Reviews - Sword Dance | The StoryGraph

203 reviews for:

Sword Dance

A.J. Demas

4.04 AVERAGE

vasha's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

erinanire's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

merface's review against another edition

2.25

adventurous slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

theyreadromanceetc's review against another edition

4.0

What with the philosophers and the ancient mediterranean alternative world, this was way outside what I normally read, and I was worried it was going to be too serious and weighty for me, but it was actually lovely and quite light and delightful. The main characters are a bisexual disabled former soldier and a freed slave-eunuch-sword dancer-spy who uses male pronouns but seems to see himself as non-binary. Both characters are fully-realized and the love story is very slow burn. There is a HFN, but there are several more books in the series that seem to continue the story.

purrson's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Disabled, bisexual main character meets genderqueer/non-binary main character, fights fascists and finds romance. I gave this a try after giving up on Song of Achilles—I wanted something more enjoyably queer—and this was perfect. Really engaging, the romance is so good— I can’t wait for the rest of the series. Slavery exists in the Greco/Roman type, class rather than race-based.

Content Warnings

inksofts's review against another edition

4.0

This novel felt like an oddly enjoyable mashup of my intro to philosophy class and Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion. Do with that information what you will. There were some aspects of the story that I thought were a bit odd — for one, all of the action was constrained to Nione’s house, despite the grander implications of what was going on. Still, I liked the protagonists (they’re both terribly endearing) and Demas’ writing enough to forgive this. I might continue on with the rest of the series just out of curiosity.