• Author: Poul Anderson
• ISBN: 9781497694224
• Publisher: Open Road Media

The Broken Sword is High Fantasy at its highest.  It was originally published the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954), and the trilogy is what I immediately thought of as I began reading this classic.  For the most part, I enjoyed it.  It’s a good story with a good plot that is fairly paced.  However, I never cared about any of the characters, and for me there has to be at least one character I cheer for or one I despise so much that I love all the others in comparison.  Neither of those characters exist in this book.  Some of them were a bit more despicable than others, but all of them did horrible things while also having problems that made them not seem so horrible; except for the trolls who are just vile and disgusting.  If anything, the gods that are behind everything that occurs are the ones to despise, but they’re rarely mentioned and only one of them is seen “in person”.

As I said, the story itself is good.  It was good enough for me to finish the book despite not caring about the characters, and it was good enough for me to give it three stars.  If you are a true lover of classic High Fantasy this just might be the book for you.  If you’re not, check it out at the library.