Product Description

The story of an exotic oriental world. The empire of Saramyr has relied on the secretive sect of Weavers for far too long. Now the Weavers, manipulating space and time through the Weave of existence, are plotting the overthrow of the families. Their motives twisted by the Witchstones they draw their power from. As the empire crumbles the disowned abbearant daughter of the empire and a few scattered rebels must find out the secret of the true nature of the witchstones and rescue the empire from depravity and the rule of demons. Chris Wooding has an unrivalled flair for Machiavellian plotting, explosive description and memorable young characters. This is the ideal first adult fantasy for his teenage fans.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44679 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 992 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
With The Weavers of Saramyr, Chris Wooding begins his first adult fantasy trilogy, "The Braided Path". His previous work, most notably the Silver Smarties Award-winner The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray (2001), was published for younger readers.

Here the fantasy empire ruling the land of Saramyr has an oriental flavour, a level of technology that allows rifles and bombs and a communications system relying on magic--the sorcery of the dreaded, masked Weavers. By manipulating the magical Weave of the world, a kind of fantasy cyberspace, Weavers can not only send messages over any distance but manipulate minds, fight intangibly and kill. They are incidentally made rotted and cancerous by their masks, and have revolting habits such as raping and killing small children. Make no mistake, these are the bad guys.

All other forms of magic talent are denounced as Aberrant and the talent-owners condemned to death. Rebellion brews among the Empire's people and powerful noble factions when it emerges that the Heir-Empress Lucia is Aberrant, with gentle powers of communication with birds and earth-spirits. Meanwhile another girl, Kaiku, is orphaned when her family is both poisoned by an unknown hand and attacked by "shin-shin" demons. Kaiku soon finds that she herself is dangerously Aberrant, apt to send out waves of uncontrollable fire. Kaiku makes a quixotic journey with unusual companions, and, by use of the mask that is her sole inheritance, enters a protected place to discover the grim secret of what's slowly poisoning the land. It is not, as the Weavers insist, the existence of Aberrants. Kaiku and her friends join the Red Order, a sisterhood of trained Aberrants, in a desperate effort to save Lucia from the general bloodshed of the inevitable Imperial coup. Many characters fail to survive for the backlash expected in volume two.

Although Chris Wooding overdoes the repulsiveness of the Weavers themselves--nightmare caricatures rather than plausible villains--his talent for atmosphere and description makes this a memorably intense, exotic adult-fantasy debut. --David Langford

About the Author
Chris Wooding is only 28 yet he has already signed his first Hollywood film deal and won several awards for his writing. He is the author of, amongst others, the Broken Sky series, which has sold over 200,000 copies in the US alone, and The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, which won the Silver Smarties award. He has travelled extensively, plays bass and guitar and has recorded several albums with various bands and toured in Europe. His books have been published all over the world and translated into 19 languages, and his Braided Path trilogy for Gollancz was a critical and international success. He is currently working on two movies with a top Hollywood director.

Customer Reviews

A reminder of how good epic fantasy can be
The Empire of Saramyr is vast, rich and powerful. The Blood-Empress Anais tu Erinima is one of the most powerful and respected rulers in Saramyr's history, and her rule seems secure. However, the nobility learns that Anais' daughter Lucia has magical powers, marking her out as an Aberrant. Amongst the people of Saramyr only the Weavers are allowed to wield magic in the service of the Empire, and Aberrants - especially women - are to be killed on sight. Anais' determination that her daughter will follow her onto the Imperial Throne splits the nobility and incurs the displeasure of the Weavers, and the seeds of civil war are sewn.


Meanwhile, a young woman named Kaiku and her handmaiden Asara are the sole survivors of a devastating attack that leaves her home in flames and her family murdered. Taking refuge in the wilderness, Kaiku learns that she also harbours the powers that mark her as an Aberrant, but as she travels through Saramyr, trying to find the secret her father unearthed that got him and his family killed, she gradually learns that the Aberrants are not the wanton forces for evil the Weavers have presented them as, and that the Empire is facing many threats to its existence from within and without.

The Braided Path Trilogy was originally published between 2003 and 2005, consisting of the novels The Weavers of Saramyr, The Skein of Lament and The Ascendancy Veil. In 2006 the three books were re-released as a thousand-page omnibus simply entitled The Braided Path. It's well worth tracking down the omnibus edition with its plethora of maps and a very handsome cover.

The Braided Path is an epic fantasy and contains all the requisite battles, political intrigue and memorable characters the subgenre demands. It also has some nice twists on the conventions of the genre. The technology level is higher than normal, with rifles and cannons coming into use, and the culture of Saramyr skews towards Asia by way of Renaissance Italy. The Asian feel of the books makes itself known in the types of monsters that appear, the use of spirits and spirit magic and the types of languages that are featured in the book. Given that Asian-influenced fantasies can easily turn into The Lord of the Rings But With Ninjas!, the author avoids that temptation and successfully gives the trilogy a rich atmosphere.


The trilogy is deftly paced, with an enormous number of characters, conspiracies, plots, subplots and factions featured in its relatively modest length (the entire trilogy is shorter than a lot of Steven Erikson's individual Malazan novels, for example). It takes the reader on a wild and enjoyable ride, and it certainly reminded me of how good epic fantasy can be in the right hands. In fact, alongside The First Law Trilogy, The Ten Thousand and The Lies of Locke Lamora, The Braided Path is probably the most outright enjoyable work of epic fantasy I've read in the last few years.

There are a few minor niggles with the book. Occasionally the prose feels a little too modern, and the use of the word 'genetic' at one point feels slightly out of place. Wooding also hints at many other places in the world where stories could be waiting to be told but doesn't expand on them, although it's more of a compliment that he makes the world a living, breathing place that feels like it existed before the story begins and is still there when it ends. American readers may also feel short-changed that the trilogy is not available, at this time, from an American publisher, although copies of both the trilogy and omnibus are available as imports from Amazon.com.

The Braided Path (****½), in its omnibus format, is an excellent work of epic fantasy fiction and I heartily recommend it.

Something Different
A slight Oriental feel to the world in this book, which was different. The characters are well written, with interesting abilities. I liked the struggle that Kaiku endured during the story and the author wasn’t afraid to upset the reader by making bold choices. I enjoyed the Weaver characters, as they came over foul but interesting. The plot did slow a bit during detailed back history scenes, but not enough to spoil the story and the ending left me wondering what came next.

Excellent Oriental Fantasy With A Hint Of X-Men
The book is set on an oriental world slightly like that of Tsuranuanni from the Empire trilogy by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts with rival houses vying for more power through alliances and deceit. People appear to be more technologically advanced than in most fantasy novels with rifles and bombs the weopons of choice alongside swords and daggers, however this in no way detracts from the story and fantasy purists should not be put off.
The style of writing is excellent, descriptive but also fast paced and you find yourself completely immersed in this strange and beautiful world. The plot is well thought out with characters responding logically to situations and plenty of suspense thrown into the mix. Put simply this is the type of book which you constantly tell yourself that you'll go to sleep/do the washing up/walk the dog after reading just one more chapter.
My only complaint is that the Weavers are just too evil and despicable, it leaves them too one dimensional and how they come up with their plans for world domination while obviously completely insane is a little puzzling, as is why the noble families put up with their habits. This is a very small complaint about an excellent book and the other two books in the trilogy maintain the high standard set with this opener.
In conclusion this is one of the best fantasy debuts that i have read and i've read alot. If you enjoy fantasy novels by Feist, Martin, Eddings etc then you'll love this book. I've read it three times since its release and enjoyed it every time.