Fantastische Charaktere! Hatte zwischendurch darüber nachgedacht abzubrechen da keine Story zu erkennen war und ich mich immer mehr fragte wo das ganze denn jetzt mal hinführt. Letztlich bekam ich den (Schnipsel von) roten Faden auch erst ganz kurz vorm Ende. Zum Glück drangeblieben denn die Charaktere sind wirklich gut ausgestaltet. Und jetzt gespannt aufs zweite Buch, indem die Story dann auch endlich Fahrt aufnimmt!

Als Einstieg in die Reihe, fand ich das Buch sehr gut. Alle Hauptprotagonisten werden vorgestellt und die Handlung eingeleitet. Mir hat es wesentlich besser gefallen als "The Devils".

The blade itself is one of the better fantasy books I've read recently - and I am pleased that it is part of a trilogy, so there is more to come. The characters are well drawn, none of them fall into the categories "too good to be true" or "absolutely evil villain" - they come in various shades of grey. The author does a good job to describe the characters, their motives, aims and problems. We have a barbarian who lost almost everything and just wants the fighting to end, an inquisitor who used to be a champion until he was caught and tortured by the enemy, an arrogant, selfish and inexperienced noble - it would take too long to describe them all in detail here. None of them would qualify as prince charming, as a person I would choose to become a friend in real life - but I got to like them over the course of the book, even (or especially) those behaving in a morally questionable way. One of the downsides is the total lack of interesting female characters. The only women here are a former slave trying to hate and distrust the whole world and the sister of an army officer, the love interest of our previously mentioned noble. The setting is much darker, much more realistic than some of the older fantasy settings. Fights are dirty and bloody, the politic situation is unstable at best with barbarians threatening from the north and old enemies raising again in the south, many different factions try to gain advantages over the others - some are successful, others die trying. The author manages to create a good mixture of setting describtion (not too much, just enough to make the world become a vivid place), character interaction, dirty action scenes and humorous elements. I found myself laughing out loud or grinning quite often over the course of the book. The writing style is lacking a bit - but this is a first work, I think the author has great potential.