swords & sorcery

I have a terrible confession, & one I feel that I can now share, as I have a sword.

I sometimes read “Sword & Sorcery” books.

There. I’ve said it.

I find that after reading a weighty tome, or a “Good Novel”, there is a simple pleasure to be had from reading trash.

That said, I have just finished a Magnum Opus in the genre. The Banned & the Banished series by James Clemens runs over 5 books, and has taken up a fair bit of my spare time recently. It is a measure of the author that he managed to keep my attention for 5 books, and, in fact, they seemed to improve with the unfolding of the whole story.

Wit'ch Fire

It is set in the usual “land far off in time & space” where magic rules the land, and the regions are inhabited by dwarves, shape-shifters, ogres, mer-people, pirates, elves, nymphs, and of course the kind of rugged, good-looking humans that you often find in these books. They are of course opposed by the obligatory mages, demons, the possessed, evil creatures, all orchestrated by “the Dark One” (although “he is known by many names" :) )

The tale unfolds with the heroine Elena, & her pal Er’ril (there are lots of apostrophes here, & I never did find out why), gathering a posse of representatives of the above mentioned peoples, and doing battle with he who walks backwards. Sound’s a bit clichéd? Well, at one level it is, but at another level it remains fresh, and interesting, the author uses many unconventional story lines, and is never charry about killing off a much loved character when you least expect it. Because of this, he manages to maintain a tension that kept my interest right to the end.
Speaking of the end, that was well worth the wait, too. The author’s final twist was a good one, and tied all the threads together well.

So, overall, a good review. I would give the series 8/10 for the genre.