Customer Reviews

Two-edged Sword

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

 

 

Plenty of books have been written about travel to other worlds. A Two-Edged Sword does a better-than-usual job of showing how Wilkinson comes to grips with the differences in the world he is transported to; how he learns to apply the strengths of his own knowledge and experience, and how he handles his limitations.

Steve Wilkinson volunteers to participate in a sleep experiment at his college, but something goes terribly wrong. As his spirit is wandering in the land of dreams, he is called through to another world/dimension by a wizard. In this world, there are the traditional fantasy races: Olvir/elves, Umbrian/humans, etc. The enemy is the Morvir, a country where male children are taken from their homes at age 5 and trained for war. Only the best become officers and soliders, the rest are castrated and sent back to work the fields and do other menial labor. They are ruled by the Dark Queen who wants to take over the land. The only one who can stop her is the Dreamer...

Unfortunately, Steve has no idea what is going on. He is a typical college student and understands little about battle, honor and such. However, he is a fast learner. He quickly becomes one of Erelvar's legir (sworn man) and becomes embroiled in the conflict between the races.

This is a fast paced fantasy adventure. The world was familiar, yet slightly different than a traditional fantasy setting, which was fun. The characters were well-drawn. All of them learned, developed and matured throughout the novel. Martin spent some time showing the war through all of the different races so that the reader could understand how they viewed the conflict. Each of the characters had weaknesses and all suffered crippling losses. Steve's knowledge of technology helped, but he didn't single-handedly save the world. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy. Even though it is rather typical in the premise (person from modern world sucked into another world where he is the only one who can save them from destruction, etc.), Martin's writing style makes this book a great read. Highly recommended for any readers of fantasy.

I've never been really into the 'alternate universe' type of fantasy stories. I guess I just watched way too much Star Trek. But this was so totally different. The characters were believeable, and the descriptions of the area were so good that it made you feel as though you were in Delgroth with poor Steve. Now why can't this sort of stuff happen in real life?

This book could be straight out of D&D in the grand adventure style of Tolkien. No highly complex sub-sub-plots: it combines high adventure, magic and strategic warfare. Then grabs you by the bootstraps for action w/out pause! An easy but intense read, keeping you on the edge of your seat at all times.

That's a great book about the Dreamer, the Dark Queen, and others.
A book filled with Magic and Power.

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Can't wait for the next one!

This book shows that it isn't just brute strength that will win the day. It's also knowledge, and the ways you apply that knowledge. Interesting way to look at the effect of technology on a (more or less) medeival society. Also interesting to see how magic and technology work together. All in all a great read, I can't wait to get the next one. The only reason I give this book 4 stars not 5 is that it depends on the next book too much. The ending is left entirely too open.