Fine fantasy, but aimless: The Sword and the Chain, while still a quick, entertaining read, lacks the unique appeal that The Sleeping Dragon had. The characters, having been imported into a Dungeons & Dragons world from our own, are now completely ensconced and resigned to staying. There is no longer any disconnect between the characters and their setting and, except for a certain sense of greater superiority, there is little to distinguish our heroes from any other fantasy character. Also problematic is that the narrative focus has shifted entirely onto Karl Cullinane, leaving the far more interesting Ahira in a side-kick role. There is, however, an intriguing plot development involving erstwhile professor Deighton, whose resolution appears to await later books.Like The Sleeping Dragon, The Sword and the Chain is an incredibly quick read. It's not always enjoyable (do we really need to read about disembowelments that sound like a wet fruit exploding?), but it is a fine distraction from our own daily lives. A worthwhile read for any fantasy fan.

This is the second book in the Guardians of the Flame series. The former students from our world are now adventurers in a fantasy world. To save one of their friends they have committed to trying to stop slavery, and to do that they have to take on the powerful Slavers Guild. This is good low fantasy. ( )

(Alistair) And now, the second of the Guardians of the Flame books, The Sword and the Chain. The previous book, The Sleeping Dragon, was booklogged here.

As before, a fast-paced quick read. The author seems to have mostly got past the pacing problems and the tell-not-show problems I mentioned last time, so that was pleasing to note. On a more world-internal note, it's interesting to watch how the characters - or those of them who feature in the main thread of the book, seeing as the focus collapses around just a few of them for a while, which wasn't entirely satisfying - adapt to being stranded in the fantasy world, and Karl Cullinane begins the quest to destroy slavery laid on him at the end of the last book.

A nice plot development involving the professor who sent them there and his possible deeper game, too.

Anyway: a good, enjoyable, fast read. Still gritty. Looking forward to more.

...unfortunately, given that, this will be the last of this series on here for a while, since while we have the later books in the series, we don't have the third one - so until I get my hands on that, I'm pretty much not going past this point. Oh, well - sure a second-hand bookstore will have a copy soon enough.
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ce... ) ( )

I read this series many years ago, and remember only a few things about it. I do remember enjoying the basic premise, and some of the characters, though. Some gamers find themselves dragged into a real fantasy world, and have to try and survive (not as easy as it was for their D&D characters)! ( )

Karl, Andrea, Ahira, Lou and Walter are stuck in the fantasy game world. It is a little bit different now as they are used to it, so this becomes more of a standard fantasy adventure type novel.

They become good guys, and fight to oppose a bunch of wizards and slavers.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/01... ( )