Book Review – A Sword From Red Ice
Author: J.V. Jones
Cover Artist: Jean Pierre Targete
Publisher: Tor
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: October 2007
A Sword From Red Ice brings us a long-awaited continuation of J.V. Jones’ Sword of Shadows series.
In the Northern Territories, the situation is rapidly growing ever more dire for all those living – the clans, the cityfolk and even the mysterious Sull people. Despite Raif Sevrance’s successful healing of the breach in the Blindwall in A Fortress of Grey Ice – the Blindwall has been breached again. The Unmade are being gradually unleashed on the world of the living and no one is safe. Ash March continues on her journey to the Sull homeland and struggles to gain acceptance from her adoptive people.
Despite this, few are aware of the doom that faces them. The clans are in a state of disarray as the once-mighty Blackhail clan crumbles from the inside out – abandoned by the Stone Gods and invaded by unwelcome refugees from clan Scarpe. The Dhoonesmen have retaken their roundhouse from clan Bludd – leaving Bludd holding on to their precarious conquests of other clanholds. The Dog Lord has fled the Dhoonehouse and seeks to rally the remnants of his power even as he realizes the the true threat is from the Unmade. And an army approaching from Spire Vanis is on the verge of attacking the clanholds in this time of weakness.
If you’re a fan of the series who hasn’t read A Sword From Red Ice yet, I’m sure you’re asking yourself the same question I did as I read the book: Was it worth the wait? The answer is: Yes and no. While a new addition to a great series is always welcome – “Sword” is a rather mixed bag.
The little touches I loved from the previous two books, like the snatches of clan history (seen here via the Blackhail guidestone):
History was carved on its many faces like text in a book. The iron ring on its northwestern corner where the kingslayer Ayan Blackhail had been chained while awaiting judgment still stood, immovable now and swollen with rust. A series of blunted steps cut into the east face told of the time when the monolith had stood ten feet taller and had lain on the greatcourt, exposed to rain and frost. Clanwives had once climbed those steps and watched as their husbands returned from the War of Sheep.
The descriptions of the ever-present bitter cold that holds its own dangers:
Raw was something else. Raw killed. It froze your breath the instant it left your mouth, coating every hair on your face with frost; it numbed the most thickly wrapped hands and feet and then when it had numbed them it turned them into ice, and it altered the working of your mind, made you think it was hot when it was deadly cold, that you just needed to rest awhile and everything would be all right.
These are all here, interwoven into the larger story. The characters I liked from the first two books are all here as well: the Dog Lord, Raif, Ash, etc., which keeps the story moving back and forth between their varied plotlines and presents a wide picture of the action occurring across the Northern Territories. There are a number of good moments as well – Bram Cormac’s chance encounter with the Dog Lord early on in the book, for instance.
Unfortunately, “Sword” suffers from “Wheel of Time syndrome” – a long book that goes on and on without a huge amount of plot advancement, particularly in the first half. Once I got into the second half of the book, the story started moving a bit faster but it still drags out much more than it needed to. In particular, the subplots with Crope/Baralis and Effie Sevrance respectively are all but pointless here, especially Effie’s story, which drags on and on with very little advancement.
We do see bits and pieces of the major plots moving forward – the forces from Spire Vanis finally attack the clanholds, the aftermath of Raif’s actions at the Fortress of Grey Ice, Ash’s travels to the Heart of the Sull, etc. – but even these plotlines are rather lackluster at times, Ash’s and the Dog Lord’s in particular. For me, I found it particular maddening to reach the end of a chapter and realize that very little had happened in the course of 10-20 pages.
It’s truly unfortunate in the end, as Sword of Shadows was one of the few epic series I had high regard for and had been eagerly awaiting the next installment. That’s not to say the book is entirely without merit as noted above but A Sword From Red Ice ultimately feels like a much shorter book stretched out into a 600+ page tome. I’m not soured on the series entirely, but I had much higher hopes for it thus far.
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