Review: An Exciting Historical Fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 10, 2012
The Wrong Sword is a fast-paced, gripping and funny adventure which I found difficult to put down.The protagonist is Henry, a thief living on the streets of Twelfth Century Paris. Henry specialises in conning rich nobles into buying forgeries of historical and sacred relics. But when he scams Edmund Brissac, a heavy-handed knight and right hand man to The Duke of Brittany, Geoffrey Plantagenet, he is forced into a quest for a real one. Geoffrey sends him to Glastonbury to find Excalibur.The pace of the story is fast, never getting bogged down in needless or excessive narrative, yet it still moves fluidly from one scene to the next. The author does well to paint a picture of the surroundings in the reader's mind without dwelling too long on lengthy descriptions - his language is concise and fluid.The characters are colourful and develop subtly throughout the book. Although the author occasionally uses the odd modern Americanism, which seems a bit out of place in medieval Paris, the dialogue is well written and often very funny.  The author has a good sense of humour. There were a few moments, such as the food fight, which actually made me laugh out loud.I would recommend this book to anyone, especially anyone who enjoys fantasy or historical fiction. It has everything; action, adventure, humour, love, engaging characters and a captivating storyline. I look forward to reading more from this author.