The Back-Cover Blurb was the best part of the book; not that the book was bad … in fact, it was actually a fairly average read, I was just expecting better. The pieces are all there with the standard fantasy tropes. A powerful empire with equally powerful enemies. Political intrigue between the cast of noble houses (which are called Guilds for some reason I can’t quite figure out except for the royal grant of monopoly on some aspect of industry). Noble scions struggling to find their place in a world of plots and betrayals. Magical machines and witches in abundance … but they way they are put together seemed so awkward to me that I continually found myself knocked out the story by strange word choices that didn’t seem to fit the context (its a preview draft, I was was expecting some odd wording). Perhaps this was just a cultural mismatch; however, as something of a logophile, I usually enjoy a good play on words and this just seemed like the author had a large thesaurus where words were stretched a little too far to be natural in the story. Add to that a large number of made up words thrown in without enough of the expected context (or explanatory text) for me to easily figure them out and it makes for a tough slog.

Examples of some of the silly story telling … <spoiler>
“Conall had been seconded to Agavere on the northern coast of the Karna Frontier.” This is where my own experience is a problem. To me you are posted to a location and seconded to a command structure. That is not what is happened here and it caused be some confusion when I encountered this.

“Tyreta entered the building, hit immediately by the stink of oil and burning metal.” … the problem I have here is that burning metal makes it virtually useless … so why do it (assuming he is not referring to burning slag in a foundry)? Adding to that is the difficulty in getting the necessary oxygenation level in iron/steel that is thinker then steel wool, and the word choice here becomes problematic instead of just saying burning oil and hot metal.

“She felt no fatigue as she piloted the stormhulk, accelerating to catch up with him, running faster and harder that she had ever run before.” […] “Over the treetops New Flaym was perched on the coast. It was tiny in the distance, and they had clearly run for miles without her even realizing it.” The problem … they were in huge, magic fueled, iron robot like Jaegers where they spent the entire time running in a cockpit. And then you have perched on the coast? Perched is a strange word choice that also doesn’t seem to fit when you consider the usual definition implies an elevated position. So it could be perched on the mountains of the coast … but just the coast seems odd to me.
</spoiler>

I know this is nit picking … but this happens A LOT and the rest of the story just didn’t make up for it, so there you have it.

There is an initial legend that briefly introducing some of the players and guilds in the story before you actually encounter them (not as helpful as you might think). Then we get the Prologue that opens with an introduction of what appears to be the Big Bad for the Torwyn Empire? Or it is simply the past and has no bearing - it is hard to tell. As teasers go, it was fair to middling. Then we jump into Part One with the Emissary from Kingdom of Nyrakkis (part of Malador, a perennial enemy of the Empire) that is reaching out for peace and trade … who apparently just hands over terms before sightseeing around the city with one of Emperor’s nephews … by themselves!? Needless to say, this clumsy setup is how one of the MCs is framed and ends up in enemy hands. Hidden in here is a very brief reveal about wars fought between “Torwyn and the demon lords of Malador in centuries past” which I assume is the link to the Prologue.

In Part One The Emissary, we have five (5) POV, with most being from the same Guild/Family (Hawkspurs): Tyreta (Heir), Fulren (Youngest), Rosomon (Matriarch), and Conall (Eldest), with Lancelin (Nemesis) towards the end. Frankly I had a hard time liking, or even identifying, with any of them. There were some unexpected plot twists that were fun and interesting though, and that helped keep me in the story. Some of which were very GOT’ish and not particularly appealing. It is through the adventures of the children that we start to see more of the world building, of which I enjoyed the trip into Maladorian (necromancer bad guys) and Keshan (orcish savages) society the most. The remaining POV were so many wasted words IMHO … the frontier military life seemed particularly ridiculous and nearly unworkable from a military discipline point of view … and the court intrigue of the other two felt overly simplistic and somewhat predictable.

In Part Two The Uprising … it doesn’t get much better; in fact it just becomes a disjointed hot mess where the MCs struggle to survive challenges largely of their own making before the story just ends without any significant resolution (aka cliffhanger).

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#EnginesOfEmpire #NetGalley.

Scene: Driving Home From Thanksgiving. It’s dark in Northern California and everyone in the car is tired. Wife and husband, Samantha and Paul are in the front seat, and eight-year-old Amanda is in her booster in the back.

Paul: Wanna hear about the book I’m reading?

Amanda: Sure!!

Samantha (doing air quotes over fantasy books): Oh, another one of his fantasy books…

Paul (aside): What the hell does that mean!?

Paul: Well, thank you, Amanda for your positivity! It’s about this empire and this other empire who they’ve been warring with for years and years and years… but the other empire sends over an ambassador to broker a possible peace. But, just days into her visit she is assassinated and it’s pinned another royal!

Samantha (mid-eyeroll): OMG, are there dragons now?!?!?!

Paul: Your mother may not like this genre of literature, but she doesn’t not have to poke fun at it. We don’t make fun of pilates? Do we?!?!

Amanda: A little…

Paul: You’re right… Sorry… Back to the story! So, I forgot to tell you that the story focuses on the emperor’s aunt and her kids. One kid is accused of murder, as I told you. Another one is lost in a jungle possibly looking for the potent material that powers machines all over the empire. And the oldest son is off fighting revolutionaries… It’s all over the place! And fun!

Amanda: I wanna read that!!!

Samantha: What are you doing to our daughter?

Paul: Fantasy fans rule!!

Amanda: Yes!!!!!!!

5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit Books, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

Ford’s Engines of Empire is the first novel in an epic fantasy that throws about everything including the kitchen sink at you. Set in an age of swords and kings and guilds, there are also artifices and airships and jewels of power as well as giant mind-controlled machines. Moreover, there are ramshead giants, flying reptiles, trained war eagles, and all kinds of fell creatures. Magic too plays a strong role as demons and witches abound. But with all these different things, the fantasy world offered still feels genuine and authentic.

Engines of Empire, as so many novels these days do, offers a number of alternative points of view rather than just following one character through a series of adventures. The Hawkspurs Guild is though the center of attention and, not only is head of the guild Rosomon given a point of view, but each of her children, the princes and princesses, who are headstrong and full of themselves and have to mature into their roles. Conall is sent off into the military to patrol the Desolation on the borders where he must learn to follow orders and not act impulsively. Fulren is a craftsman who has to learn who to trust and what the limits of his craft are. Tyreta heads off into the jungle playing games with giant machines, but learns how to become a leader. Each of these characters begins the story well-placed with no worries but faces a world with everything they knew and relied on ripped out from under them.

It’s a terrific read right from the spellbinding action in the prologue to the last page. There’s plenty of action to keep you fascinated through many hours of reading.

Cannot wait to read more from this author. This was fantastically imaginative concept, I enjoyed it a lot. Great world building and multiple point of view. It makes for a great read as I thoroughly enjoyed this book.