Book Review: Swordheart, simple fun

Swordheart is a book that I really don't have a lot to say on. Ultimately the book is a fun read, made better by T. Kingfisher's signature witty writing and fast pacing that carries you quickly through her stories. However, unlike Fisher's other books I couldn't find much that truly made Swordheart stand out as a story.

Swordheart follows the character of Halla, a widow who was charged with the care of her late husband's, Great-Uncle Silas; a wealthy man who gave all his possessions to Halla when he passed. Jealous of Halla's new found wealth, and eager to take it from her, Halla's step-mother Malva holds her hostage in a room and plans to force her to marry her cousin Alver. Desperate for an escape, Halla takes a sword off the wall with the intent to take her own life; to her surprise as she draws the sword a man named Sarkis appears in front of her urging her not to go through with the act. After explaining his predicament as a soul trapped inside the sword, together the two escape from her home and search for a way to free Halla from her money hungry family.

The adventure that Halla and Sarkis find them selves on is a rather straight forward one with some interesting twists later on. The book shares the same world as Fisher's other book, Paladin's Grace and there are certainly some parallels with that story that I will touch on later.

For the first bit of the book I wasn't entirely sold. Halla was interesting, but I didn't find Sarkis to be all that remarkable aside from his status as a soul trapped inside a sword. He was serviceable as a character but I found his perspective much less interesting than Halla's. Later on however, I certainly grew to like him more as his past was revealed. I never truly connected to him and some of my favorite parts of the book lack his presence entirely, but he was by no means an awful character.

Halla for her part was much more interesting to me. I found the way that she dealt with conflict to be much more appealing story wise. Her responses to her situation were very human and I felt I understood who she truly was by the end of the story. I wouldn't have minded a story just about her navigating this treacherous world.

Being a romance book, these two characters were bound to fall in love however, I wasn't entirely sold by their romance. It all happens very suddenly and unlike with Paladin's Grace where their relationship feels as though it has a natural progression, here in Swordheart it felt more as though the characters fell in love because it is a romance novel and thats what characters are supposed to do in romance novels. There is no build up to their first kiss, no moment where it clicks into place that they are in love with one another. Sarkis is simply attracted to Halla and suddenly decides to kiss her at a random moment in a random scene.

As I mentioned earlier there are certain Parallels here to Fisher's other book Paladin's Grace. The plots are entirely different however, the love story between Halla and Sarkis draws a few noticeable similarities to the romance between Paladin's main characters Stephen and Grace. Both books depict a strong warrior, filled with shame now tasked with protecting a woman who is running from past traumatic relationships. Both Stephen and Sarkis are quick to jealousy, and have a past they are scared to share with others. Halla and Grace differentiate between themselves more than their love interests, but I still noted a few resemblances between them.

Having similar characters in your stories isn't necessarily a bad thing, I quite like the two main characters in Swordheart, but whenever Halla and Sarkis would begin to get romantic I couldn't help but think that I'd much rather be reading about Stephen and Grace.

Outside of the romance, I enjoyed the characters in Swordheart. A particular favorite of mine was the gnoll Brindle. While mostly serving as a background character, I loved his small moments of dialogue and the little additions to world building which he added.

Fisher has expanded on the world she created with Paladin's Grace in some really cool and fascinating ways. I am unsure of how many of these additions come from other books in the Paladin's series, and how many originate with Swordheart, but they all worked to make the world stand out more in my mind than the more standard fantasy setting of Paladin's Grace.

For many readers, I think that Swordheart may come across as a bit less focused that Fisher's other books. Many moments felt like side tangents and the story is much less engaged than her other works. At times the book feels more like a collection of moments and ideas rather than one cohesive story. However, it was in these less cohesive moments that I found I was having the most fun with Swordheart. The random side plot in the hills, full of mysterious creatures was possibly my favorite part of the story.

It may sound as though I am spending a lot of time criticising this book, and I am. Compared to Fisher's other books this one feels a lot messier and less interesting, but with all that being said I still enjoyed Swordheart. Fisher's style of writing makes even the less interesting moments fun to read, and the characters still have her signature charm. If you come to this book looking for some simple fun that wont blow you away, you'll most likely still have a good time reading it.