From the Bookshelf of Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"…

Sword Sisters: A Red Reaper Novel

Tara Cardinal,

Alex Bledsoe

Start date: January 1, 2014

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Heroine Groupread
[close] Heroine Groupread

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 151 topics — 4,341 comments total

Group Reads

* February - March Groupreads - Anthologies
By Stephen · 11 posts · 41 views

last updated Mar 27, 2023 09:03PM

* December Groupreads - Conan - Blood Of The Serpent
By Stephen · 30 posts · 54 views

last updated Dec 26, 2022 08:20AM

showing 3 of 3 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Dec 07, 2013 Jason Waltz rated it really liked it

Shelves: heroic, fantastical, fun, own

An entertaining and inspiring read of one woman's heroic search to find herself in a world she doesn't quite fit into and that isn't quite sure it wants her. For the daughter of a demon and a witch nothing is certain but anger and that the tip of a sword can solve most things. This is a story about learning self-confidence and self-control and earning friendship and trust. It's also a pretty darn good rip-snorting action adventure :) ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Dec 07, 2013 S.E. Lindberg rated it liked it

Shelves: sword-sorcery-group-authors, reviewed-by-se

'Coming of Age’ of a 'Chick-in-Chainmail’
This is a tale of Aella, a snarky, special teenager who starts exploring her independence. She may not wear chain mail, but her attitude fits that of the historical chick-in-chainmail. Her lineage grants her the ability to become superhuman (demonic). Aella resembles Tara Cardinal in appearance, which happens to reflect that of red-haired warriors of the Sword & Sorcery genre (Agnes de Chastillon, Red Sonja, Jirel of Joiry). Indeed Tara Cardinal is the ke 'Coming of Age’ of a 'Chick-in-Chainmail’
This is a tale of Aella, a snarky, special teenager who starts exploring her independence. She may not wear chain mail, but her attitude fits that of the historical chick-in-chainmail. Her lineage grants her the ability to become superhuman (demonic). Aella resembles Tara Cardinal in appearance, which happens to reflect that of red-haired warriors of the Sword & Sorcery genre (Agnes de Chastillon, Red Sonja, Jirel of Joiry). Indeed Tara Cardinal is the key force behind a “Red Reaper” franchise, this novel Sword Sisters: A Red Reaper Novel serves a prequel to the Legend of the Red Reaper (video trailer link) movie which she directed, wrote, and acted as the major star.

Movie Sequel: The movie has opened in select markets as the book was released, but for most places people will have to wait to see the DVD (released next month, April 2014.) I have the movie on order, and will amend this review to discuss how well the media pair.

Other than featuring a belligerent, young heroine, this book sticks to many of the tropes & clichés of any coming-of-age fantasy novel. Conflict is consistently deflated with adolescent humor, juvenile idioms, or Aella’s giggles. There are hints of mature content that are never developed: the basis of Aella’s powers stems from demons raping human females, however, explicit sex or sexual violence never presents itself. The prose could be considered ‘mature,’ since copious cursing & cussing peppers the text (as a teenager learning the art of “adult” language would speak).

This book was co-authored by Alex Bledsoe, who contributed to another Rogue Blades Entertainment work:Writing Fantasy Heroes. Rogue Blades Entertainment’s library (i.e., Rage of the Behemoth, and Return of the Sword) had focused on anthologies tailored for an adult audience, so this novel presents a slight departure into a new market (Young Adult, not-anthology). Having read the aforementioned RBE works, I would not recommend this to their historic audience, unless they happened to also identify with & enjoy YA fare.

Sword Sisters Book cover

...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 15, 2013 Robin rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

I enjoyed this book, but it had some issues.

Penned with established author Alex Bledsoe, this novel apparently serves as a prequel to actor/screenwriter Tara Cardinal's indie film The Red Reaper. I haven't seen the movie, and as a result when I finished the book I felt a bit like I has missed out on something. It wasn't that the setting and characters were poorly explained, it was rather the opposite; the first third of the book details a very interesting premise and, unfortunately, the main plo I enjoyed this book, but it had some issues.

Penned with established author Alex Bledsoe, this novel apparently serves as a prequel to actor/screenwriter Tara Cardinal's indie film The Red Reaper. I haven't seen the movie, and as a result when I finished the book I felt a bit like I has missed out on something. It wasn't that the setting and characters were poorly explained, it was rather the opposite; the first third of the book details a very interesting premise and, unfortunately, the main plot only ever engages with a fraction of that rich background.

Sword Sisters tells the story of Aella, a human-demon hybrid Reaper. In the novel world's past, demons invaded from beyond, preying on humanity. Products of forced interbreeding with human women, the second generation of Reapers turned against their progenitors, fighting back the demons and freeing humanity. Since then, the supernaturally resilient and semi-immortal Reapers act as humanity's guardians, remaining largely apart from mankind in an effort to let them control their own destiny.

Aella in particular is--wait for it--the Chosen One of prophecy. The product of the union between the leader of the demons and a gifted Teller Witch, she is fated to become the Red Reaper, last of her kind and the most powerful of all, destined to combine the Reapers' physicality with Teller Witch magic. As a child, Aella is betrayed by her mother in exchange for magical power, handed over to the demons to endure years of abuse and torture in their realm.

Despite the over-reliance of prophecy in the fantasy genre, this is all very interesting stuff. However, the story that follows is much smaller in scale. We meet Aella as a snotty teenager, rebelling against her mentors at the Reaper monastery at which she lives. Annoyed by one instructor in particular, she cuts class and heads off into the woods, where she encounters a human village girl about to sacrificed to a cave-dwelling god. Ambivalent about humanity, Aella is still compelled to come to the girl's aid, an impulsive act that has unforeseen consequences.

The story that follows is fun and action-packed, with an interesting twist near the end, but I kept expecting it to ramp up into something bigger, and it never did. Is Aella truly fated to become the Red Reaper? Will the demons return for a final confrontation? We don't find out in this book. Maybe the movie tells that story? The cover says that this is "A" Red Reaper Novel, perhaps there are more to follow? I can't help feeling that this book wouldn't have been better served if less emphasis and page count had been placed on Aella's destiny in the beginning of the book. As it stands we're left with a fun, fairly localized sword & sorcery adventure burdened with epic fantasy framing that turns out to be mostly irrelevant to the tale we're presented with.

I also wonder if the book couldn't have been better pitched as a Young Adult novel. Despite the mature and confident-looking swordswoman on the awesome cover art, the book is really a Coming of Age story with a 16 year old protagonist. Younger readers may find Aella a more relatable character than Rogue Blades Entertainment's usual audience of crusty Conan fans.

The prose is mostly well-written and evocative, and the story progresses at a fast clip. Dialogue and characterization were a little clunky, however. For someone who spent an eternity being molested and tortured by demons, Aella seems remarkably stable, exhibiting no real mental health problems beyond typical teenage rebelliousness and mild trust issues. The novel is written in the first person, and Aella's tone is flip and thoroughly modern. While I don't insist fantasy characters limit themselves to Ren Faire speech, it takes me out of the story a bit when one character is told not to "freak out" when confronted with a monster and when supposedly formidable opponents are labeled "Ass-Face Number One and Number Two." The most cringe-worthy is when Aella proclaims that she has "come to kick demon ass and chew gum tree leaves, and I'm all out of gum tree leaves." A They Live/Roddy Piper reference, really?

Editing was top-notch, with Rogue Blade Entertainment providing a higher quality ebook than many larger publishers. Again, the cover art is fantastic.

Some complaints aside, I would be interested in seeing more Red Reaper stories. Overlooking producer Uwe Boll's association, I'd be willing to give the movie a shot, and there is a lot of potential for future adventures starring Aella. I'd have no problem recommending this book to a teen Hunger Games fan, provided they can cope with the ("off-screen") rape-filled Reaper background.

(I was provided with a review copy of this book.) ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 04, 2014 Seth Skorkowsky rated it really liked it

I just finished Sword Sisters and loved it. It's a very fast read with great action and very fun dialogue.
The hero is a wonderfully strong, and flawed character. She's fragile as she is savage. I enjoyed it, immensely. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review