Engines of Empire by R.S. Ford
Rating: 4.5 ⭐
This story centres around an Empire which is run on the power of industry which is controlled by the Guilds. We follow the Hawkspur Guild, Rosomon and her three children, Conall, Tyreta and Fulren. Each have their own part to play in the Guild. Conall is sent to the distant frontier to gain experience in the military. Tyreta has the ability to connect to and control pyrestone, a key resource in the industry used to run the Empire. Much as she wants to run from her responsibilities to the Guild, she is sent to the Pyrestone mines to learn more of her trade. Fulren is a talented artificer, living in the Capital taken under the wing of his uncle the Emperor. Fulren is tasked with acting as guide to a foreign emissary and soon after is accused of a crime that could start a war. A crime he didn’t commit. Each of the Hawkspur's encounter threats and plots that not only endanger their lives, but ones that could spell disaster for the Empire they serve.
I’ll be honest, I was quite intimidated by this one. I enjoy fantasy, but I am more of a cosy fantasy and fantasy romance reader. Epic fantasy has always intrigued me, but I tend to find it intimating so tend to put off reading it. To help me overcome this I decided to get the audiobook and read along with it. I found this helped and I found myself really engaging with the story. The audiobook has multiple narrators which made it more entertaining as each character’s perspective had a unique voice. The intrigue in this book and the political scheming that takes place was very well done. Not knowing who can be trusted made for an interesting reading experience and I found myself on the edge of my seat a lot of the time I was reading. The characters were interesting, all flawed in their own way and Ioved that there was significant character growth throughout. How their experiences shaped the decisions they made made them feel very realistic.
Personally, I enjoyed Tyreta’s storyline the best and look forward to where it will develop as the series continues. I feel her character had the most development throughout, clearly learning from her experiences and going from a character who wanted to avoid her responsibilities to stepping up when she needed to. I am very much a character focused reader and enjoy books where I can become invested in a character and this book has them in spades.
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