RATING: FIVE STARS
The Sword of Truth is the remarkable first novel of The Godling Chronicles, a high fantasy series that speaks of a ravaged world as it slowly recovers from a brutal war between elves and humans that nearly tore it apart.
It is a world in which the nation of the elves has been scattered and broken, leaving the once proud race on its knees. And even as their civilisation collapsed, the domain of man expanded, pushing them further and further into the fringes of the world. As a result of this, fear and hatred is rife between the two races who, so long as they stand apart, cannot hope to resist the Dark Knight - a evil dictator that has sealed the gateway to Heaven and so severed the gods' connection to Earth.
In the turmoil of their hardening lives, Gewey Stedding is plucked from his simple life as a farmer and is forced to flee his home alongside the mysterious Lee Starfinder, a powerful demi-god born of a mortal woman and Saraf, the God of the Sea. Unsure of why he must leave his childhood home of Sharpstone, Gewey quickly discovers that he is much more than just a man and that he has unnatural powers that he would rather not learn how to control.
However, Gewey quickly understands that he might not be able to ignore his powers for long. He is destined to confront the Dark Knight and is uncomfortably aware that the freedom of the souls of Earth weigh heavily on his shoulders. So Gewey must embrace new powers and learn how use them as he journeys on a path that is fraught with danger and filled with the nefarious agents of the Dark Knight - foes that will stop at nothing to corrupt or kill him.
Fortunately for Gewey, not everyone he meets seeks to harm him and he quickly makes friends and allies to forge a blasphemous group that unites the nations of man and elves in a manner that has not been seen since before the Great War.
The Good
The Sword of Truth is generally very well written and is set in a highly developed world that has interesting cultures and a unique history. These attributes help to add a depth to the book that makes Brian D. Anderson's 'world' more plausible than it would have been otherwise and sets the events of the story into an rich, understandable context.
Furthermore, Anderson has invested a lot of time in developing the different religions of humans and elves. This adds an essential backbone to the story as the gods feature prominently in the world's history - both in the instigations of the Great War and in those of the current 'real time' issues.
And despite spending the time to describe his world fully, Anderson doesn't overload the information all at once like many authors do. This, as well as preventing the book from becoming dull, allows him to maintain the pace of the story, meaning that The Sword of Truth is packed with action and adventure that its characters respond to in a reasonably realistic manner.
The Bad
In all honesty I have very little criticism of The Sword of Truth. The main problem that I had with it however, which is a pretentious one at that, is with poor editing that missed several discrepancies in the spelling of the name of one of the minor characters. The character, called Broin (with an acute accent on the 'i'), often appears as Brion, which leads me to believe that Anderson changed its spelling at some point after his first draft and missed many of the times the name appeared in the text. Unfortunately, I think that this adds a somewhat 'tacky' and unprofessional feel to an otherwise superb book.
My Thoughts
Although The Sword of Truth did contain a few minor editorial errors, it is well written as a whole and makes for an exciting and enjoyable read. In fact, the few mistakes that I found in it had no impact on my enjoyment of the story whatsoever and I am looking forward to reading Of Gods and Elves, the second instalment of The Godling Chronicles.
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