The first book in Anna Smith Spark’s Empires of Dust trilogy, The Court of Broken Knives is a grand, sweeping, brutally violent and beautifully written tale of ambition, politics and power. In the city of Sorlost, heart of the once-mighty Sekemleth Empire, powerful men plan a bloody coup in the name of protecting their way of life against the growing boldness of enemies all around. The Free Company of the Sword, contracted to kill the Emperor, make their way through the desert to Sorlost, in their midst a young man fleeing from disgrace but destined for great and terrible things.
From a simple premise – Orhan Emmereth plans to assassinate the Emperor, and hires foreign mercenaries to do the deed – comes a complex story exploring, among other things, devious political maneuvering and the balance of power between church and state, the importance placed upon lineage and bloodlines, and the cost and implications of both loyalty and treachery. This is all set to the backdrop of an incredibly detailed and developed world populated by characters with rich histories, and the whole thing has an intriguing balance of gritty, grounded reality and epic, operatic mythology. On the one hand there’s dragons, sorcery, ancient gods and ritual sacrifice, but on the other hand, the characters are driven by relatable goals like love, survival and revenge, and somehow it all blends together nicely.
There’s a lot to absorb, with no real introductory exposition and a slow, steady build-up of pace as it gradually becomes clear exactly what’s happening and why, and how the characters’ pasts are influencing their actions. At times it’s apocalyptically violent, with characters performing unspeakable acts in order to survive and succeed – especially Marith, the young mercenary – and while (thankfully) the worst is usually inferred rather than outright shown, there’s still plenty of gruesome violence on display. Smith Spark’s characters are all pretty reprehensible, murderers and liars and traitors all, but there’s still something compelling about them, with a recurring theme of contrasting emotions of desire and disgust in how they see themselves and each other. Despite an apparent lack of relatability, the everyday dynamics within their relationships help to provide a sense of reality and maintain interest in what might otherwise have been unremittingly unpleasant characters.
It’s not always the easiest of reads, not just by virtue of complex world building, slightly rambling plotting and grim characters, but also Smith Spark’s powerful, evocative style of writing which combines changing perspectives and tenses with hypnotic, stream of consciousness descriptions and a visceral sense of violence and urgency. It’s a style which is likely to surprise and delight as many readers as it puts off, and means that this is a book which rewards patience, and requires the reader to perform a strange balancing act of going with the flow, trying not to overthink things, and paying attention to the little details. It’s a book tailor made for readers looking for dark, bloody fantasy with a distinct voice and lashings of ambition, a book which doesn’t try to please everyone but instead treads its own path and succeeds because of its idiosyncrasies.
Click here to buy The Court of Broken Knives (or here for the audiobook version).