This is my favorite book in the Magic of Ethshar series,closely followed by The Blood of a Dragon. I recorded most of them, including this one, in 50-55 minute installments for my local Golden Hours radio service for blind or reading-impaired listeners. I also made CD copies for myself.Valder is an Ethsharitic Scout who has been cut off by a Northern Alliance offnsive, trapped behind enemy lines, and is pursued by an enemy patrol which includes at least one wizard and possibly a shatra, a demon warrior which is more than a match for any single swordsman. He comes upon a hermit living in a swamp and the enemy patrol destroys the hermit's hut and most of his supplies, but the hermit turns out to have powerful magic of his own and is able to protect them, but this still leaves Valder alone, miles behind enemy lines, and with only his sword and sling to defend himself with.In order to get rid of him, the hermit wizard uses what few supplies he has left to cast an enchantment over Valder's sword, telling him only its name, Wirikidor, and to not unsheath the sword until he has departed the swamp, nothing more.It is left for Valder to discover the nature of the enchantment on Wirikidor -- a blade at once cursed and enchanted, a misenchanted blade that makes him unbeatable.He learns that once drawn, Wirikidor can't be sheathed until it his drawn blood. In fact not merely drawn blood, but KILLED, and that it will always kill the first opponent it faces, and will not settle for wounding or incapacitating its "victim." On the other hand, Valder learns that it can then be sheathed, recharging itself to kill the next time it is drawn.Wirikidor is not compelled to kill women or beasts, but it does enhance Valder's swordsmanship enough for him to fend off a young dragon long enough to escape up a tree. Then he learns that Wirikidor is even powerful enough to defeat a shatra in single combat, once it has drawn demon's blood. This unprecedented feat brings Valder safely back through Ethsaritic lines, and to the attention of the Wizarding authorities, who take Wirikidor away from Valder to examine its properties, that is until one of the other charms on it compells its return to Valder by the quickest means possible.Once the wizards have finally completed their investigation they give Valder the bad news:[Warning Spoiler Alert - Read the book for yourself to learn Wirikidor's secret - or proceed at your own cost.]1) Wirikidor means man-killer or warrior killer and it will always kill the first man or man-like person it encounters once it is drawn, and cannot be sheathed until it has killed.2) Wirikidor is bound to Valder by a spell of true-ownership, which will compell its return to him by any means possible, even using earthquakes, tidal waves, or tornados if necessary to return itself to him. The true-ownership spell will also protect Valder himself from dying, but not from being harmed, unfortunately.3) Wirikidor's blade has a spell which will keep it ever-sharp, and protect it from being damaged by anything short of a major catastrophic spell, a spell that would likely kill the wizard who casts it, along with anybody else within several hundred yards of Wirikidor.4) The above spell of true-ownership has been corrupted somehow, and will only last until Valder has drawn Wirikidor approximately 100 times, plus or minus one or two, which means that after Valder has used the sword's power to kill 98 to 102 times, he will then be the only person in the entire world UNABLE to draw Wirikidor, and the first person who does draw the sword will immediately kill Valder with it and thereby become its master (or its slave) until it has claimed one fewer victims for its new owner.5) This chain of circumstances will continue until 98 (or 102) of the sword's owners have died on Wirikidor's blade along with approximately 5100 other victims of its enchantment, and the sword's final owner is forced to turn Wirikidor on himself.What aghastly spell!The rest of the story involves Valder's use of Wirikidor to conduct clandestine assassinations of the Northern Alliance's top wizards and generals, until that is Valder realizes he has lost count of Wirikidor's victims and that he is in any case too close to the sword's magic number for comfort.He decides to go into retirement, becomes an innkeeper, and discovers the last of Wirikidor's unfortunate curses: while he cannot die as long he owns Wirikdior, he does age, and undergo the usually bodily deteriorations of aging, and Valder doesn't care for the implications of that one bit!Most of the story revolves around the various ethical dilemmas posed by ownership of "The Missenchanted Sword," and how Valder resolves each one in turn, and how he ultimately acheives contentment and happiness, which is not always true for a Lawrence Watt-Evans hero.Finally, Valder learns how the spell became corrupted, from the wizard who cast the spell in the first place.
Reviews Of Unusual Size!Re: Accidentally finding himself behind enemy lines, Valder the Scout stumbles across a crotchety old hermit in the swamp. After his bumbling brings the enemy who destroys the hermit's home, which is also his wizard's workshop, the old man enchants Valder's sword to get him back home and out of his hair. But the sword has a few quirks...Outstanding: Everything about this story is unique. The hero doesn't want to do anything but settle down and be comfortable. He doesn't want to be a leader or a legend. He just wants some ale and dry socks. This is Watt-Evans first foray into the fantasy land he calls Ethshar, and he creates a world fully rounded and familiar, but different enough to be a lot of fun to explore.Unacceptable: Nothing. Seriously.Summary: In my opinion, this may be the greatest lighthearted fantasy novel ever written. I've re-read it dozens of times and had at least three copies of the book stolen from me by smitten new fans. (I have a tendency to pick up any copies I can find in used book stores to give to people) The hero is original and relateable and he lives in a magical world that has spawned 9 additional novels. And the spell on that titular sword? Hilariously wicked, creative and awesome.You should go out and buy this today.5/5Notes: Unfortunately, with sales lagging, the Ethshar series was canceled by Watt-Evans' publishers a few years back. So the author started selling it himself in a creatively awesome way - He posts the chapters on his website in serialized installments as each chapter is paid for. Then, once the novel is complete and released, he does an edit and releases it in a full form. I love it. http://reviewsofunusualsize.blogspot....
What do You think about The Misenchanted Sword (2000)?
I’ve read reviews of Watt-Evans’ work as being “pedestrian.” Meaning that nothing truly spectacular happens. Nothing earth-shattering or even exciting. This is true about this book, definitely.Valder gets an enchanted sword, and he doesn’t do anything with it. This is kinda refreshing, though it might have been nice for something to happen as a consequence. Instead there’s a lot of musing on things that might and could happen as a result of this enchanted sword, but we don’t get to see any of it. In fact, there are lots of passages where the narrator presents possibilities, but nothing ever becomes of them and without these long passages of possibility the book would be half as long.Why? Because this is a story about an ordinary life, and as we all know very little of great importance happens in ordinary, everyday life. There’s very little to keep you interested once the Great War ends. We don’t get to know Valder very well, so his ordinary life is about as interesting as a pedestrian passing you in the street. This makes the book easy to put down. All this potential and Valder spends 40 years as an innkeeper. It seems like a waste of an adventure, but it is as realistic as you can get.Really...if an ordinary person were given a magic sword, would he build his life around it or would he settle for something simpler? We all want adventure in our lives, but if we got it would we want to live that way forever or would we choose to run an inn instead? And if we were granted immortality, would we do exciting things, travel to distant lands, take enormous risks, or settle for a quiet life?It’s disappointing and pedestrian--not very interesting but not totally boring either (that’s life). If a random person on the street named Valder just out of blue started telling you his life story you wouldn’t hate the man, but you probably wouldn’t care that much about him either.
—James Steele
A traditional piece of fantasy for any wizard or sword loving reader. The book takes us through the land of Ethshar, where wizards, dragons, demons and endless wars are waged. Long behold a petty scout stumbles upon a lonely hermit and is bestowed a gift. Or at first that's what our scout Valder thought.The story as a whole was an entertaining piece of fiction. The book which is broken up into three "parts" tells the life of a scout who obtained an enchanted sword. His gift which has become a curse and his fate in the army where he is certainly exploited. Valder is an enjoyable character not your typical muscle, warmongering person.The author does an adequate job at trying to fill the vast world of Ethshar yet falls short in doing so. This long Great War that has been waged for countless generations really has no meaning, why are they still fighting? Among a half of the book set in a war time setting Valder is appointed in the handling of "special" missions. This is where I feel the book falls short. During his special missions the author really does not go into much detail at all. Instead he finds a not so clever way of advancing the plot and just continually stating how "Valder has a magical sword and hes doomed with the curse of wielding it."With all things said and done, I did enjoy this book and at a price of $1.50 at a used book store it was certainly a steal. And I will continue to read at least the next book in the series only because that too was $1.50. However the world of Ethshar itself is just not as epic and outstanding as I hoped it would be.
—Justin
This story read like 2 completely different novellas bridged together with a common background. The first acquaints the reader with the tedium of the millennium-long war that encompasses the lives of the people. During this part of the tale, while on scouting duty, the main character, a soldier, meets a wizard who is also a hermit, accidentally leading a raiding party of the enemy (aka ‘the other side’) to the wizard’s hut. As payment (?) the wizard enchants the soldier’s military-owned-and-issued sword. Life gets interesting for the soldier after that, as he finds out by trial and error what his sword can do, and for the most part this is interesting and fun. Then change happens, the paradigm shifts, and all becomes tedious again for several pages. It all wraps up in a convenient sweet package, but it leapt past the bounds of logic (view spoiler)[ especially with the wizard reappearing at the end with a toss-off comment which could be an explanation of why the Spell of True Ownership on the sword doesn’t work right. (hide spoiler)]
—Doris
