Swordbearer: A magical soul-eating sword chooses a young cripple as its bearer.Proof positive that even for the really good writers of the world, there's a learning curve.Underwritten, "telly", cliched, disjointed to the point of incoherence. I'm convinced this would not be publishable today. When it first came out in 1982, perhaps its straightforward prose and grey morality seemed new -- but now readers can find Cook's style expressed on a much higher plane in his Black Company books.