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Book Review of The Swordsman's Oath (Tale of Einarinn, Bk 2)

The Swordsman's Oath (Tale of Einarinn, Bk 2)
escapeartistk avatar reviewed on + 207 more book reviews


What a disappointment after the first book! I put this one down for a LONG time before finally picking it back up to finish it.

A large section of the story is this big detour -- I can think of no other way to describe it -- that does nothing to forward the plot or develop characters. I just really still can't say why it's there.

There's also an alternate story being told concurrently that has no clear connection with the rest of the plot until near the end, when it's supposed to be a big deal -- except it just doesn't feel like one.

Then there's the fact that Ryshad, not Livak, narrates the first-person sections, and he's just not nearly as interesting as Livak.

I thought I had stumbled onto a great series, but now I suspect McKenna's world is so elaborate as to make the separate parts of the series unwieldy or dull (or both).