Okay, so I waited to finish the ENTIRE series before I reviewed this series and I was not disappointed! We all know how much I love, love, love Valek from Maria V. Snyder's Study series...well, now I have a new assassin to drool over--Sicarius (which if I understand correctly, is Greek for assassin).
I'm not a huge steampunk fan. For those who don't know, Steampunk is a term used for books that tend to bring magic/modern technology and combine it with historical fiction type books. I've read a few...some were good, some were not so impressive. One I enjoyed is called Leviathan, I'll review it later ;)
Anyhoo, I digress, this series is "steampunk" though I'm not quick to call it that. This takes places in a fictional world but one that seems to be dated early 1900s-ish. The characters either walk or travel on steam train or steam lorries to get places--steam lorries being vehicles that are fueled by coals put into an engine and "fired" up, quite literally. It does have "magic" though the more educated characters call it "the mental sciences" and there is a hint of "aliens" as in a technology that is so advanced that it must be from another world. So those are some quirks but I encourage to read beyond that if those type of things bother you.
The heroine, Amaranthe, is likable, relatable, and fun. She starts off as a by-the-book enforcer (another word for police officer) who is so polished from her bun in her hair to her shiny boots. She quickly gets thrown into a world of crazy politics when the emperor (a young 19yo who isn't supposed to have an opinion) catches a peek of her in action and wants to get to know her better. His advisor, a man who wants to keep him under thumb, throws Amaranthe on the trail of an assassin, Sicarius hoping that she won't come back alive. From there it gets crazy and Amaranthe finds herself trying to exonerate herself to saving the emperor to saving the empire, along with a band of merry characters who bicker like 4yos!
Sicarius is a hard guy to read and it took me to book 3 before I started to hope that he had another side to show. I'll give it to Amaranthe, the girl does not discourage easily! This series is 7 books with several little side stories, novellas, etc along the way. I've only read one novella so far but hope to get into another one tonight. I loved this series! I look forward to reading it again. Sometimes I get in such a hurry to see how it ends that I skip along the details to get to the "good stuff" and I found myself doing that with this series. Sometimes the author wants to go off on so many tangents that I can't read it all fast enough BUT this book has ONE (that's right, only one) curse word in the entire series (I think book 6 or 7) and there isn't any sexual situations till the very last book and by then, you're expecting it. It does have sexual innuendos in it but if you're a married woman, this will not cause you to blush and shove the book under a pillow when someone walks into the room. I recommend it! I enjoyed it and I'm thankful to Angela for recommending it to me. I'll add Amazon's book descriptions below:
The Emperor's Edge (book 1):
The adventure starts here...
Imperial law enforcer
Amaranthe Lokdon is good at her job: she can deter thieves and pacify
thugs, if not with a blade, then by toppling an eight-foot pile of
coffee canisters onto their heads. But when ravaged bodies show up on
the waterfront, an arson covers up human sacrifices, and a powerful
business coalition plots to kill the emperor, she feels a tad
overwhelmed.
Worse, Sicarius, the empire's most notorious
assassin, is in town. He's tied in with the chaos somehow, but Amaranthe
would be a fool to cross his path. Unfortunately, her superiors order
her to hunt him down. Either they have an unprecedented belief in her
skills... or someone wants her dead.
Dark Currents (book 2):
It’s been three months since former enforcer Amaranthe Lokdon and the
notorious assassin Sicarius thwarted kidnappers and saved the emperor’s
life. The problem? Nobody knows they were responsible for this good
deed. Worse, they’re being blamed for the entire scheme. With enforcers
and bounty hunters stalking them, and the emperor nursing a personal
hatred for Sicarius, it’s going to be hard to earn exoneration.
When Amaranthe’s team discovers mutilated bodies in the city
aqueducts and a mysterious illness incapacitates thousands of citizens,
she and Sicarius see an opportunity to solve the mystery and prove their
loyalty. But they’ll have to defeat vengeful shamans, man-eating
predators, and deadly mechanical constructs, all while dodging imperial
soldiers who would rather kill them than accept their help.
Nobody said exoneration would be easy.
Deadly Games (book 3):
When you’ve been accused of kidnapping an emperor, and every enforcer in
the city wants your head, it’s hard to prove yourself an honorable
person and even harder to earn an imperial pardon.
That doesn’t keep Amaranthe Lokdon and her team of outlaws from
trying. When athletes start disappearing from the Imperial Games, they
may finally have an opportunity to show the emperor that they’re on his
side. If she and her comrades can get to the bottom of such a public
mystery, they’re sure to get the credit.
But plans go awry when Amaranthe’s own men start plotting against
each other, the new ally she’d hoped to acquire tries to turn her in,
and her best fighter—and closest friend—disappears.
Maybe getting involved wasn’t such a good idea after all…
Conspiracy (book 4):
When you’re an outlaw hoping for a pardon, and the emperor personally
sends a note requesting that your team kidnap him, you make plans to
comply…
Even if it’ll involve infiltrating a train full of soldiers,
bodyguards, and spies loyal to a nefarious business coalition that has
numerous reasons to hate you.
Even if it means leaving the city right after you’ve uncovered a secret weapons shipment that might be meant to start a war.
Even if it's a trap...
Blood and Betrayal (book 5):
The last thing Maldynado Montichelu—former aristocrat and current
ladies' man—ever wanted was to be left in charge. After all, the team
just blew up a train, crashed a dirigible, and kidnapped the emperor.
It's kind of an important time.
But, with Amaranthe captured by the nefarious Forge coalition, and
Sicarius off to find her, the team is lacking in leaders. Also, Sicarius
has made it clear that Maldynado’s life may be forfeit should anything
happen to the emperor while he’s gone.
To make matters worse, Forge’s cutthroats are after Sespian, and the
young emperor believes Maldynado's loyalties are suspect. As if it’s
his fault that his older brother is working with the coalition to usurp
the throne. If Maldynado can’t figure out how to earn the emperor’s
trust quickly, Sespian will go off to confront their powerful enemies on
his own.
Meanwhile, Amaranthe must find a way to escape from the coalition’s
newest ally, Master Interrogator Pike, a man who plans to pull all of
the secrets from her head, one way or another…
Forged in Blood I (book 6):
The emperor has been ousted from the throne, his bloodline in question,
and war is descending on the capital. Forge, the nefarious business
coalition that has been manipulating the political situation from the
beginning, has the ultimate weapon at its disposal.
If it was difficult for a small team of outlaws—or, as Amaranthe has
decided they should now be called, rebels—to make a difference before,
it's a monumental task now. If she's to return idealistic young Sespian
to the throne, earn the exoneration she's sought for so long, and help
her closest ally win the respect of the son who detests him, she'll have
to employ an unprecedented new scheme... preferably without destroying
the city—or herself—in the process.
Forged in Blood II (book 7/final):
Amaranthe Lokdon survives her reckless plan to destroy the enemy’s
weapon-filled super aircraft only to learn that thousands of people
perished when it crash landed. Half of her team is missing… or dead.
Meanwhile, the fighting in the capital has escalated, the Imperial
Barracks have been taken by a pretender, and a deadly new danger
threatens the populace. Amaranthe’s hopes of returning Emperor Sespian
to the throne and bringing peace to the empire are dwindling by the
hour.
To make matters worse, her strongest ally—and closest friend—has
been captured and is under a powerful wizard’s control. If she can’t
figure out a way to free Sicarius, he may kill them all when next they
meet…
