A review by waclements7
A Stranger to Command by Sherwood Smith

5.0

I really enjoyed reading about the early life of Vidranic, as he spent time in the academy in Marloven-Hess. I don't want to put in any spoilers, but I really liked the double entendre on the title: he's both a stranger in a foreign land in an academy where the customs and _everything_ are completely strange to him, and he's also completely foreign to the idea of command, which is gradually built up in him as he realizes what might be necessary from him in the future. I love the interactions between him and Senrid. The secondary characters are wonderful, and this book started me thinking about how fantastic Sherwood Smith is at world-building. I just accepted it without really thinking about it in her other books that I've read, because she does it so well that I've just accepted everything effortlessly. But as I've read more, all books set in different parts of the same continent, I've started thinking about it more, and having this book set in Marloven-Hess, for the most part, really made me realize what a master she is at it. It's made me start to re-evaluate the way I approach the concept of world-building in a way I never really have before, even after hearing and reading authors talk about it constantly. Here, just seeing the difference and reading how Vidranic and the Marlovens had so much to overcome and still quite didn't understand each other all the time was really skillfully done, and made me think back to the settings of the other books of hers I've read with a greater appreciated for the differences of the countries they're set in. They're all mentioned in passing, so familiar names come up, but it's taken me this long, and reading a bunch at once, for it to click that they're on the same map. I know that might sound silly, I feel silly it took me so long to notice. I think it's a better lesson than being told how to do something, though; actually reading it being used so proficiently is really helpful.