RogerBW's Blog

Swordheart, T Kingfisher 03 June 2024

2018 fantasy. Halla was taken in by her husband's family after he died, and has been working as a housekeeper for her great-uncle. Now he's died, and left everything to her, which of course the rest of the family won't let stand.

Her options are to die or to marry her vile cousin (and then probably die anyway), but in attempting to carry out the first part of this plan, she finds that one of great-uncle's swords has a guardian bound into it: Sarkis, a great warrior, from long enough ago that she's never heard of the place he came from. He's bound to assist the wielder of the sword, so off they go…

Parts of the story strained credibility, but she put so much passion into the bit about sleeping in hedges that it would have taken a harder man than Bartholomew to call her out on the other bits.

This is set in the same world as the Clocktaur Wars books, a few years later, but there's no continuity of characters. Like those books its principals are a middle-aged suicidal woman without adventuring skills, and a man who's lived by his sword. But this isn't a quest to save the city; Halla travels to find the Temple of the White Rat, whose priests have a holy duty to solve problems, and they tend to be lawyers and public speakers more than sword-wielding types.

As he watched, she picked up his sword and slung it over her shoulder, then carefully lifted Zale's crossbow and held it at arm's length, like it was a snake that might bite. "This thing isn't loaded, is it?"

"No," said Zale. "You can tell by the lack of bolts and the fact that the string isn't pulled back. Sarkis, forget my ropes, go take my crossbow away from her before she hurts it."

This time we also get the priests of the Hanged Mother, which is a bit Church of No Redeeming Virtues for my taste—any cult can attract bullies, but there seems to be a hole where the explanation of how they have political power should be—but makes a convenient enemy at least.

But really the balance has shifted away from adventure, though it's still there, and towards the relationship between the principals. I see this as a sequel to Kingfisher's fairy tale phase: sure, you can put two people in peril and they may cling to each other, but falling in love in a way that'll last takes rather more work than that, and that's what gets developed here.

Sarkis emerged from the scullery, looking soggy. "I have defeated the dishes."

"Were there any survivors?"

"The only casualty was some kind of monstrous serving plate with pears on it."

"Oh, that," said Halla with relief. "Dare I hope it's broken past any possible mending?"

Sarkis considered this for a moment, then went back into the scullery. Sounds of breaking crockery drifted through the open door.

"Yes," he said, returning.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: The Wonder Engine | Series: World of the White Rat | Next in series: Paladin's Grace

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1