Sword-Dancer

Renowned sword fighter Tiger is approached by a woman looking to rescue her brother from a life of slavery. They set out across the desert and fantasy hijinx ensue.

A buddy cop sword and sorcery eighties fantasy. Not too long, but with plenty of magic, mystery, sexual tension, swords, sex, castration, sexual tension, sex, and swords. This author is not afraid of coming right out and saying what the characters are thinking and doing. Nor is she afraid of putting the characters into really dire straits.

They do get out of those situations a little too easily sometimes, and some of the writing is repetitive and a bit vague (rarely). However, this is a 5 star book on account of the characters. These are real people. I want to know what happens to them in the next book (more than just wanting to know if they sleep together).

What a fun time! Tiger's internal dialogue is hilarious. It can be a bit heavy handed with explaining to the reader how he's wrong about women, but this was written in the 80's. And it quickly establishes what we all know nowadays, that women are badass too. Tiger gets better. He grows up about it. Then you get an emotional story of two broken people figuring out their lives, together.