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For the Boys
Jul. 15th, 2019 11:30 pmAug-Dec 2018
The Gilded Chain / Lord of the Fire Lands / Sky of Swords / Paragon Lost - Dave Duncan – Eos, 1999 / 2000 / 2001 / 2003
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These four novels tell a set of stories based around an interesting magical idea. In a fantasy land closely modelled on Tudor England, highly trained swordsmen called Blades are bound to a ward - either the King or one of his appointees - by a ritual which involves stabbing them through the heart. Thereafter they need no sleep and have enhanced senses. Duncan's elaborations of this idea and its political and personal consequences are extremely inventive and interesting, and make for compelling and dramatic story-telling. Even better, the four stories are standalone despite being set in the same time period - they have links but can be read in any order, an impressive and original achievement. So it's such a shame that the lack of diversity in the characters, which would not have been seen as a problem when they were written, has caused them to date so badly.
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