Lowly’s Book Blog

Thank you to Gollancz for their practice of republishing classic scifi and fantasy works. In this way they are keeping alive many wonderful books that would quickly be forgotten. The Broken Sword was originally published at about the same time as Tolkien’s LOR. This edition maintains the exact typesetting of the original, which may appear strange to some modern readers. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The book is one of Anderson’s fantasy works. It is set in Danelaw England during the time of the Viking invasions. This was an age when the magical and mystical interacted with the real world. Orm the Viking has decided to settle in the Danelaw and take an English wife. Through a series of misadventures, his eldest son is stolen by the King of the Elves and replaced with an evil changeling. This story is about the eventual battle for dominance between the two ‘brothers’ that involves the whole of England, Scandinavia and even large portions of Europe.

This book is written in the style of a Norse saga. As you read each chapter, close your eyes and imagine the village storyteller telling the tale through long winter nights. Each chapter has it’s own story and most of them are fairly short. Once the battles begin, though, there would be many late nights as the action unfolded.

Anderson is far better known for his classic ‘golden age’ scifi. Wikipedia goes on about his political, moral and literary themes. The Broken Sword is simply great storytelling, possibly based on Anderson’s own ancestral origins. My next question is..’Did the saga continue?’