The Emperor's Edge Series by Lindsay Buroker

The Emperor's Edge Collection by Lindsay Buroker

You know when sometimes you feel like reading something a little different?
Something that has your favourite elements but does not constantly make you angsty? You know, simply a cleverly laid out adventure which a bunch of solid characters and no bull...? That is what The Emperor's edge was like for me. The series had me thoroughly entertained till the end, and that is no easy feat when it spans a full 7 books! Set in a world with strong steampunk elements and a dash of scifi, it is bound to fall a little out of the box but has something to suit almost anyone.

This review covers 7 main books in this series! (Though there are 8 if you count the follow up Republic)

Let me start by saying I love our main girl Amaranthe. She is smart, she is funny, and overall she does not feel sorry for herself whilst trying to turn each bad situation into an opportunity. She is not 'pretty' or 'special', but comes up with plans and acts on them, with or without help from the others which I can appreciate. She is creative too, which she demonstrates in  becoming a leader to a gang full of flawed guys. Pushing them all toward a goal benefiting each individual as well as help a kingdom filled with unrest. Man if that is not a kick ass accomplishment, I don't know what is..

The core crew is made up out of 6 very diverse characters. All with their own strengths and weaknesses. Not have I had so much fun reading about a male assassin (Sicarius) since Poison Study. And what about other things such as romance you ask?.. Yeah readers looking for that may be a little disappointed. Whilst there is a little tug on the cord that is meant to have our team banners flying, it is most definitely more of an adventure as a whole. Instead you can expect a slow and realistic build up. If anything this book has a great flair of capturing relationships in a good way, be it on friendship, family or love.

The multiple POV's have been worked out great by Lindsay Buroker. There are generally 2 main POV's for each book. Each instalment features a different team member and our main girl. It's extremely clever as it keeps you diving in for more and get a more in depth glimpse of them. It is great getting to know their way of thinking and their view of the situations as they face them. The backdraw of the approach is that some of the characters might not be everyone's cup of tea, I definitely gravitated toward some and others did end up grinding on me a bit.. (Akstyr in book 4 *Cough*). 

I really looked forward to reading Maldynado's side of the adventure (book 5). He is probably my favourite characters of the group . His inappropriate sense of humour and the fact he takes it all in his stride makes him extremely likeable. However since I was really looking forward to a deeper insight, the actual book with his POV was slightly disappointing to me. Hoping for a more serious look into him, the only thing that really got shown was the amount of hostility toward him. No further insight was given of his inner workings and instead the book got filled with mindless banter between him and Yara. Yeah, I am sad to say I am not a big fan of Yara. To me she is Amaranthe's clone with a few male tendencies and a foul mood 80% of the time. The pairing could be seen a mile away so there was no surprise. I would have liked to see him actually get a lady he deserves and she just.. mehh...he deserved better.. (if you ever come to your senses, you know where to find me Maldynado.)

The next 2 books are with Sicarius's shared POV. And another one I have really been hanging out for! His character is probably the hardest to get to know through the others, making him appear as an incredible hard ass without much of a conscious or any aptitude for emotion. And you know what else? I was really pleasantly surprised with how much more there is to his character. I would have expected Sicarius to really be a bit more stoic or at least his neutral self. Instead there is a whole deeper world wandering through his mind. If anything, it has made me love this series even more. 

By this stage (the end of Book 6) I got a little sad that the series was heading to an end. Ohh boy was it working up to one hell of a finale. How can it not. A good dose of alien technology, political overthrowing, battles of armies and magic combined with more of Amaranthe's crazy schemes. It literally had me feeling like the GIF below:

What about the ending you ask?!.Well lets just say, it winds up all the craziness neatly...

A lot of what has been hinted throughout the books comes to a good conclusion. I was caught a bit of guard at a certain 'event' at the end and was still waiting for it to be some grand scheme that they where pulling.. I can not give to much away here but needless to say , it had me slightly depressed. Taking away from the grandiose HEA I was hoping for.

With that in mind, the Epilogue made up for it in bounds and saved me from the melancholic death I would otherwise most certainly have faced.

Would I recommend it?

Okay, so apart from that little explosive going off in my brain, I highly recommend this series to anyone that enjoys a good action packed fantasy steampunk series.. Yes there where certainly moments where I got a bit distracted and had to concentrate to get back into it, but I finished all 7 instalments after one another without reading any books in between.. that in itself is a awesome accomplishment. My kudos to Ms Buroker.