Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The various Ossian resistance groups opposed to the Krodan occupation have been known to go to some pretty nasty extremes in their pursuit of freedom, carrying out assassinations against collaborators and informers, as well as considering butchering their families to discourage collaboration with the Krodans. Garric's plan after the failure of open rebellion at Salt Fork is to smuggle a dozen wine barrels two thirds full of elarite oil into Hammerholt fortress on the eve of a royal wedding and detonate them. This would create an explosion powerful enough to destroy most of the fortress and burn the rest, killing crown prince Ottico, the entire Krodan high command in Ossia, and hundreds if not thousands of Krodan soldiers... but also hundreds of Ossian servants and wedding guests, including foreign dignitaries and children.

Driven to Suicide: While Keel was never all that stable to begin with and is implied to have had suicidal feelings all his life, his betrayal of Garric is enough to push him over the edge and hang himself. The Caper: The entire third act of the novel features the implementation of the plan to steal the Ember Blade from the fortress of Hammerholt on the eve of a Royal Wedding.

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If you like an epic fantasy read, that is refreshingly written, full of thought provoking themes and some well thought out characters, then look no further, because this book is for you. For example, we have a couple of characters, Kade being one of them that offer a sense of humour to the situation and a character who comes along later who goes from being despised to a loveable character who you won’t be able to help yourself from loving by the end. The themes of the story help the author to keep a really great balance between an adventure story and something with more of a dark feel to it. There is a big focus on friendship, with lots of different aspects explored within the ensemble of characters. I really loved the relationship between Aren and Garric, and Garric and Keel. The opinions all the characters have about their country and the occupation are revealed throughout the story, and it’s soon evident that everybody has complex, nuanced and deeply emotional opinions on the events 30 years past. The themes of colonisation and rebellion are done really well, and I don’t often find them so compelling as I did here.

Welcome to another of my increasingly tardy updates in which I reveal nothing because everything is secret. The headline news is that there has not, to be honest, been massive amounts of progress on the sequel to the Ember Blade. I’m creeping up to the halfway point but I’ve been working for Ubisoft most of last year and between that and having two sleep-sapping infants in the house there hasn’t been as much time as I’d hoped to get on with it. I’m trying to forge out time when I can but there’s not a lot to go round these days. What I can say is don’t expect it this year. Even when the manuscript is done there will be a long wait for editing, so late 2021 is probably as early as we could make it. Apologies to all those champing at the bit. It’s getting done. Slowly.A well-written tale of revolution, dark magic, and a quest for an ancient game-changing artifact set in a well-built and well-realised epic fantasy world. Wooding strikes a magnificently fine balance between classic epic fantasy and grimdark fantasy, making this an amazing start to a new trilogy. Stay in the Kitchen: The Krodan religion has very regimented gender roles, with women being considered not intelligent enough for scholarship or administration, let alone fighting.