Sworn Sword
This book roared out of the gate. Before the end of the first chapter, the reader is thrown into the middle of a battle. Then that battle ends and so does any action in the novel for quite some time. The only thing that kept me reading was the promise of something coming. After the battle, Tancred is forced to flee to save his life. That was an event that seemed to take forever. Either die or get better already. Tancred doesn't die so we have to sit through his recovery. Then Tancred gets a mission. Alright! More action! Pump your brakes. Boring boat ride. Little action. More boring journey. Some action. More boring journey. You get the point. This pattern continues for the vast majority of the book. So what was it that kept me reading this novel (Especially when Uhtred was beckoning. And let's be honest ladies, who doesn't have a crush on Uhtred?)? Somewhere in the background of all this boredom was a promise. A promise that something big was coming. Something exciting was looming. So I kept reading. Then the last 100 pages hit me like a ton of bricks. A promise was kept. Without giving anything away, if the author had stretched out the last 100 pages throughout the novel, this book probably would have been more than three stars. If the author had focused less on the how did we get here, things would have been much better. If not for the last 100 pages, this book was maybe two stars.
One other issue I had with this novel was the characters. Tancred isn't quite strong enough to carry a book by himself. He needs a little better supporting cast. Wace and Eudo could have benefited greatly from a little more focus and fleshing out. Maybe that's to come in later novels. My interest has been peaked enough to at least hold them at the library.
