Customer Reviews

The Third Book of Lost Swords: Stonecutter's Story

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

 

 

Having picked up this book after (actually while) reading the First (that should have remained the only) Swords Trilogy I must admit that my expectations were a bit high - afterall, The Stonecutter's story is nothing but a spin-off. However, this book not only doesn't measure up to the first three, it is simply poorly written. In more than a few places in the text the characters refer to the events in exactly the same words as the author himself, not a dozen lines before. Usually economical writing style of Saberhagen deteriorates to the level of a comics book. The story itself has nothing of the grand scale of the First Swords setting - having read these back to back you are bound to have an attack of claustrophobia. Instead it centers on the recovery of the stolen Sword with all usual trimmings of the Sherlock Holmes story, sans the thrill. Moreover, the Magistrate himself looks like a homage (or a rip-off) to the venerable creation of Sir Conan Doyle, with Dr. Kasimir filling the niche of his sidekick, Dr. Watson. Injection of utterly modern political twist in the form of some Steppe democrat (imprisoned for his attempt to institute local councils in his native prairies) makes the entire novel even less readable. "Clues" are so plain and abundant, that the only way to make this book more predictable would be to put the last chapter in the beginning of it... Overall, it's a hastily written (and apparently never proof-read) bad political whodunit which just happens to have a Sword in it.

This was a swell book. I enjoyed the way it fell together. Even though the red temple was a little much, I still give it a five star review. This book had twists, and kept you yearning for more. Wen Chang was a great character, but Kasimir was better. If you want a good book to read on the weekend, pick this one up, because you're in store for a great book. Fred Saberhagen shines in this great story of the quest to find Stonecutter.

'Stonecutter's Story' is better than the previous two 'Swords' books. The plot is more interesting and Saberhagen uses more dialogue to move the story along, but in the end, it's just as pointless as the first two. The good guys will prevail no matter how imposing the opponent.