The Seer and the Sword

Thoroughly mediocre addition to an already bloated genre. The author commits several of the cardinal sins of fantasy: unnecessary maps, inconsistent use of dialect, and needless insertion of "foreign language" terms among them. Her "strong" heroine does nothing but run from danger and moon about lamenting her helplessness and regret for the mistakes of her past, while the plot is moved forward solely by the male characters. Luckily, the heroine is utterly and stunningly beautiful, pure, vivacious, simply "unlike anyone else" etc. etc, as the author is only too happy to remind us at every possible juncture.

These problems are further compounded by Hanley's curious inability to use the pluperfect and future perfect tenses, and her general show more laziness (to wit: she sets up many interesting actions scenes, only to elide them with '* * *' before moving on to the next tedious bit of exposition).


I recommend avoiding this book, but have chosen to give it two stars because, for all its faults, it was not written by R.A. Salvatore. show less

Princess Torina's father conquers the peaceful kingdom of Bellandra and takes with him two presents for her: a seer crystal and the Bellandran prince to be her slave. Torina immediately frees the prince, Landen, who becomes her friend and archery-tutor. When the chief adviser murders the king and tries to marry Torina, Torina's skill with the seer crystal and Landen's loyalty keep her relatively safe. Torina and Landen flee the kingdom on opposite trajectories: Landen becomes the leader of a sort of state-sponsored band of Merry Men, while Torina makes a quiet life for herself in the country. Eventually, prompted by their consciences, both Torina and Landen independently seek to help the High King against treachery and invasion. In so show more doing they not only save many kingdoms, but they also find each other once more.

A sweet tale, but I was frustrated by how resistant Landen and Torina were to revealing their true identities. Long after they should have told the High King who they were, each of them remained obstinately silent; a good portion of the Vesputo's plots would have been prevented if either (or both!) of them had revealed themselves. The book is plagued with annoyances like that, and by a distressing choice to repeatedly skip over very interesting sections of Torina and Landen's lives with just a quick summary. Landen leads an entire band of former thieves that once tried to kill him in gladiatorial games! That should get us at least a paragraph or two, instead of a quick mention of it! Anyway, it's overall a fine adventure with a nice anti-war message, and it was a good enough yarn that I read it in a single evening rather than put it down. show less

I really wish that I could go back to the first time I read this book and write a review, but that was before I wrote reviews. Now I've read it so many times I don't even know where to begin or what to write. This book is the only one that rivals Harry Potter with the number of times that I've read it, so I highly suggest that you read it.

I had expected more from this book, that's why I was kind of disappointed by the outcome of the novel.The romance between our two main characters is pretty much nonexistent. Is it possible for one to fall in love 200 pages later? In fact, I would think the book would be better off without the romance element since it made the whole story unnatural. Characterization, to be honest, is sorely lacking in the seer and the sword. Vesputo (what a name!) for instance, is portrayed in such an evil way that he almost seemed comical. I also did not like Torina at first, being the spoiled, ungrateful brat that she is; and I still didn't like her towards the end- even if she had changed into a better person. The only slightly likable person in the show more novel was Landen, no matter how unlikely his feelings for Torina was.I felt the book could have done better. The setting was good and the idea was there. It only lacked proper execution and three dimensional characters.Sad to say, this is one of those book that I do not plan on reading again. show less

This is an excellent book! Every minute of it is filled with intrigue. There is action, mystery, romance; it even touches slightly on social issues. This is an excellent book for children, teens, and even adults. The writing style is well thought out, descriptive when needed yet fast-paced enough to preventing the reader from ever wanting to put the book down. All the characters are personable and well-developed. The plot is intricately woven into a wonderful web that pulls you into the center of this world.

In this book King Kareed searches for the legendary sword of Bellandra, and wins it from the King of Bellandra. He kidnaps the prince, Landen, and brings him to his daughter as a slave. His daughter, Torina, sets Landen free and they become close friends. Then she starts to see deadly visions in her crystal. It is up to her to save her family and her kingdom.
The characters are flat and not fully developed, and the book is very predictible. This book is definitely not a must-read, there are far better books to spend your time reading.

Totally flat - a potentially interesting story rendered dull by the author's failure to show rather than tell.