Sword-Maker

Rating:
Summary: I read the whole series
Review: Last fall I did a search at the local library for books with the word "sword" in the title. I came across this series, and avoided it because book one was called "Sword Dancer". I finally succumbed, and made it through the first book.
As a classical fencer, I found the whole "sword dancer" thing annoying. Actual swordfights are described with words like "curlicues". The whole "Hoolies" thing was annoying.
The story is told from the story of an uneducated slave who won his freedom and spent years learning the sword and then hiring out to whomever had the cash. Yet he was really into describing fabrics and especially colors - maddened violet, or ochre, or whatever. Dozens of colors in a single paragraph.
And yet there was just enough to keep me interested, and I read each of the last three books straight through, one a night, staying up into the wee hours of the morning to finish before I slept.
It could have been a lot better - I'd love to see Dave Duncan get his hands on the stories and make all the sword fighting more believeable. But the books did hold my interest.

Rating:
Summary: I read the whole series
Review: Last fall I did a search at the local library for books with the word "sword" in the title. I came across this series, and avoided it because book one was called "Sword Dancer". I finally succumbed, and made it through the first book.
As a classical fencer, I found the whole "sword dancer" thing annoying. Actual swordfights are described with words like "curlicues". The whole "Hoolies" thing was annoying.
The story is told from the story of an uneducated slave who won his freedom and spent years learning the sword and then hiring out to whomever had the cash. Yet he was really into describing fabrics and especially colors - maddened violet, or ochre, or whatever. Dozens of colors in a single paragraph.
And yet there was just enough to keep me interested, and I read each of the last three books straight through, one a night, staying up into the wee hours of the morning to finish before I slept.
It could have been a lot better - I'd love to see Dave Duncan get his hands on the stories and make all the sword fighting more believeable. But the books did hold my interest.

Rating:
Summary: The series reaches a climax
Review: Roberson's five-volume series seems to be structured much like a Shakespearean play, and in this, which is Act Three, things rise to a peak. We find Tiger, the one-time slave turned sword-dancer, on his way back to his Southron homeland with his new jivatma (blooding-blade, a magical named sword) and the rank of kaidin (teacher of swordsmanship, in the Northern tradition), recovering from a nearly-fatal wound taken in his dance with Del, the Northern swordswoman who had become first his partner, then his lover--the woman he's sure died from the wound he gave her. Before too long, however, he and we both learn that Del is alive, and seeking to rejoin him; penitent at having "used" him in her attempt to get to know her daughter, she still needs him as a sparring mate if she's to recover her condition and "end her song"--kill the bandit Ajani who destroyed her family. Del and Tiger's journey leads them first to a village being harried by the "hounds" Tiger has sworn to destroy--magic-made animals created by the legendary centuries-old sorcerer Chosa Dei, whom Tiger kills, taking his spirit into his sword in the process--and from there to the deserted Border city of Iskandar, where the long-prophesied jhihadi, or messiah, is shortly expected to appear. There, in a literally whirlwind climax, they learn that the jhihadi is Ajani, and his Oracle is Del's younger brother Jamail, the slave-lover of a Southron desert chief.

Robeson maintains a pace that increases so gradually you almost don't notice what she's doing, yet holds your interest through over 400 pages of story. She also strews a few red herrings about the plot--I was convinced that Ajani would turn out to have found a way, not only to re-quench his jivatma, but to retain all the power each killing had given it, and Tiger is given news that convinces him Jamail is dead. Unlike many fantasists, she also gives thought to the inevitable results of a long career as a warrior: Tiger, at 36 or so, is beginning to feel his age, and actually entertains dreams of what it will be like to settle down on the domain he's promised if he wins the dance that will determine whether the tanzeers (desert princes) and nomad tribes will go to war or not. Del is equally human, even though she's sure her obsession with revenge has turned her into something else; her very doubts make it plain that she's not as far gone as she thinks she is. Cultural background about both Del's Northern people and Tiger's Southrons is subtly and liberally provided, and the Borderer family of Adara, Cipriana, and Massou from the previous volume, with the "horse-speaker" Garrod, makes a return appearance. The book would be improved by a map of Tiger and Del's world, and I would have liked a little more explanation of how Tiger failed to know that Del had survived their duel, but it's a well-written and skillfully-plotted tale of love, revenge, politics, magic, and the human potential.

Rating:
Summary: Crap! and CRAPPER!!
Review: This absolutely sucked. I couldn't stand it. Right from the start I knew this was gonna be bad but I said, hey what the hell, let's give it go. Of course I should have listened to meself the first! I would not recomemed to pre-schoolers. J.Roberson should really give a rest. I give her a star for effort (grunt!!) but not much else..
"Hoolies, my god those HOOLIES!!"

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: This is a pretty good book for people who like to read about sword-fights,romances,and magic. It is a slow story at the beginning and then comes up to speed about halfway through the book. Near the end is when I really got hooked on to the book and it started to get me thinking about what I had read. The reason that I enjoyed this book is simple, it let me find out what had happened in the prvious books. This is the first book of the series that I had read and it was easy to find out what had happened in the previous books. It gave information on what the past had been like for the characters and how different their worlds had been while growing up. I would recommend this book simply because it is an awesome gift to give a child that has an interest in fighting and likes to read about magic.

Rating:
Summary: I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar
Review: This is the story of a woman to be reconed with! The character, Del, is a woman I would love to be, but could never be. She is amazing, and so is her tale. Jennifer Roberson spun a tale that I still dream about.