Broken Sword, The
I read this on Brad's recommendation, although I was a bit skeptical going in (Viking tales are not really my thing). I found the introductory back story to be slow going, but by the time we get to the stories of Skafloc and Valgard the pace picks up and the narrative flows very quickly. Anderson's language is at times deliberately archaic, which took me a while to adjust to, but it clearly fits the storyline. This is a world where both the good guys and the bad guys (most not really guys at all, but rather elves, trolls, gods and the like) are violent and amoral, and where the good guys are likely create their own doom through hubris and overconfidence.
The Broken Sword is one of those books that is easy to read, but challenging to think about. It's definitely worth your time, not only for its own merits but also for some perspective on how fantasy has evolved in the last fifty years. I read the 1971 revision.
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Poul Anderson - Broken Sword, The - 7
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Poul Anderson - Broken Sword, The - 7
Last edited by clong on Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.