A review by sexton_blake
Ardneh's Sword by Fred Saberhagen

2.0

This novel bridges the author’s Empire of the East trilogy and his Book of Swords series. I recently finished the trilogy, only to then discover that it was quite extensively rewritten after my editions were published. I wonder, then, how much of the mythology that ARDNEH’S SWORD carries from the earlier novels into the later was missing from my version of Empire. Reading this tale, I wasn’t aware of any particular absences, but I suspect the revised Empire novels might segue much more tightly into ARDNEH. Whether that’s the case or not, this novel was reasonably enjoyable in its own right. It’s a bit slow paced, and it feels like whole chapters pass without much happening, but the characters exist in a world that’s fascinating, which was sufficient to hold my attention. Unfortunately, though, the climactic chapters are handled very badly. The pacing is dreadful and the quality of the writing seriously deteriorates. I get the feeling that Saberhagen wrote this to join his two series together but did so hastily and without any great enthusiasm.