I have finished one book this week and am part-way through a second. Writing Monday’s post about Liberty of London’s Ianthe design took up a lot of time!
The Sword Saint by C F Iggulden
C F Iggulden’s The Sword Saint is the concluding part of his Empire of Salt fantasy series. Here is the blurb:
Cities have been broken. Empires have fallen. And darkness is coming.
Success has drawn a cold gaze. A false king seeks dominion. His soldiers will bring desolation and despair to Darien. With treachery on all sides, the ancient capital looks set to fall.
Yet within the walls of that great city, a small team gathers. Tellius knows each one: a hunter, a gambler, a dead man, a wielder of threads – and the sword saint of Shiang. When Darien herself is threatened, Tellius will ask them to stand.
A city is worth more than the lives of those within. Darien’s streets and courts and homes and taverns are a bonfire on the hill, a beacon of life and light in the world.
That is why they will die to save her.
This is the review that I posted on Goodreads:
The Sword Saint by C.F. Iggulden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
First of all, I have to admit that I had a stroke last year. I am saying this because my thoughts on this book are kind of tangled up with my experience. The big issue for me is that I couldn’t remember enough of the previous books to be able to make sense of this one. I could remember some of the characters, but the story was mostly gone so I briefly scanned through books 1 and 2 first. However, this third book introduced something completely new: a third group of warlike people. This didn’t really fit with the trajectory of the series so far.
I have really enjoyed Iggulden’s historical fiction, having read most of these books. His foray into Fantasy needed some more work, in my opinion. He brought in new monsters/war machines and some kind of supernatural creature, in this third book, but didn’t really use them well or explain them. The book also ended very abruptly: as I neared the end, I kept thinking that there were not enough pages left to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion!
It will be interesting to see if he ventures into this genre again.
The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe
I’m now reading a completely different genre with Antonio Iturbe’s The Librarian of Auschwitz and I will give you my verdict on the book next week (I hope).
Until then, Happy Reading to you all!
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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The Librain
The Librain......retired 