The Blurb:
THE SWORD CARES NOT WHO IT CUTS
Many years ago, Sir Aelfric and his nine companions saved the world, seizing the Dark Lord’s cursed weapons, along with his dread city of Necrad. That was the easy part.
Now, when Aelfric – keeper of the cursed sword Spellbreaker – learns of a new and terrifying threat, he seeks the nine heroes once again. But they are wandering adventurers no longer. Yesterday’s eager heroes are today’s weary leaders – and some have turned to the darkness, becoming monsters themselves.
If there’s one thing Aelfric knows, it’s slaying monsters. Even if they used to be his friends.
The Review:
So I read another Gareth Hanrahan book, and I loved it just as much as every other book of his that I’ve read. Big shock, eh?
But seriously. Do you love epic fantasy with a high dosage of chaos and magic? Are you a fan of those kind of books that take a less romantic, slightly dirtier look at the genre (without going full grimdark)? Then you owe it to yourself to pick up The Sword Defiant.
I’m not going to fully repeat the blurb, but what we have here is essentially a story set after a story. The evil dark lord has been defeated by our band of heroes, and the world has moved on. That’s usually where these kind of stories end. Here, though, that’s where this story begins.
Think of the end of the Lord of the Rings through a more real-world lens. Mordor has been conquered, Sauron is no more… but, well… All that architecture is still standing. There are still, y’know, people living here. Sure they might all be of an “evil race”, but you can’t just go ahead and commit mass genocide. Maybe with better, non-evil-wizard leadership and some proper infrastructure, this place could thrive!
That’s where the world of The Sword Defiant is at, and I can’t stress enough just how well that concept brings the setting to life. We talk about settings feeling “lived-in” as a bar for good world-building, but that phrase feels like an understatement here. The amount of implied history in this world is staggering, and I loved how all of that history was used to layer complexities on top of the story. Gareth Hanrahan is one of the best in the business at creating fantasy worlds that feel alive.
But enough about the world, let’s talk about the characters. Alf is one of The Nine — the famed group of heroes that saved the world a number of years back. Since then… he’s kind of been going through the motions. Alf feels like he’s already served his life’s purpose, and so he kind of just wanders around, killing the odd stray monster that’s loitering around in the caverns underneath the city of Necrad. All the while, he carries around a sword (Spellbreaker) that was forged by the previous Dark Lord. This sword can talk. And it does. A lot.
Spellbreaker isn’t best pleased that his master isn’t around any more. He’s a snarky little bugger, and a bit twisted. He’ll bitch and moan, and he’ll demand that his bloodlust be sated, and he’ll throw off Alf’s balance at the last moment in an attempt to get him killed. In short, he’s a bit like a petulant kid that wants nothing more than his deadbeat divorcee dad to come back. I love him to death. And I love the relationship that he and Alf have. It’s not quite love/hate, it’s more… resigned-respect/hate.
Alf and Spellbreaker are the first of our POVs. The second is Olva, Alf’s estranged sister, who finds herself unwillingly dragged into an adventure when her son runs off to seek the same kind of glory as his uncle. Olva’s POV mostly serves as a way of showing us the rest of the world through someone else’s eyes.
The story here is driven by a capital-C Conspiracy. The Dark Lord’s tomb — sealed in such a way that only one of The Nine heroes could open it — has been opened. Political factions have formed, and another war seems increasingly inevitable. There is growing unrest in Necrad. More “human” forms of evil are becoming more prevalent. Alf, who maintains that all he’s good for is swinging swords at monsters, has to come to terms with the fact that his story isn’t over, and that the part he has to play isn’t the one he would have written for himself.
The mysteries in this book aren’t of the “Knives Out” variety. Not everything here fits neatly together. Sometimes, Alf just doesn’t collect all the information in time to draw the correct conclusion, and so occasionally he gets slapped in the face by a reveal. Sometimes this is his own fault. He’s a bit dumb, bless him, but he also has a habit of leaving things for “the clever people” to deal with, which sometimes walks hand-in-hand with the sense of naivety that he has towards his old friends of The Nine.
I feel like I’ve been conditioned by many mystery style stories to expect neat and tidy solutions. But that wouldn’t fit this story. The Sword Defiant is about all those human (and dwarven, and elvish) complexities that refuse to be boxed up with a bow. Some readers might not like this, and others may find issue with the relatively slow pacing (particularly with Olva’s chapters, which admittedly weren’t my favourite). But if I’m honest, I can’t imagine this story being told any other way.
The Sword Defiant is a fascinating take on the “what comes after” meta-genre of fantasy. It asks some of the same questions that the likes of George RR Martin have previously asked of Tolkien, but with a much more high-fantasy bent, and without going quite so grimdark. This is a book with a world that lives even when you close the the front cover. It’s a world that takes familiar fantasy archetypes, and turns them into cool characters with big personalities.
Is it the most character-focused book in the world? No, not really. Alf and Olva have some interesting layers, but the character I connected with most didn’t have any arms, legs, or a torso. It was a snarky, evil, one-eyed talking sword, that seemed to want nothing more than a place to belong.
I’ll say it again — I’ll read any book that Gareth Hanrahan writes. And if any of the above is of interest to you, then you should absolutely pick up a copy of The Sword Defiant.
ARC Disclaimer — I received an electronic copy of this book in advance of publication, in exchange for providing a fair and honest review. Thank you to Orbit Books UK for the review copy!
