Vagrant has done some very interesting things with this fast-paced historical fantasy action-adventure debut. The Empire's Bladesmen is set in China during the Ming dynasty but comes with all our favourite paranormal elements, including overpowered vampires, zombie hoards and fell beasts, not to mention a tantalizing hint of what might be a very interesting version of the fae. The historical setting is clearly well researched and I really loved the depth it added to the worldbuilding. The battle scenes were nail-bitingly intense and kept me turning the pages.
There is a large cast of characters and this novel offers points of view from several of them. This, combined with the somewhat dry narration style, especially outside of the battle scenes, made this book a little hard to get into. I am glad I persevered and will most definitely check out the next book in the series when an opportunity arises.
All in all, I think this book will be of particular interest to those who love an overpowered hero going up against supervillains of the demonic kind and RPGLit readers who'd like something with a bit of a different setting. It's a fun read and there's definitely a lot to tantalize the mind.
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