The story is told from the point of view of the central character, the protagonist, teenage Luke. As the story opens, he is about to turn thirteen, and he is concerned with typical teenage boy things, such as friends, fighting, and competition. Luke has been practicing with his sword ready for the big contest, and battle game where armies of boys are led by four captains against each other.This book is set in feudal England, with a medieval level of technology. Each of the cities across England has their own Prince, who rules as an absolute monarch. There are no parliaments. However, The cities all have modern names. Each of these cities is competition with one another, and there is constant conflict and war between them all. It is expected of each Prince to lead his army out against a neighbouring city. Any perception of weakness will bring another city’s army to your door. All cities are therefore walled and fortified.Machinery is outlawed, and perceived as evil. To mess with machines is thought to bring about ruin. The mythology of the society says that the machines brought about the great destruction. All buildings are made of wood, and characters express the idea that constructing large buildings out of stone or concrete is asking for trouble. They think that using machines, and building in anything other than wood, is arrogance leading to an individual’s, or a society’s downfall.“Although no one would now be so foolish as to build in stone it was used in foundations, and from time to time men took loads from the ruins for this purpose”.Along with this medieval style thinking, women are only allowed household duties, and must not have any occupation other than running a home. There are such things as “Polymufs” who are humans that have deformities. They are not classed as human, have very little rights, and must work as a servant to a human. Humans do not do manual work. Polymufs are really humans of course, and there is a veiled reference to polymufs occurring after the great destruction. This gives the idea that these people are suffering deformity due to radiation or chemical exposure of some kind. If a human has a polymuf baby they must give it away to be a servant. Animals that are born polymuf are killed. The segregation of human polymufs, and the slaughter of animal polymuff is the character’s way of containing the abnormalities. There are also Dwarves, again human really, just suffering from dwarfism. These too are treated as a separate race, and all dwarves are trained as craftsmen. No human works a forge etc, he employs a dwarf to do it for him.All of the characters in the novel believe in “spirits” that guide them. These spirits are the spirits of the ancestors. Seers who are secretive, and wear white robes similar to priests interpret these spirits. When someone wants to ask the spirits something, a seer will consult the spirits for them, and pass on the answer. Magic is a part of this process, and adds to the spectacle created by the seers. Christians are mocked, and live in poor conditions alongside polymufs, who they consider equal to humans. The rest of the society sees this as laughable.“When one thought of the Christians in the city, a handful of wretches living mostly by the north gate, so warped and degraded that they accepted polymufs as members of their sect and as equals”Clues are slowly revealed that this is actually the future, and not the past. The first clue was the name of the cities, and the second some writing on a piece of wood.“The section of wood in which the bar was fixed was a piece salvaged from olden time. There had been letters painted on it once and though the paint had long worn away one could see, when the sun shone brightly, the outlines of the words that had been written there. I had traced them one day, with difficulty. RADIO & TV DEAL, the message ran. A wasted labour, to find something that meant nothing”.I like the way this passage reveals something in a casual manor, using an unimportant object. This really made me want to work out what was happening, and helped to get me on the lookout for further clues as to what was going on. This is really useful for getting people to read your entire story, and it makes things more interesting if you find out little bits at a time.There are many subtle layers within this book, and the fortunes of the characters flip and change throughout the novel. There are many twists and turns. Even the secret sect of the seers that publicly eschews all machines, and communes with spirits, is revealed to be the power behind all things, manipulating events. Behind close doors, they admit to being frauds, using tricks to make it look like there are spirits, and even using machines. Just when you think the Prince in waiting has lost his chance of becoming a Prince, he is offered the chance to become more than that, the prince of princes, a leader for united England.That is where the story ends, and we never know if Luke will unite everyone, if he learns about all of the machines, etc. I feel as if there is another book in there somewhere. I seam to remember Scheherazade saying to the sultan in Arabian nights that all the best storytellers ended on cliffhanger. How else are you to keep people interested in your work? Well I was definitely interested in reading more.
A series of machinations by religious and political leaders results in Luke's father as becoming the new Prince of Winchester.Luke's being named as his successor and future "Prince of Princes". he's, on the whole, pleased with his new position But before he reaches the age of seventeen his mother is murdered, his father is treacherously killed in a battle, and his elder half-brother Peter has engineered his own succession as the new Prince Luke, realizing that his position as a dispossessed heir is precarious, escapes the city for the Sanctuary of the High Seers, where he learns their surprising secrets....my idea bout the book :How the power is, always trying to fool people to control them by religion. creatures like spirits(in the book), the sun,fire,cow... in the history. In a teen science fiction story we see our situation has dumped! I think it's a good one for religious countries like Iran. Plus We see what's going on around us but we try to pull the mask up again and fall asleep for a another 50 years!
What do You think about The Prince In Waiting (1989)?
«و اون قدر غم-درآخر جلد سوم- رو...»من هم در دوازده-سیزده سالگی خواندمشو جملهی آخرش تقریباً مرا کشت!یک چیزی توی این مایهها بود: «من فرزندی نخواهم داشت.»نه؟چهقدر از دست بلادون و ادموند حرص میخوردم!این هم که بهش سه دادهام، مال این است که شش-هفت سال پیش یعنی همان اوابلی که عضو گودریدز شده بودم، ریتش کردهام و آن موقعها خیلی جوگیر بودم و فکر میکردم برای این که یک کتاب چهار یا پنج بگیرد، باید بزرگترین شاهکار تاریخ ادبیات جهان باشد یا این که من بعد از خواندنش باقی نمانده باشم! :)الان زیادش میکنم...
—سحر
The sword of the spirits is a trilogy of(young) fantasy novels that I read as a boy and is to this day one of my favourite reading experiences. I don`t remember too much which probably makes this review redundant but only that it was a perfect reading experience for a young boy .It encapsulated as the title suggests a combination of budding masculinity and spirituality.A combination that i fear is rare these days . The series seems,sadly, to be out of print, probably pushed out of the market by the hugevolume of teen books around these days. I hope some publisher out there has a second look and gives it a new lease of life one day .
—Anthony Bolton
John Christophers Bücher spielen entweder während einer Katrastrophe und er beobachtet, wie sich die Menschen verhalten, wenn die Zivilisation um sie herum zerfällt (Tal des Lebens, Insel ohne Meer, Tripods Band 0, Pendulum ...) oder lange nach einer Katrastrophe in einer Welt, die die Errungenschaften der Vorfahren vergessen hat (Tripods, Der Fürst von morgen)und sein Urteil über die Menschheit in solchen Situtaionen ist nicht sehr positiv.Anders als die heute oft üblichen Jugenbücher, die meist nur unterhalten wollen und moralische oder gesellschaftskritische Aspekte eher vermeidet, haben John Chrisophers Bücher immer eine Botschaft, die zum Nachdenken anregen will. Seine Charaktere sind weder gut noch böse. Sie haben ihre Gründe warum sie so handeln und diese Gründe sind eben nicht in weiß und schwarz unterteilbar. So können liebgewonnene Charaktäre durchaus sterben und ein Happy End für die Überlebenden ist auch nicht garantiert.Ich befürchte, dieser Klassiker ist für die heutigen Jugendlichen eher schwere Kost, ich jedoch liebe gerade diese Aspekte seiner Bücher, die in heutiger Jugendliteratur so rar geworden sind.Ein echter Klassiker, der zum Nachdenken anregt.
—sabisteb
