The Sword Defiant

I really wanted to like this more than I did. Don't get me wrong, I do think this is a good, well written book. I love Gareth's Black Iron Gods series - the weird twisted setting with mad gods and gaslamp fantasy. And to a certain extent the world here was also the star, a place where the dark lord has been overthrown and people are trying to pick up the pieces. The concept here is definitely good enough to draw me in.

What went wrong for me here then? The problem for me was one of the POVs. Alf, the grizzled old member of the crew who overthrew Lord Bone always stole the limelight (in particular his sword stole the limelight), and I constantly spent the other POVs time wishing that we were instead with Alf. The second story, following the mother of an abducted son just was no way near as engaging to me. This was either one too many POVs or too few POVs - if there had been additional stories for it to get mixed in with it would have been less obvious how unengaged I was with that particular story line. It was a narrative choice that just flopped a bit for me. That being said it was not awful. It was still very readable and everything else in the story really was well done.

Whilst this leans heavier on classical tropes than the Black Iron Gods series, The Sword Defiant does do a good job of bending them in interesting ways. Take the idea of undying elves. In this world they literally cannot die. They become revenants if slain and are eventually reborn. They can turn to vampirism to sustain themselves when mortally wounded. All this is some wonderful twisting of standard fantasy race tropes. There are clever twists on who the actual monster here is as well, through both current plot and allusions to the past (Lord Bone was a human lording it over the elves for example). Themes of prejudice are well dealt with. The world building really is top notch.

The central theme of the fading of the fellowship is also cleverly realized. The original heroic band who overthrew the dark lord are gradually dwindling - what happens then? It is some interesting questions to ask that take us away from standard fantasy plotlines.

I remain interested in what happens in the series, and as the story went along and the POVs converged the differentiation in my interest between them did lessen. I am intrigued to see where this goes so I do intend to continue the series. The world building really is up there with the best of the best! Hope we get more time with the sword and Alf going forward though!