Customer Reviews

Prophecy of Swords

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I don't typically read fantasy so I was surprised at how quickly and completely I was drawn into Maggie Bonham's world of magic, dragons, treachery, and heros. I read the majority of this book during a (unplanned) four-hour delay at the Atlanta airport on my way home from a conference. Thank God I had this book! The time flew by and I was actually annoyed when it was time to board the plane because I'd just entered a high action sequence and didn't want to stop reading.

I highly recommend this book to fantasy and non-fantasy readers alike. There is a depth and excitement to the characters and writing that transcends genre. I look forward to many more novels from this author.

I figured that for the low, low price of $.99, I'd take a chance on this book. Heck, five people said it was awesome. Of course, five others said it was terrible, but I've been misled before. This book felt like it had been written in a weekend. One with lots of beer or wine. The characters are so poorly defined, they change their minds about what they believe and what's important to them every time another character presents a small bit of information. "I'm not important! I"m not a pure-blood!" "But what if you are?" "Ok. Maybe I am." Ugh. It was much like a train wreck. I wanted to stop reading it many, many times, but every time I put it down, I picked it back up again because I can't stand to leave a book unfinished. Most of the time I like that about myself. This time... not so much. If you have never read Tolkien, Jordan, Sanderson, McCaffrey or the like, go right ahead. Read this book. You won't know the difference. Otherwise, if you're looking for novels about swords, skip this one and read Fred Saberhagen's sword novels or Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth novels.

Ms. Bonham hits a homerun with this book of epic fantasy. You are hooked from page one and kept spellbound to the last page. I would highly recommend this book and author to those looking for a tale of grand scope.

I tried getting into this book today, and for me it isn't readable due to the poor paragraph formatting. It just seems like a rushed job with no followup editing.

For the small portion I was able to get through the book has the majority of it's paragraphs left justified, but then mixed in are the occasional indented paragraphs. Reading dialogue is especially difficult when there is no indentation since it is difficult to tell when it transitions from one speaker to another, it just doesn't flow the way a novel should.

I bought this book accidentally but decided to keep it since it only put me out .99 and I'm a gambler. The money wasn't worth it. Fantasy is supposed to take you to a place where you can forget all of the rules and become absorbed in a place where everything is different. That experience is only successful if the reader isn't pulled out of the author's world by an immature style and ludicrous word balance every couple of sentences. A shame, because the idea wasn't too bad.

In the past, I have stayed away from high fantasy series. Many of the better known of the genre, including both of David Eddings' series along with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, seem to stretch into the double digits. In series such as these, some of the middle books seem designed merely as filler to get characters from point A to point B, and to slaughter thousands of trees.

Not so with M. H. Bonham's Prophecy of Swords. Bonham wastes no space in the telling of her story. Twists and turns fill the book, and at no point does the narrative ever bog down.

My one complaint, if I could even call it that, is that at times the book seems to be almost too full. I almost feel that Prophecy could have been expanded into a trilogy and still have remained every bit as engaging (and without bogging down the way many high fantasy series do).

Bonham obviously has built a complex history and backstory for her characters, and I felt that there are a few missed oppertunities for her to more fully explore the world she built. Thankfully, she has produced a second book and a novella in this facinating world.

I read mostly fantasy these days, and I'm a pretty forgiving reader. I read for enjoyment and escapism. The last book I read (Robin Hobb's "Soldier Son" trilogy) left me wanting a faster pace and more action, so this looked promising.

The overall concept and characters are a good start, but it never goes anywhere. No character development, and the dialog is completely flat, it's terrible.

As you would expect in a fantasy story there is an entire world of races and geography and cultures that surround the story. Usually these are developed and built, in this case instead of being a tapestry woven around the characters to add color and help understand their motives it end up being literary flotsam that obfuscates the story.

Bottom line, save your $0.99 and put it toward anything by Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Robin Hobb (Farseer books), Ken Scholes (Psalms of Isaac series)

This is an outstanding book! If you enjoy fantasy, you will love Bonham's writing.

She takes you from the first page on a fast paced adventure ride that doesn't stop.

I hadn't read any work by Bonham before and was very impressed. Please take the time to read her work, it will impress you too.

The book has a novel concept, although it is often poorly described. There are many characters (throughout this book and the next) that are described as "sorcerers" and then never seem to have any special ability what so ever. It is gaps in the storyline and character development like this that make it just an ok read. I often found myself having to re-read aspects of the and try to fill in the gaps myself after realizing that the supplemental information simply wasn't there. The action scenes are short, and the politics of the various "people" starts to get confusing in this book, and gets downright annoying in the sequel. For 0.99 its a good purchase, but in this case you will get what you pay for. If you are going to read either book in the series, read this one and pretend it ends here.

The storyline has promise, but the story-telling doesn't do it justice. Overall the book is probably the worst I have read in many years. The writing is stilted and jumpy and makes me think junior high creative writing student. I persisted to the end because I hate wasting anything and hoped that maybe the author would improve as things went on, but I should have wasted the 99 cents rather than the hours of my life I will never get back.