Subject: _Oath of Swords_ by David Weber

From: [email-masked] (Christina Schulman)
Date: 16 Jan 1995 06:48:11 GMT

_Oath of Swords_ is the new book out by David Weber, best known for
his very enjoyable "Honor Harrington" series.  Unlike the Honor books,
_Oath of Swords_ is a sword-and-sorcery (mostly swords) fantasy.
Also unlike the Honor books, _Oath of Swords_ is pretty bad.

The hradani are an undercivilized, overmuscled race characterized
by pointy ears and a susceptibility to a berserker rage, imaginatively
named "the Rage."  Bahzell Bahnakson is a prince of the Horse Stealer
hradani tribe.  When he's forced to flee his homeland, he and his friend
Brandark wander all over the map printed at the front of the book,
killing people, dodging assassins, killing people, saving damsels in
distress, and killing people.  When he's not busy either killing people
or rescuing them, Bahzell fills in the gaps in his time arguing with the
War God, who wants to make Bahzell his paladin.  (That constitutes a
spoiler only if you haven't read the back cover.)

_Oath of Swords_ reads like a bad rehash of _The Deed of Paksenarrion_.
It's populated with the standard elves, half-elves, halflings, evil
wizards and loathesome demons.  The dialogue is frequently silly, and
the writing can only be described as, well, bad.  The plotting is very
clumsy, and after the climactic fight, the resolution sort of limps
along for another 30 pages as if Weber wrote until he grew tired of
it and stopped.

This is not to say that nobody will like _Oath of Swords_.  I read the
whole thing, and I found myself enjoying it at the same time that I
was saying, "Geez, this is bad!"  However, I have a fairly high tolerance
for bad fantasy.  If you're in the mood for a mindless quest fantasy,
I suppose it's possible that you could do worse than this (recent Eddings,
for example).  Otherwise, Weber fans should avoid _Oath of Swords_, and
reread your Honor Harrington books instead.

           "And so I owe you my life again, Bahzell Bahnakson,"
       she'd said, voice wavering with the aftershock of her
       tearing sobs.  "Oh, Bahzell, Bahzell!  What god sent
       you and Brandark to me, and how can I ever prove worthy
       of you?"
           "Hush, lass," he'd growled, and patted her roughly,
       awkward and uncomfortable as a stripling before the glow
       in her eyes.  "You've no call to be 'worthy' of such as
       us!"

Yeesh.

%A   Weber, David
%T   Oath of Swords
%I   Baen
%C   New York
%D   February 1995
%G   ISBN 0-671-87642-2
%P   489 pp.
%O   paperback, US $5.99, Canada $7.50

-- 
Christina Schulman                                       [email-masked]