Review Detail

A while back, a child me scoured the library for books by Lloyd Alexander, Diana Wynne Jones, Gerald Morris, and Jonathan Stroud. I absolutely adored the fantasy worlds they created with snarky sidekicks/mentors, damsels who got their heroes out of distress just as much as they found themselves in it, and very grey ideas of who the bad or good guys really are. "The Demon Sword Asperides" felt like coming home to all those stories in a bright, shiny new package.

Nack Furnival may only be thirteen years old, but he's already very much down on his luck. Cast out of House Furnival for sparing an ally of the enemy, he's now on the lookout for a quest to restore his honor and be welcomed back within his family. Now, if only he could find a new sword. Or, even better, learn to fight with one...

Enter Asperides, a demon sword who has been content with lounging in the pubs of hell and just enjoying a break from entrapping souls from which to draw his power. When that existence becomes threatened by the reanimation of his most recent master, the ruthless, Amyral Venir, Asperides finds himself drawn back in to the world of the living, and drawn to a certain bumbling would-be knight...

If the summary alone didn't sell it, the book was great fun and chock full of humor and derring-do. Asperides is the perfect sarcastic deuteragonist, much like a certain dwarf from Game of Thrones if you prefer the works of George RR Martin, or like Bartimaeus if, like myself, you hold fond memories of Stroud's work. The cover art may be reminiscent of early 2000s children's literature, but I feel the story can be enjoyed throughout the ages by all ages.

Thanks to the publisher, Hachette Books, for sending me a free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.