The Wooden Sword

Set in the world of Walensor, shepherdess Berika seeks escape from a forced marriage by invoking the goddess Weycha. Her prayer summons Dart, a champion trapped in a tree for twenty years, who must protect her from a sorcerer while navigating a world where magic is tied to belief.

Ugh. Awful book. It starts with an amnesiac hero and a desperate heroine...but by the time the book ends he's gotten back most of his memory and turned into a noble snake, and she's given up on any attempt at being decent and just wants comfort and safety - and blithely betrays various people to get it. Not to mention that this is only half a story - it just stops dead, three pages after he says "All I wanted was to get my memory back. But now I have it and still nothing's resolved..." (approximately, it's not actually a quote). Grrrrr. That book is going _away_, and I'm not looking for the sequel. Hadn't read that before.

Odd, fragmented both at the start and end, the middle is actually quite good. Very obviously the beginning (or even middle) of a series.

Walesnor is the country - it's been at war for a while and most of the menfolk are off getting killed, leaving the women to run the villages. Berika is a girl on the cusp of growing up - already betrothed to one of the villages' wounded. A fate she'd do almost anything to avoid. A last minute prayer at the edge of the forest brings her a new companion, almost man, maybe demon or even goddess sent. She name shim Dart, but quickly arouses the suspician of the rest of the village, and they flee. Unfortunetly once on the road Dart's memory starts reappearing in ever greater chunks. This makes him much more show more human as a character, but quickly relegates Berika to role of frightened yokal, which is a shame as she'd been a very strong voice until then. Dart is a far less interesting character.

Although somewhat abrupt in plot, the beginning of the story told as Berika's harsh life in war worn village, is poignant and well written. It's markedly different from the somewhat idyllic rural farming beginnings that most fantasy pigboys get to experience. It therefore comes across as far more belivable.

Dart however remains faintly unbelivable all the way through. And given that the tale becomes his rather than Berika's its a bit of a shame. A certain amount of deux et machina is always present in contriving a plot, but when the it becomes too obvious, the reader is just left frustrated.

The world building is generally quite good, I like the crossover between the magicians and priests with the gods relegated to their pigeonholes in the Web. The details of village and town lief seem well imagined and are definetly portrayed well, it's just the final plot constructition that let it down a bit. The huge cliffhanger ending probably won't annoy me sufficiently to prevent me from buying the sequel when Lynn posts it to Closed Circle, but it could have been much better managed.

This ebook edition does contain a couple of small typographical errors where letters have been substituted. show less

This was different, and enjoyable. Dart comes back to the world after being missing for years, somewhat of a fugitive, and on a very difficult mission. He has to reclaim his kingdom while serving the trees that set him free, all with just a strange wooden sword, and no followers. Unfortunately his opponent is a powerful wizard! The 'average' villagers he meets become his helpers, sort of.

I borrowed this from the library a few years ago and remember nothing except that it left me with a feeling of "eh," and I didn't pick up anything by Abbey after that. Until I saw her Emma Merrigan books, featuring a librarian...

Horrible book. It's choppy and difficult to follow in the beginning and then develops into a story without any likable characters at all. In fact, the only idea that seems to be consistent through the entire story is that 'Any man who is kind to women, can't be a real man.' I do not recommend it. I am actually surprised that I even finished it.