The Lost Swords: Endgame
Book of Swords #4
Fred Saberhagen
fantasy
3 stars

things go into overdrive to wrap this series up. Kristin’s healing is completely underplayed. Wood[the Ancient One] is killed by Swordbreaker. Vilkata comes back and dies, and in the process all the swords but Woundhealer are destroyed and that is how it ends.

The Lost Swords: The Second Triad
Book of Swords #3
Fred Saberhagen
fantasy
3 stars

The first book deals with Farslayer and 2 Clans at war with eachother. Zoltan is still pursuing Blackpearl, but loses her in the conflict. The second book is about Coinspinner and deals mainly with Mark and Kristin’s oldest son Adrian; who is growing up to be, quite possibly, the greatest magician the world has yet seen. And the third book deals with the Mindsword. I didn’t like this one at all.

Kristin comes under its spell, becomes devoted to Prince Murat, divorces Mark by royal fiat and at the end of the novel throws herself over a balcony when Murat dies. We don’t know if she lives or dies.

I’ll have to find out in the final books. The Mindsword was a terrible sword and this story was not grand or great. It was very bleh. I didn’t like the fact that mere “magic” could overcome all of what a person knew to be right and wrong.

The Lost Swords: The First Triad
Book of Swords #2
Fred Saberhagen
fantasy
3 stars

follows the adventures of 3 of the Swords. Zoltan, Mark’s nephew, is being setup as the main character. A new threat arises in the form of an ancient[ie, from right after the change], evil sorceror who is no longer quite human.

The Complete Book of Swords
Book of Swords #1
Fred Saberhagen
fantasy
3 stars

Comprising the First, Second and Third Book of Swords.

At least 50,000 years in the future. There are gods. They create 12 swords with great powers for a “game”. The swords end up being as powerful as the gods, and humans begin taking part of the game. Follows Mark, who is the son of the legendary Emperor. The gods came to be out of men’s imagination, and in this trilogy, they go “out of style” and so cease to exist. Very cool.