The Forging of the Sword   by Mark Robson Sword Publishing, 2000, 309 pages, ISBN 0 9538190 0

How easy was it to get stuck into this book?
This book is a very interesting and exciting book, even if all of it is not furious action. Of course it could be that you don't like the type of story, but I'd find that hard to believe, because there is pretty much something of everything in the book, Humour, Action, Adventure, Fantasy etc.

Who are the main characters?
There are a large number of characters in the story, but I think that the main ones were probably: Calvyn, who is a teenager from a farming village in Thrandor (one of the places in the book), when his entire family and most of his village are brutally slaughtered he accompanies a travelling healer who has other secrets apart from the way in which he makes his medicines. The healer, Perdimonn is also a magician, and seeing as the art of magic has been banned in Thrandor for 200 years he has to be careful. When Calvyn joins the army at a stage in the book, he meets a number of people, the most obvious being Jenna, who is very skilled with the bow, and is also a recruit like Calvyn, Corporal Derra, who is the instructor in the squad that Calvyn is in, and Bek, another recruit who is amazingly fast with the sword.

What's the storyline?
When Calvyn leaves his home to travel with Perdimonn, the two soon become aware that someone is following them, this turns out to be Selkor, a very powerful Shandese magician. He wants the key to the power that Perdimonn guards. When the pair realise this Perdimonn insists that Calvyn go his own way now. Calvyn has an idea that he wants to be a professional soldier, which will mean that he can get a job guarding a merchant's wagon against the Shandese raiders. To do this he joins the army, then a lot of things happen, the most important being Calvyn having his own special sword of combined silver and steel. Then it is time to go to war, the war is against the Terachites, the same people who butchered Calvyn's family.

How's it written?
The book is written in a very enjoyable style, with a bit of most elements of a story in it. The language is not hard, but I found it very hard to put the book down!

Other books by the same author that Tim knows about?
The 2nd and 3rd books in The Darkweaver Legacy, Trail of the Huntress and First Sword (not yet published).

The overall verdict is
A cool-read

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