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A review by deena_
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
5.0
5 stars ☆
This book is going straight to my personal 'hall of comfort' reads. It had the perfect all too cozy setback, eventful adventure and 'snort out loud' kind of humour. It provided everything I love in fantasy books following country vibes; the road trip to hell and back just seals the 'bonus point of the year' deal. This book stringed up damsels in distress with magical swords bigger than themselves, setting off on a disastrous road trip to smooth out the rather disastrous situation they're caught in, accompanied by unusual travel mates they befriended on the way. Riding to her own rescue with a lawyer priest from the temple of the white rat, a gnole and his ox and a swordman. The unique characters, their wits and charms made the reading experience all the more enjoyable.
Sypnosis:
Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel, bound to serve its wielder for all eternity. After years of neglect, the sword falls in the hands of Halla, who has lost her great uncle and unexpectedly inherited all his wealth that her vulturous relatives are after. They locked her in her bedroom and refused to let her out till she agreed to their terms. In a state of helplessness, she drew the sword in intention of killing herself when a man clad in armor appeared before her and demanded that he's her protector. Never before has Sarkis been summoned in such weird circumstances without the knowledge of the weilder, but he finds Halla's relatives are a bigger threat than they seem. So they run away in the middle of the night with the whole townsfolk behind them, on a journey to help Halla get back what legally belongs to her from the clutches of her evil relatives.
➺Enchanted man in an enchanted sword
Call it injury, broken bones or anything; nothing he leaves behind stays behind once he's sheathed back in the sword. Everything heals while he's inside the sword, which stretches out to his hunger, thirst and other needs too. He is duty-bound to protect the sword's wielder or die trying, till the wielder dies or decides to hand him over to another. Even death is rewinded once inside the sword. This whole curse was bestowed upon him as the punishment for a past deed.
➺Adventure in a nutshell
Halla has been a housekeeper, sheltered from the buzz outside, all her life, and Sarkis found himself in a completely unknown land upon waking; you can already guess how their grand journey might have gone without much resources and proper necessities for travelling. What started as a rat chase from the village constables that led them hiding in some ditch or few ended in them shooing off nasty priests, disposing bodies in a frozen lake, crossing mountains that like to move around, meeting strange stag faced men who spoke the language of no land, getting manhandled by robbers and bandits and fighting slimy, flying, jell-o like monsters. All to avoid one greedy fool and end up in the trap of another greedy fool.
➺The 'how unusual you want it to be' trio
Halla gives off that next door lady energy who's overly pleasant to everyone and loves to chat her day away. She hides her smarts behind the veil of stupidity, so she would be overlooked in every aspect of her life. She's a curious soul and likes spinning tales, made up or real, whatever comes in handy in the given situation. Her curiosity goes from the size of dragons to the size of swords. Zale, the lawyer priest sent from the rat temple, is much like Halla's kindred spirit when it comes to random bursts of curiousity, which most of the time has Sarkis questioning his life choices. Both of them had more than once made Sarkis do the most embarrassing of things to shed light to some of their sword theories. Brindle the gnole was too busy fussing over the wellbeing of his ox to pay mind to their silly experiments, but you'd think Sarkis would rather drop those two in the middle of the road and travel off with Brindle if he could just get away with it. Sarkis was as grumpy as anyone could get; he entertained the idea of solving every problem with bloodshed and scowled at everyone who didn't pass his vibe check.
➺The ending that could go both ways
Sarkis and Halla both cared for each other in a way they haven't for anyone in a long time. They suppressed their feelings during the journey in fear of losing the connection they had. They didn't know how things could ever work out between them, but it did work out at the end. They almost lost each other and realized that they had to make it work. Though the sword's mystery was still not solved, Sarkis's immortality still hung heavy in the air but they decided to look past it and be happy as long as they could.
Quotes I liked:
“Not only did she not know what she wanted, she had an ability to make other people in the room start to question what they wanted.”
“He wanted to be the answer to questions she didn’t even know she had.”
“Please don’t stand so close to the drop. I may be immortal but I would rather not die of heart failure just yet,”
“He’s a swordsman and I’m a housekeeper.”
“Far more swordsmen have need of housekeepers than housekeepers have need of swordsmen, I expect.”
“I love you,”
“And I, you. The great god has sent me a reason to go on.”
“Mortal flesh may not last as long as immortal steel, but it will last long enough to be happy.”
This book is going straight to my personal 'hall of comfort' reads. It had the perfect all too cozy setback, eventful adventure and 'snort out loud' kind of humour. It provided everything I love in fantasy books following country vibes; the road trip to hell and back just seals the 'bonus point of the year' deal. This book stringed up damsels in distress with magical swords bigger than themselves, setting off on a disastrous road trip to smooth out the rather disastrous situation they're caught in, accompanied by unusual travel mates they befriended on the way. Riding to her own rescue with a lawyer priest from the temple of the white rat, a gnole and his ox and a swordman. The unique characters, their wits and charms made the reading experience all the more enjoyable.
Sypnosis:
Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel, bound to serve its wielder for all eternity. After years of neglect, the sword falls in the hands of Halla, who has lost her great uncle and unexpectedly inherited all his wealth that her vulturous relatives are after. They locked her in her bedroom and refused to let her out till she agreed to their terms. In a state of helplessness, she drew the sword in intention of killing herself when a man clad in armor appeared before her and demanded that he's her protector. Never before has Sarkis been summoned in such weird circumstances without the knowledge of the weilder, but he finds Halla's relatives are a bigger threat than they seem. So they run away in the middle of the night with the whole townsfolk behind them, on a journey to help Halla get back what legally belongs to her from the clutches of her evil relatives.
➺Enchanted man in an enchanted sword
Call it injury, broken bones or anything; nothing he leaves behind stays behind once he's sheathed back in the sword. Everything heals while he's inside the sword, which stretches out to his hunger, thirst and other needs too. He is duty-bound to protect the sword's wielder or die trying, till the wielder dies or decides to hand him over to another. Even death is rewinded once inside the sword. This whole curse was bestowed upon him as the punishment for a past deed.
➺Adventure in a nutshell
Halla has been a housekeeper, sheltered from the buzz outside, all her life, and Sarkis found himself in a completely unknown land upon waking; you can already guess how their grand journey might have gone without much resources and proper necessities for travelling. What started as a rat chase from the village constables that led them hiding in some ditch or few ended in them shooing off nasty priests, disposing bodies in a frozen lake, crossing mountains that like to move around, meeting strange stag faced men who spoke the language of no land, getting manhandled by robbers and bandits and fighting slimy, flying, jell-o like monsters. All to avoid one greedy fool and end up in the trap of another greedy fool.
➺The 'how unusual you want it to be' trio
Halla gives off that next door lady energy who's overly pleasant to everyone and loves to chat her day away. She hides her smarts behind the veil of stupidity, so she would be overlooked in every aspect of her life. She's a curious soul and likes spinning tales, made up or real, whatever comes in handy in the given situation. Her curiosity goes from the size of dragons to the size of swords. Zale, the lawyer priest sent from the rat temple, is much like Halla's kindred spirit when it comes to random bursts of curiousity, which most of the time has Sarkis questioning his life choices. Both of them had more than once made Sarkis do the most embarrassing of things to shed light to some of their sword theories. Brindle the gnole was too busy fussing over the wellbeing of his ox to pay mind to their silly experiments, but you'd think Sarkis would rather drop those two in the middle of the road and travel off with Brindle if he could just get away with it. Sarkis was as grumpy as anyone could get; he entertained the idea of solving every problem with bloodshed and scowled at everyone who didn't pass his vibe check.
➺The ending that could go both ways
Sarkis and Halla both cared for each other in a way they haven't for anyone in a long time. They suppressed their feelings during the journey in fear of losing the connection they had. They didn't know how things could ever work out between them, but it did work out at the end. They almost lost each other and realized that they had to make it work. Though the sword's mystery was still not solved, Sarkis's immortality still hung heavy in the air but they decided to look past it and be happy as long as they could.
Quotes I liked:
“Not only did she not know what she wanted, she had an ability to make other people in the room start to question what they wanted.”
“He wanted to be the answer to questions she didn’t even know she had.”
“Please don’t stand so close to the drop. I may be immortal but I would rather not die of heart failure just yet,”
“He’s a swordsman and I’m a housekeeper.”
“Far more swordsmen have need of housekeepers than housekeepers have need of swordsmen, I expect.”
“I love you,”
“And I, you. The great god has sent me a reason to go on.”
“Mortal flesh may not last as long as immortal steel, but it will last long enough to be happy.”