I found this book lying around, and thought I'd try something new. S.M. Sterling's The Sword of the Lady is in some ways, something very new. And rare.Usually when you pick up an epic fantasy six books into the series, you really have no idea what's going on. I didn't feel lost here, which was nice. Sterling's fantasy is set in a post-apocalyptic world where swaths of the US are uninhabitable, and what's left of the population has carved up into small parts in many different ways. There are two feudal governments on the west coast, two or three 'democracies' of sorts, and even a section in Maine patterned after Viking society. There is a thematic unity between the Paganism of the main character, and the Catholic creed of many of the supporting characters, that you really don't see often. Christian spiritualism, Pagan elements, and even Norse rituals seem to share an elemental power, in the face of something darker, even demonic. It was also a pleasure to see the classics of literature, such as J.R.R. Tolkien's works, having such a huge impact on some cultures as they developed in their infancy. A group of people had formed up with the Dunedain Rangers of the Lord of the Rings as their inspiration, and still had to deal with such mundane issues as being paid.If I had a gripe, it would be the immense fall in technology. Firearms have been around for centuries. I have a difficult time believing that we would lose the ability entirely to craft firearms, but develop archery and medieval siege weapons into a science. You can slip only so far on the technological scale. Especially when it's more likely that a gunsmith survived than a bowyer.Overall, it was a good read. I don't think I'll read any of the previous books in the series, but I will definitely look into the next book, The High King of Montival. With this novel it is clear that this series is just that, a serial. Each book in the series now is just a continuation of the story in episodic (very long episodes) that satisfies a part of the story but leaves many issues to be picked up in the next novel. I don't have a problem with that now that I have figured that out but I suspect some people will start to lose interest in this saga.In this installment Rudi finally makes it to Nantucket and finds the Sword of the Lady but that whole ending scene is quite unusual and while it gave some insight into what caused the Change it is very open-ended and nebulous. I was disappointed. I wanted something more concrete and clear and while I didn't expect a neat package with all the answers, I did expect something more.I am pretty sure we won't get much more on what caused the change unless at the very end of this series (which could be several books yet) Stirling may decide to give us the details or not. I mean the 1632 series by Eric Flint has never given much details about what transported that group to the past and there are over a dozen novels in that universe.Rudi McKenzie has become a very solid character in these last three books and will certainly be able to carry the load for several novels to come as he fulfills his destiny and returns to the west. The writing in the series continues to be solid and the battles scenes and interactions between the different factions continue to be intriguing but I don't know how much farther I will go in the series. I have the next book in the series so I will likely read that some time in the next few months but after that - who knows.
What do You think about The Sword Of The Lady (2009)?
I just love how the story continues to unfold. SMS spotlights how adventures are always exciting to those who read about them, but suck most of the time for those who experience them. This is true of the real world, too...long periods of boredom interspersed with short periods of terror! My other favorite thing is how SMS fleshes out for us what's been happening in other parts of the country while our attention has been on the Willamette Valley folks during the first decade after the Change.Also, while it's been implied, if not outright stated from the very beginning, that a Being or Beings were responsible for the Change, up to this point the whole thing has been rather a mystery! Who are they? Why did they do it? What's happening in their realm that seems to be dragging the rest of us along with it? Right at the end of the book, we get a whole lot of answers. And some of it seems a bit Douglas-Adams-esque to the extent that the Universe may be far, FAR stranger than we've ever imagined!The one thing that tripped me up was how SMS handled internal monologue. It almost seemed like this was his first serious stab at it. I know that's not true, but it just read kind of awkwardly and without the sort of seamlessness I know of which he's capable.All in all, the story and the world-building continue to be highly fascinating and just as highly entertaining.
—Gabytenorio17
I'm really enjoying this series, and I like this chapter in the saga more than I did the preceding one. The only thing I keep wondering, though, is how, only 24 years after The Change (the event which ended civilization as we know it), the various societies across what was formerly the United States can be so well defined; I suppose that's mostly explained by so many of the people left having little to no memory of pre-Change life. But that's a nit compared to the marvelous job he does of making each band of people seem real, and making the reader care about them. I have two more titles in the series on my shelf & I'm looking forward to reading them.
—Bob
I think this was my favorite of the later series, but there's no option for 3.5 stars so...
—Zemlan13
Fabulous!The intertwinings of relationships and politics was riveting!
—brooklyn
