Book Log 19/2010 - Sherwood Smith: A Stranger to Command

[jacey]

Sherwood Smith: A Stranger to Command

A prequel to Crown Duel  which tells Shevraeth's story from entering the military academy in far off Marloven Hess as an untried fifteen year old to emerging as a competent commander and swordsman with a mission to take the throne of his own country from a paranoid tyrant who is killing those he sees as rivals in a series of unfortunate accidents.

It's a rite of passage novel, interesting in its own right, but mostly important for filling in missing details of the cool, competent man destined to become not only King, but Meliara's future love. In Crown Duel we don't get any of Shevraeth's viewpoint. In this book we get to know him thoroughly as he solves the kind of problems that being a foreigner in a new situation can cause, falls in love for the first time, and gets mixed up in the politics of Marloven Hess whose old enemies are returning for another showdown. In truth without knowing the world from Crown Duel, this may feel a little incomplete so it's probably best to read it as a prequel after reading Crown Duel rather than read the two in chronological order.

I likes Shevraeth in Crown Duel, so I'm probably the exact target audience for this book and it certainly hit the spot.

One observation, though, unconnected with the writing quality or story value... this is a hugely heavy book. Printed on good quality but heavyweight paper, I mean it's physically heavy. It's 760g - almost twice the weight of Bernard Cornwell's Azincourt, a similar sized book in terms of page numbers and content which read soon after. Reading 'Stranger' in bed was an arm-aching exercise and carrying it round in my handbag to read while waiting for my dental appointment was like carrying a housebrick. I wonder what the economics of using such heavyweight paper are?

Comments

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Ah, so it would be a good book to get for my iPad (assuming there's an iBook format version for it).

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I believe it is available as an ebook. If I'd known how heavy it was I might have been tempted to download and read on the screen.

How do you like your ipad? Do you sync it via a Mac or a PC?