The Sword Defiant

• Author: Gareth Hanrahan
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: May 2, 2023
• Publisher: Orbit
• Series: Lands of the Firstborn #1

Thank you to Orbit and Angela Man for sending me a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: violence, blood, harm to an animal, gore

Set in a world of dark myth and dangerous prophecy, The Sword Defiant launches an epic tale of daring warriors, living weapons, and bloodthirsty vengeance.

Many years ago, Sir Aelfric and his nine companions saved the world, seizing the Dark Lord’s cursed weapons along with his dread city of Necrad. That was the easy part.

Now, when Aelfric—keeper of the cursed sword Spellbreaker—learns of a new and terrifying threat, he seeks the nine heroes once again. But they are wandering adventurers no longer. Yesterday’s eager heroes are today’s weary leaders—and some have turned to the darkness, becoming monsters themselves.

If there’s one thing Aelfric knows, it’s slaying monsters. Even if they used to be his friends.

I’ve been behind on reading my physical ARCs, so I am way behind on getting to this gem. While I was working through other books, I had to listen to my fellow bloggers raving about this book and telling me how much I’d love it. So my expectations were already pretty high before I started reading, without knowing much of anything about this book at all.

The fact that this book chooses not to focus on the big, save the world quest that so many fantasy books do, immediately set it apart. Instead, the story is all about what happens after the quest is finished—and I found that to hook my attention right away.

“Back then, it all seemed so easy. They’d slain the dark lord; how could they fall down managing the happily ever after?”

Alf’s character is one that I can easily imagine. He’s 45, a bit jaded from saving the world, but still devoted to the idea that his group of nine friends can fix everything. Until he manages to track everyone down and see how much people have changed. I loved the way the author inserts humor into the story when possible, to break up how heavy the story could get.

We get to see the world through the eyes of another character, who isn’t a part of the nine, and has very little worldly experience. Through this character, we get to see their world for the very first time outside of their small village. I enjoyed this character’s POV much more, since they aren’t as jaded and are more open to seeing the wonders of their world.

While most books end on the happily ever after, this story focuses on the hard work that happily ever after takes. Anyone who is married long-term can tell you that staying married takes work, and maintaining peace takes work too—the characters in this story haven’t all maintained the high-minded ideals that Alf held onto for 20 years, and he has to somehow pull everyone together to work as a team. 

Overall, this was a fantastic read. Some parts were slower paced, while the end was significantly faster paced, but I really did enjoy the story. There’s a lot of plot twists that kept me guessing, although I did predict a couple of the plot twists (but not fully). And while the ending feels pretty wrapped up, there’s still just enough of a cliffhanger to keep me champing at the bit for the next book.

People who have sat around with me while I’m reading, especially when there’s a surprising reveal, a shocking plot twist, or an unexpected event often look up in alarm when I gasp audibly. The gasp factor is directly related to the number of times I audibly gasp during a reading, and there isn’t an upper limit.

Gasp Factor: 21