A Sword Named Truth by Sherwood Smith

A Sword Named Truth by Sherwood Smith ISBN-13: 9780756409999 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: DAW Released: June 11, 2019

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGally.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
Long-dormant magical forces are moving once again in Sartorias-deles. Agents of Norsunder, a mysterious bastion of incredible dark power, have reappeared in the world, amassing resources and sowing instability.

But with numerous nations led by young rulers, the world is hardly ready to defend itself. Atan is still uncomfortable with her new queenship, gained after her country was freed from a Norsundrian enchantment that left it frozen outside time for a century. Senrid strives to establish rule of law, after deposing his brutal and cruel uncle, seeking to exert control over rebellious jarls and a distrustful military academy. Jilo never expected the responsibility of leading his nation, but when its dictator vanishes after a Norsundrian attack, Jilo finds himself stepping into the power void, taking the reins of a country so riddled with dark magic that its citizenry labors for mere survival. Clair and CJ lead a band of misfits against magical threats that overshadow their tiny country, including a direct incursion from the Norsundrians.

Those in power are not the only individuals working to subvert the plans of Norsunder. Liere, a young shopkeeper’s daughter, battles her own debilitating insecurities to live up to her reputation as a former savior of the realm. Hibern, a mage’s apprentice, must act as a liaison between national leaders, negotiating politics still foreign to her. Rel, a traveling warrior, stirs powerful allies to action encourages common folk to take up arms.

These leaders soon realize that any significant victory against Norsunder will require an alliance between their nations. Yet good intentions may fracture in the face of personal grudges, secrets, and inexperience.


My Review:
A Sword Named Truth is a epic tween/YA fantasy novel. While technically the first in a series, the characters very frequently talked about the events had that just happened. (This is set immediately after "Fleeing Peace" and overlapped "A Stranger to Command.") I haven't read "Fleeing Peace" and I read "A Stranger to Command" 10 years ago, so I felt like I was thrown into the middle of a story and had to sort out who all of these many, many characters were. The story also frequently switched between viewpoint characters and different events, which was disorientating. There were over 12 young royals (ages 10-15) and several young main characters that helped form the alliance, plus assorted adults and bad guys were also viewpoint characters. The story was mostly people talking about things rather than actual scenes where things happen. For example, we had two characters talk about going to learn at a soldier's academy, then about a year later (as the story covered about 5 years) one briefly remarked that they had done so.

The first half of the story (about 280 pages) was telling the reader who everyone was, either by the historian narrator who summarized events or through the characters endlessly talking about what had just happened and their life now. They also occasionally met the other young rulers, often taking an instant dislike to the other because of the (deeply developed) culture differences or because the other didn't like one of their friends. The second half involved the bad guys attacking several of the good guys, providing a few, brief battle scenes. Much of the conflict focus was on how the allied young royals had trouble getting along. Then, finally, we got an extended, daring undercover raid by the young allies to save a foolish friend.

There was no sex. There were 20 uses of bad language. I have greatly enjoyed some of this author's earlier work (like "Crown Duel"). However, I found this slow-paced and with too many characters who do very little "on screen." I ended up wishing it'd been cut into several short books that followed only a few characters at a time rather than trying to stuff everyone into one book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.