There are twelve swords that were forged by the gods. They are swords of both made for the annihilation of your enemy and the healing of your allies. This is the story of the sword Woundhealer. even though it is not a sword that can be used offensively it is still sought after by many. The book begins by telling us about the son of prince mark that has an illness mental illness that makes him have a variety of different problems; such as blindness, the inability to move on his own, and has a sickness that is almost like autism. Prince Mark sets out on a quest to get the woundhealer and cure his son adrian of all the problems that he has. when he gets to where the sword had been hidden he finds out that it has been taken by one of his old enemies, the baron amitor who still has comand over his reptilian army. The prince's nephew Zoltan goes missing along the way and find himself far from his home in tasavalta. After a series of events he is given the sword Dragonslicer and tries to get back with the main group of soldiers and his uncle prince mark. This is a great book by Fred Saberhagen. It is full of action and suspense. I just started the series and this book made me want to read the rest of the books in the series, and the series before the lost swords. The theme of the book is that even though it will be harder to do the right thing than to do nothing at all it will pay of in the end. It also has the theme that the good will prevail over the bad. i would recommend these books to people that like science fiction. I would how ever not recommend it for people that don’t read science fiction. It would seem to far out there for those people.
You know, I don’t think I ever actually read this book before. I think my childish young self must have assumed that a story about a sword that heals couldn’t be that interesting. At least that’s the only reason I can think of for skipping the first book in a series. Hmm, no wait, as I recall now our local library was only spotty in what it had, so I just read what I could get. That’s probably a better answer.I love that this book was so fast moving. Written in 1986 at a whopping 278 pages it’s a cool breeze compared to modern sci-fi/fantasy epics. Again, I enjoy these hulking behemoths, but sometimes a speedy wyvern is nice.It’s a simple enough plot – King’s son is some kind of invalid, so King goes out hunting for the one possibly available method of healing him – chaos & intrigue ensues! We also get the beginning of what will eventually be an 8 book (bite-sized book!) epic in the way of the behind the scenes manipulations of the “Ancient One”. Side note: I forget how the main villain got from where he was in the earlier books (The Empire of the East trilogy) to here. Hopefully that will be mentioned in one of these books – maybe another one I couldn’t find at my childhood library!Simple plot aside, great fun, easy to read & keeps you going – but nothing spectacular to move you or make you say “awesome” out loud.THREE AND A HALF STARS
I wish I'd reread the earlier books before I got into this. Saberhagen isn't kind to new and returning readers in this series and I had some Wikipedia sessions trying to remember what I was missing. That said, this is a short, sweet continuation of an interesting, if somewhat puzzling, series. It's definitely more in the Glen Cook camp of fantasy than the Tolkien. In particular, there's a kind stylistic similarity to the Instrumentalities of Night series. Not really a lot of meat on this one, so we'll see what the further books hold.
—William P.
This is one of the classics of fantasy It's the story of twelve magical swords. In a world of magic, of gods and demons, Vulcan, smith of the gods creates twelve swords of unimaginable power. Power so great that they overcame the gods themselves. Now nations and would be kings fight over control of the swords, and powers and age-old demons vie for control of the world.This story if from what I would like to call the Golden Age of Fantasy. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. There are one or two lovable rogues to round out the cast. It has little in common with the oversexed, conflicted, morally ambiguous adventures of today's fantasy works. Those can be fun and enjoyable, but this novel is a much more uncomplicated but no less suspenseful book
—Mike
It’s a light kind of story, full of adventure and magic and intrigue. I think reading it that it may be just the thing for a twelve-year-old. It’s not bad. Certainly Saberhagen weaves in fantastic details. But the plot’s a bit thin, and the characters weren’t well-developed. Either there’s too much of an assumption that the reader will know them from the author’s previous series or the author is just not that good at developing characters. They aren’t engaging and I never feel like any of them have any real depth. There are too many gaps and clumsily handled transitions, and the writing is uneven at best. It folds back in on itself as though it has forgotten where it’s been and so it stumbles. And the sword: from the title the story is all about Woundhealer and yet the only time we see it in action it is utterly helpless. So that wasn’t very satisfying.
—Kate
