Status Updates From The Broken Sword

It was like being in another world, a world which in every way felt different. And he himself was changed, not alone in this new taut body but in brain and nerve. His mind moved in wolfish tracks, narrower but in a way keener. He was not able in beast body to think all the thoughts he did as a man, nor, on becoming man again, to remember all he had sensed and thought as a beast.

this book is going to make me an alcoholic

Pretty brutal, and no messing prose. Great so far.

Ma il ricordo di Skafloc stava diventando un'estate passata, come la si può ricordare l'anno seguente. Le riscaldava il cuore senza bruciarlo, e la nostalgia era come un laghetto immoto su cui hanno iniziato a danzare riflessi di sole. Piangere in eterno era una debolezza indegna per quel che avevano vissuto insieme.

"Tre cose non ho mai conosciuto." Si gloriò una volta. "La paura, la sconfitta e le pene d'amore."
"Sei troppo giovane" disse l'elfo "per conoscere le tre cose più importanti nella vita d'un uomo."

Currently we've got Norse Vikings vs the fae vs the good Christians of England... I really hope the Aesir come out on top because I am really not in the mood for Christian allegory.

DNF

Poul Anderson released this the same year Tolkien published “Fellowship of the Ring.” LOTR is a better book, but Anderson writes a pretty good story with several women characters with names. It’s also pretty inventive, but just not amazingly good.

I love reading “pre-Tolkien fantasy” because it’s not just D&D.

This will be a unique review. Especially considering the pacing.

Chapter 7. Wow.

The quick pacing is probably one of the best aspects of this book thus far.

Some pretty boring gaps in this one.

There’s a lot of blood shed in this tale. If you’re given a name, you’re gonna die.

That witch is a psycho. ;)

Fuck Valguard.

A thing of awe.

"I think man is fated to outlive the immortals"

Scafloc sailing with Mananaan to Jotunheim. Eerie, vast and cold. Anderson has created such a beautiful mythic world.

This is wonderful. So vivid and tragic and epic. Another testament that skilled imaginative authors do not need huge tomes to build a great story or world

This is really beautiful to read

Beaucoup de choses prévisibles mais bon moment de lecture

Sympa, mais les comparaisons avec le Seigneur des Anneaux ne me semblent pas pertinentes, bien que des points communs existent. Beaucoup plus dans l'action et moins dans le développement de l'univers. Un peu comme comparer Jordan et Gemmell

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Getting down to the wire now and can’t wait to see how Anderson ends this!

Exactly what outcome am I supposed to be rooting for with Skafloc and Freda? I expected Anderson to pull the plug on this weird and queasy relationship a lot sooner, but now he’s let it evolve into something almost sweet—though in a gag-inducing kind of way of course. Looking forward to some resolution here!

I'm listening to the audiobook from Libby this time around. Why does the "rat" voice sound so...inviting and sensual? I like it...but, also, why?

I'm impressed at all the subtext packed into this book--it's not the basic allegory of other fantasy novels but instead is a running commentary on the tension between religions/cultures. It manages to do all that without falling into a simple good vs. evil narrative, which is pretty cool

I love the ways in which Poul Anderson develops the characters. The story is borderline Machiavellian, where each preceding moment subtly shifts the trajectory of what happens next.

I love how much plot the author is able to squeeze into 200 pages. There have been so many twists and turns, and through the character's prophecies, there's a Sword of Damocles tone to the whole story.

I can't help but make comparisons to The Lord of The Rings. Though Broken Sword is less sentimental and the characters less approachable, its battle scenes, pacing, prose and storyline are all so much better than Tolkien's work.

Rtc