The 19th Bladesman (Shadow Sword Book 1)
Author: S.J. Hartland
4 out of 5 stars
Kaell is the 19th bonded warrior of the God, Khir. His duty is too kill ghouls, beings that eat humans, and like every bonded warrior before him, he’ll die young. Along with doing his duty, the only thing he wants is to prove himself to Lord Vraymorg, who raised him and who he sees as a father. But while Kaell has accepted the few years he likely has left fighting ghouls, others have their own agendas, some of which include Kaell and Vraymorg. With the King wanting control of Kaell and also looking for an excuse to go to war with Tide’s End, Vraymorg is caught between his own duties and trying to protect Kaell.
This was, overall, a good book with a lot of positives. It has really good descriptions, and the world-building created a rich, epic fantasy. The author didn’t info dump all of the world’s history and culture, but instead, was able to fill in the details more naturally throughout the first half. The pace and flow were also good, although some sections were a bit too drawn out and could have been shortened.
Along with these too drawn out sections, there are some other negatives. For a while, I didn’t like any of the characters. Some of them did grow on me, notably Kaell and Vraymorg, but most of the others, I either disliked or was ambivalent to. To be fair, the characters I outright disliked the reader is not meant to like anyway, like King Cathmor. There are multiple sexual scenes in this book, though not graphically detailed. I didn’t care about that, and they added to the plot, what annoyed me was the scenes that just had bad timing. As an example, Kaell is at one point taken hostage and even when trying to figure out where he is being taken, still focuses on his female captors breasts. These moments were completely unnecessary in my opinion.
So overall, a good book that’s earned 4 out of 5 stars, but it’s just not for me. I also read the synopsis of the other books in this series, and none of them were compelling enough to make me want to read more. If you like epic fantasies with a focus on political maneuvering, alliance-making, and betrayal, then you’ll probably like this book. Actually, I’ve never watched or read Game of Thrones, so I only know the basics, but I can see some similarities. As I mentioned earlier, there are multiple sexual scenes, which does include some instances of sexual coercion.
Price through amazon Kindle: $3.99
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KS7SCVV
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