Thread: Review of my favourite Sword and Sorcery Novels

This thread is based on a recent post of mine in Jenna's "what book are currently reading thread". I thought it would be useful for fellow fans to read a few short reviews of my favourite books, and also for them to suggest other series that I have not covered here, which I will update in the main topic. I for one seem have read most of the genre now, and my bookcase to full to overflowing. As such, I am struggling to find decent series that I have yet to read, and would love to have others offer me their recommendations.

To start off with, I suppose for those people who have not really read the genre, a brief description is in order.

Sword and Sorcery is one of the major areas of the ScienceFiction/Fantasy genre, and deals with, as the name suggests, magic and associated stories. It is quite common to find the main protagonist of any of the series to posses varying levels of magic, and for the setting to be in some sort of medieval parallel world, set with armies, castles and waring nations. Most series are based around the idea of one man/woman fighting for good, against evil, but the following authors and series that I will mention below tend to break the mould somewhat, and as such are worthy of a mention.

1. Brent Weeks: Night Angel Trilogy

I would suggest this series as a must for anyone yet to read the genre. It is a well thought out and gripping series that unlike a lot of other S&S series is a succinct trilogy, thoroughly gripping from start to finish. The main protagonists is a character named Azoth, and covers his development from a child living on the streets, through to adulthood and his various encounters.

The story starts as Azoth, escaping from his street life, by apprenticing himself a wetboy(assassins that use magic). The first book deals mostly with his training, and learning to come to terms with his powers, both magical and mundane. His nemesis, a boy called 'Rat' turns out to be one of the sons of the leader of the most powerful nation on the world, completing his trial to fully become son of the King. The story turns to see Rat leading an invasion into Azoth's city, and deals with Azoth's reaction and actions in mitigating this threat. Later books deal with other issues relating to Azoth, prophecy, and the same all conquering nation. The character development is excellent, with many other peripheral characters covered in great detail. You will easily find yourself loving them, and hating them, and will be drawn into the story. There is no 'perfect' character. Many of those fighting for the side of 'good' have their fair share of faults, and are much more likeable because of it.

I could not put these books down once I started reading them!!!

Terry Goodkind: Sword of Truth
This is a much longer series, consisting of a grand total of 9 books, of which the last 3 are a single story path split into a trilogy. This is undoubtably one of the best examples of the genre.

The story starts of detailing the adventures of a simple woods-guide named Richard Cypher, and his adventures after meeting a woman named Kahlan from a land that has been shut away by magic for several generation.

For the first books, the story deals with a world that has been split into three after a great magical war some 50 years previous. D'Hara, the Midlands and the Westlands. D'Hara was a nation led by an evil ruler, Panis Rahl, that attempted utter domination of the New World (as the three lands were called). A great wizard used a constructed magic to split the world into 3, shutting of the invading hoards in D'Hara, creating a world for those wanting to live with magic in the Midlands, and for those who wanted to live without in the Westlands. The first book deals with a world in which the barriers are beginning to fail, and Kahlan's, Richards, and the great wizards quest to restore order to world. Richard is granted a sword, and becomes known as the seeker of truth, the only one able to stop Darken Rahl, the son of Pannis, from completing his fathers work.

These books are truly an awesome epic, with very original views of magic compared to most others of the same genre. The author has a talent for very detailed story telling, half covering issues in early books, before tying up and explaining every point by the end. After reading the initial books you can feel as though some things need more explanation, but the talent of Terry Goodkind supplies more information in every subsequent book, building up an exceptional picture of the state of the world, and giving the reader an understanding of exactly what is involved. This method of story telling leaves you always wanting more, and succeeds in keeping you interested until the very end. The final 3 books are absolutely superb, clearly up issues in an exceptionally well thought out manner, that have been there since the end of the very first book.

There are a couple of slow books in the middle of the series, but this does not really detract from the overall series. If you start reading these books now, consider yourselves lucky. When I started reading them only the first one was finished. It took me a total of 15 years to get to the end, and boy, was that annoying.

A little warning to those of a squeamish nature, these books very accurately portray the ideals of an invading army, cover things such as murder and rape, and get progressively darker the deeper you get into a series. There is not an evil 'God' in these books, but rather evil people and ideals.

This is probably my favourite S&S series.

Robert Jordon: Wheel of time
This is a very long series, be warned! Currently 11/13 planned books have been released, with the final two due to be out in the next year. Sadly the original author died before finishing the series, after book 10, but left extensive notes on how he envisioned the series finishing. The final books are being written by a different author.

This series deals with several characters from the same village, all touched by fate to be major players in the future development of the world. The books use a concept that all people are patterns on a wheel, destined to die and live again as the wheel turns. Those destined for greatness, have already been great in the past.

In particular, the three main characters are Tavereen, those with the ability to weave the pattern around themselves. The series covers their humble beginnings as farmers, to their rise to greatness as leaders of the world. In effect it is an all out war against the Dark one, trying to destroy their world.

There is an interesting twist on the use of magic in these books, with men and woman both dealing with different sides of the 'true power'. Each side is used differently by the different sexes, but are most powerful when used together. At the start of the series, the only magic users in the world are woman, in ages past, the men banded together to attempt to lock away the dark one, but unsuccessfully. The male side of the power was tainted, causing all male users to go mad and cause much destruction. Since that time, any male magic users have been hunted down in order to avoid the same fate. Rand Al'thor, the main character and Dragon Reborn, changes all that, he is destined to lead the fight against the dark one, and save the world. Sadly, he is not immune to the dark ones taint, and as the books progress he is slowly drawn into the madness that all male users are susceptible to.

It is a struggle for his friends to control him, and advise him, which they must do, to save the fate of the world. Again there are a couple of slow books in the middle of the series that can seem a bit lost in the grand scheme of things, but over all a definite must read for the S&S fan.





Raymond E Feist: Riftwar/Sepentwar/Demonwar Sagas
These books are another series dealing mostly with Sorcery and war, and in fact was one of the first of the genre that I read. I still enjoy them now, which shows just how good they really are.

Initially dealing with the survival of the protagonists home nation, against invading countries, later series begin to develop the story of a greater, darker hand acting behind the scenes.

The first series starts off with Pug, and orphan boy, becoming apprenticed to the court magician, and not very successfully to boot. He in undoubtably talented, but his master, Kulgan, believes he is experiencing some kind of block. Netherless, he manages to ingratiate himself to the local Lord, by saving the life of his daughter. Gaining title and station.
The story forwards to the discovery, by Pug, of an alien ship wreaked upon the shores of the cost, with humans with strange armour and weapons. It turns out to be the start of an invasion of the Kingdom by the peoples of a powerful and distant world. The story covers the story of Pug, and his boyhood friend Thomas, travelling with the duke and his party to inform the King of the invasion of the Kingdom.
During their travels, Thomas is lost, but manages to escape and dons the amour and an ancient and powerful race, imbued with their power, and starts to change. Pug meanwhile carries on with the Dukes party.
It is discovered that the invaders are entering the world by a magical 'rift' between worlds. As such Kulgan and Pug are sent with an exploreity unit to investigate the rift and determine if it can be shut down.
Pug is taken prisoner during the mission and assumed dead. In fact, Pug is actually taken to a slave camp, where he remains until he is discovered by a local magician, a 'great one' and he is trained and truly starts to come into his powers. The books deal with the repelling of the forces invading the Kingdom, and of Thomas and Pugs rise to power.

Later books and series deal with deeper issues, and become more related to the fight of magical powers to save the world, rather the coming together of armies to save the Kingdom. This is one of the few series that I have reviewed that contains the magical creatures that one would expect in such a genre, i.e. Dragon, Elves, Dwarfs and Goblins.

A fully enthralling series, that I would recommend any fan to read as a must.

There are many other series that I have read, but these above are by far the best. I hope some of you will get as much enjoyment out of them as I have.

Please feel free to leave your own reviews as I would greatly enjoy reading them

Thanks, Jameo. It must have taken you a while to write all that info.

I just copied the Brent Weeks trilogy to my reader. I'll share my impressions sometime soon ;)

What you think of the book then Koko? :)

Nice write up Jameo, have read and agree with all that you say here!!
Great advice!

I've read all Terry Goodkind books few times, they are amazing.
Going to take a look at Brent Weeks, I didn't read his books.
Anyway thanks for the review!

George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire"

A Song of Ice and Fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fantastic books although it looks like the last books will never come.

The perspectives change so much and there are so many characters it took me a few failed attempts before I got into the series. Once I was into it I was really impressed, it isn't the same pretentious BS you get with most fantasy authors.

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman: The Death Gate Cycle
The Death Gate Cycle is a seven-part series (heptalogy) of fantasy novels written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The main conflict is between two powerful races, the Sartan and the Patryns, which branched off from humans following a nuclear/anti-matter holocaust. Centuries prior to the events of the series, the Sartan attempted to end the conflict by sundering the earth into four elemental realms, and imprisoning the Patryn in a fifth prison world, the Labyrinth. The Sartan took up stewardship of the elemental realms, but soon mysteriously lost contact with each other and disappeared. Centuries later, a Patryn known as Xar escaped the Labyrinth, and started returning to the Labyrinth to rescue others. He learned how to access the other worlds and dreamed of freeing all his people from the Labyrinth and conquering the other worlds. The books follow the fiercely independent Haplo, a Patryn agent sent to scout the elemental worlds and throw them into chaos in preparation for his Lord's conquest of them. Weis and Hickman created five distinct fantasy worlds during the course of the series, along with developing the cultures of five major races, their unique Patryn and Sartan, and the common fantasy races of dwarves, elves, and humans.

source: The Death Gate Cycle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Complete with footnotes on the science, history, and facts of magic, the worlds, and the people make this series thoroughly enjoyable and one of my favorites - I also second the motion on Jameo's writeup on Raymond E Feist: Riftwar/Sepentwar/Demonwar Sagas and hopefully I'll find time along the way to read his other aforementioned sets.