusion to the series. Meandering and with enough atmosphere to carry it through to an ending that shouldn't have worked but landed perfectly and was practically comical in its aptness.
The series never had normal pacing, but was always entertaining. The endings were always great. Anna Smith Spark has an impeccable sense of style. Moody, poetic, and grand.
Why we march and why we die,
And what life means... it’s all a lie.
Death! Death! Death!
sfinn's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
roksyreads's review against another edition
2.0
My feelings about this book can be summarised as follows: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Some of the writing was beautiful, particularly the scene setting and architectural descriptions. The rest was often repetitive and awkward. I'm not a big fan of stream of consciousness style, so this is largely why I felt disengaged. The constant switch between first, second, and third person POV didn't help. Whilst it seemed intended to add to the action of the book, I personally just found it pushed me away from the story.
As for the characters, they are mostly intriguing. I wouldn't recommend getting attached to them though, just in case - this book is quite brutal. I was most interested in Ohran and Darath, but from the halfway point the narrative becomes obsessed with Marith - a previously engaging character struggling with intense emotional and mental anguish - and how very beautiful and very special he is.
Although I'm very interested in the concept and lore, the style is not for me. I'm not sure if I'll pursue the rest of the series at this stage.
Some of the writing was beautiful, particularly the scene setting and architectural descriptions. The rest was often repetitive and awkward. I'm not a big fan of stream of consciousness style, so this is largely why I felt disengaged. The constant switch between first, second, and third person POV didn't help. Whilst it seemed intended to add to the action of the book, I personally just found it pushed me away from the story.
As for the characters, they are mostly intriguing. I wouldn't recommend getting attached to them though, just in case - this book is quite brutal. I was most interested in Ohran and Darath, but from the halfway point the narrative becomes obsessed with Marith - a previously engaging character struggling with intense emotional and mental anguish - and how very beautiful and very special he is.
Spoiler
His developing relationship with Thalia, another character I was invested in, also felt very awkward and forced.Although I'm very interested in the concept and lore, the style is not for me. I'm not sure if I'll pursue the rest of the series at this stage.
danwulf's review
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
livtheninth's review
4.0
Basically speechless. Uh. Yeah. So... that was really excellent in every way. The world-building, the characters, the author's very particular voice and way of wording things. The, well, everything? I loved the hell out of it. I care so much for these characters. Reading on and on, I never wanted any of them to die, because they were all interesting and brought something to the story.
The few issues I had with this are so minor I'm not even going to mention them. Just... read this book. Like. Do yourself a solid. Give it about 100 pages and I can pretty much guarantee you'll be hooked.
But, yeah, holy crap. When people ask for grimdark recommendations, I usually point them toward [a:Mark Lawrence|4721536|Mark Lawrence|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1318781585p2/4721536.jpg] and my absolute all-time fave, [a:Seth Dickinson|5760737|Seth Dickinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1437086697p2/5760737.jpg] - well, now I have another gem to present them with. It is SO DARK. Love it. I can't wait to read [b:The Tower of Living and Dying|40988716|The Tower of Living and Dying (Empires of Dust, Book 2)|Anna Smith Spark|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1532939125s/40988716.jpg|58240318]. Death! Death! Death!
The few issues I had with this are so minor I'm not even going to mention them. Just... read this book. Like. Do yourself a solid. Give it about 100 pages and I can pretty much guarantee you'll be hooked.
But, yeah, holy crap. When people ask for grimdark recommendations, I usually point them toward [a:Mark Lawrence|4721536|Mark Lawrence|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1318781585p2/4721536.jpg] and my absolute all-time fave, [a:Seth Dickinson|5760737|Seth Dickinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1437086697p2/5760737.jpg] - well, now I have another gem to present them with. It is SO DARK. Love it. I can't wait to read [b:The Tower of Living and Dying|40988716|The Tower of Living and Dying (Empires of Dust, Book 2)|Anna Smith Spark|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1532939125s/40988716.jpg|58240318]. Death! Death! Death!