BOOK REVIEW: Liar’s Blade by Tim Pratt
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A rogue-ish hero and his intelligent sword hire onto a quest. Their employers are looking for a lost relic, and our pair are looking for gold any way they can find it.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: A charming and convincing partnership based on mutual respect and a healthy dose of witty banter.
CONS: Nothing earth-shattering or overly ambitious here.
BOTTOM LINE: This is the sort of Fafhrd-and-Grey-Mouser-style sword and sorcery adventure that I love and would like to see more of in RPG novels.
The Pathfinder line of RPG novels is doing a lot of things right. They’ve been publishing intelligent adventure novels that showcase their gaming system and their campaign setting in lush detail. They’ve hired a variety of solid, professional authors, and they’ve spread their tales among a wide variety of heroes instead of following one party for multiple books. The one thing that they had been missing–until now–was the particular brand of charming that I have recently come to love in Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series. Tim Pratt has done an excellent job of capturing that spirit in this Pathfinder outing.
Rodrick is a charming rogue who prefers to talk his way out of fights, into beds, and into gold. Hrym is his intelligent talking sword who is happy to provide back-up for Rodrick’s plans, especially if it means that he gets to sleep on the gold acquired thereby. They’ve obviously been adventuring together for quite some time, and their good-natured ribbing of each other provides much of the charm of the novel. Teasing, jests, and references to past shared adventures combine to paint a convincing portrait of two old friends, one of whom happens to be a soul-stealing sword of living ice.
The tale starts out in a town known for its gladiatorial combat, which is becoming less hospitable to Rodrick and Hrym after Rodrick propositions the sister of a leading gladiator. Luckily, he and Hyrm are offered employment in a small party in need of a bodyguard as they travel north in search of a lost relic. The party initially consists of a taciturn and rather bloodthirsty priest and his eccentric female sorcerer assistant. The priest seems to have a suspicious interest in Hrym, and the assistant has an intense loyalty and obedience to the priest, and a hump that doesn’t seem to be in the same place every day… In the course of their adventuring they also acquire a half-elf archer who reads the omens of nature in search of his destiny. It will come as no surprise that no one in the party is exactly what they seem; even Rodrick and Hyrm have more to learn about each other.
There is a lot of humor here without resorting to insulting parody or snark. Pratt knows his game and his gaming groups, and there’s a lot of affection here for the adventure and the adventurers. There’s also a lot of humor drawn from the contrasting styles of the members of the party, as anyone who has been part of a diverse group of gamers can attest: Rodrick and Hyrm are light-hearted and scheming, the priest and sorcerer are playing their parts from some sort of monster/mad scientist/cultist novel, and the half-elf ranger is living in a world of noble quests and high destiny. Their individual voices reflect their characters perfectly, and add a lot to the fun tone of the book. This adventure novel is easy to read and hard to put down. I was recovering from a nasty cold when I read it, and it was a perfect restorative.
Thanks for the great review! Just wanted to note that that’s the mock-up cover–the real one is over here:
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8x1j?Pathfinder-Tales-Liars-Blade
Glad you liked it–this book is one of my favorites that we’ve published!
James Sutter
Paizo Fiction Editor
Thanks, James. Image updated.
we grabbed this from Amazon. This happened before with another Paizo title — can you update the Amazon images?
Thanks, Karen.
So you dip into sword and sorcery when the strictures of reading Egan, or, say, Olaf Stapledon, are a bit too much? 🙂
I keep a stash of really fun fantasy adventure books for when I desperately need a break. 😉