The Sword Defiant

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

If you've been looking for a classic take on the fantasy genre with maybe just a few tweaks, I highly recommend that you pick up The Sword Defiant. While there is a lot that's familiar here, there is just enough uniqueness to this story to make it really shine amongst all the other fantasy books out there. What I loved best, however, was the fact that our hero really wanted to do what was best for the every day people. He wanted to uphold his oath, when it felt like everyone else threw theirs away. Alf is a knight, an old, tired, worn-around-the-edges knight, who has an evil talking magic sword. He's tired of fighting, but he just does it anyway. And he will not allow anyone else to take the sword from him. The sword is his duty, and Alf doesn't want to give it up.

Anyway, the gist of the story is that a fellowship of barbarians, knights, paladins, dwarves, elves, etc, knocked down the old evil necromancer/lord. Twenty years later, one of them gets a vision that an evil is rising again. Alf is given a task to do, and while attempting to do said task, he tries to track down the old fellowship again. Unfortunately, they're all old, or jaded, or crazy, or just plain absent. It's this tweak to the classic fantasy tale that really makes this book standout. We're not fighting with young men here. Everyone's old. Everyone's frustrated and ready to be done with fighting evil. Alf tries to get them to see his side, but he's unfortunately left sort of...almost on his own.

The other main character is Alf's sister. Her son has run away/been kidnapped and she's doing everything in her power to get him back. As a mother should. She didn't back down once when someone told her to go home. She wasn't going home without her son, thank you. She wasn't a warrior, or a paladin, or anything. She was just a mom. I loved her. (Though I really would have loved to find out what she thought about something that happens at the very tail end of the book. We don't really get a reaction from her. Maybe in the next book?)

The world building here is insane. I don't want to give too much away because it's really neat to see it all unfold in the novel. There's the city that the Nine overthrew, and are now occupying — Necrad. It's seemingly evil, but everyone who lives there is just trying to get on with their lives. The magic is interesting, but it's pretty vague on how it works. There's sigils and spells, wands and staffs. Nothing's hammered out, but for this world it works. The villains are stand out, and pretty phenomenally powerful.

All in all, this is a fantastic fantasy, one that really feels like a grittier Lord of the Rings. Not necessarily darker, just grittier. Four and a half stars.