The Swordmaster’s Matter
We have five Sunday’s this month so I’m starting with a fiction book, making this weeks book The Swordmaster’s Matter by K. W. Lee. So let’s do this.
Now, as usual, I’m going to be circumspect to avoid major spoilers. At it’s heart, this book is a political intrigue, set in a fantasy land. It starts with Oulen of Castletide, who has been sent to see what has caught fire in a local village, and finds the entire village has been slaughtered. Now, with him are...basically useless lordlings, sure they’re the shit because they’re all knights or knights in training. And yet Oulen immediately puts them in their place because if they WERE all that, this village would not have been raized, because these knights in training would have been present to defend it. I do love that in penance for their failure, he makes them dig the graves to bury the bodies.
And in amongst the bodies, is one that clearly does not belong. Oulen quickly determines that this was one of the attackers, although why the body is mutilated it beyond him, since no villagers remained alive to exact that sort of vengeance.
From there Oulen goes to his king, Tegeere of Ivonwell, and explains what has happened. Ivonwell...the kingdom is in trouble. It’s not quite indolent, but it’s falling into pride. The knightly orders, rather than picking the most able, pick among the most noble lineage’s. This ends up working to Oulen’s favor, when Tegeere decides to send him on a diplomatic mission to the neighboring kingdom of Andelon., and Oulen, while observing the selection processes, sees that the most promising among the young combatants is overlooked for the simple fact that he is not from a blooded family, but rather from the poorest province in Ivonwell, Ivory. And so it’s a two man party, The Kings Swordmaster, Oulen of Castletide, and his apprentice, Emory of Ivory, who head out to Andelon.
Now, at one point in the very not distant past, Andelon and Ivonwell were enemies, which we know because on their travels Oulen and Emory meet up with one of the nobles who fought on Andelon’s side. And they reminisce as honored adversaries and part as friends, since the kingdoms have been at peace for a long time. Long enough that while Ivonwell falls to pride, Andelon is falling to sloth and indolence.
Now, the exact nature of the diplomatic dispatch is never actually revealed, although I would strongly suspect that in addition to the request for arms, which we DO know about because the queen-regent deflects, it most likely requests a marriage of alliance, which I would suspect just off what I know of medieval history. Yes, this is fantasy, not middle ages Europe, but this would be the most logical way to ensure an alliance. We know Tegeere has a son, and we quickly learn Andelon has an unwed princess who is about the right age for such an alliance match.
But as they enter the capital of Andelon, Hys Tempress, Oulen quickly notes that there are undercurrents the queen-regent does not appear to be aware of. Or maybe she is, but is ignoring them. The queen-regent herself is not Andeloni...she was a political match from Fizarre, and remains regent while the prince is in training. And as part of her own legal rights, she’s been importing Fizarrean warriors to act as her own guards.
It’s upon this right that the political class is sewing discontent, claiming that the queen-regent is importing her own guards while ignoring the safety of her people. And to counteract that, rather than attempting to bolster the existing city guards, Hortus of Timmerlei, one of the political leaders, has been quietly importing warriors from the Augre, a barbarian race far to the north, who are mostly traveling to Andelon via ship. Mostly. Basically...he’s importing the Mongolian Horde to act as body guards and police men.
Oulen sends Emory to do some investigating and is able to draw the link between the Augre and the unidentified body of the village attacker back in Ivonwell, but before he can bring this to the attention of the queen, he is essentially placed under house arrest and Emory is made to go into hiding. The house arrest comes about because they were set upon after a social event and defended themselves. And the attackers were Augre, who saw it as a matter of honor to kill them both, when rather than being killed, Oulen and Emory took out four of the Augre on their own.
The intrigue and political quagmire grows deeper, with a broad cast of characters that all come together in an epic battle at the end, when Hortus of Timmerlei, thinking he has the wolf in a collar, finds out he only has it by the tail, and the wolf turns to bite him.
Now, like I said at the beginning, I’m circumspect when reviewing fiction because I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone. Non-fiction I’ll spoil all day long, but fiction...well the joy of reading fiction is unfolding the story as each page turns.
I will say, Lee is one hell of an author. The book is 660 pages long, and I read 460 of those pages last Saturday and Sunday. The pages just kept turning as I had to see what happened next. His character descriptions are such that I could SEE Oulen. I see him as Liam Neeson...like Liam Neeson now, not young Rob Roy Liam Needson, old and grizzled, but an absolute master of the sword and sure of his ability to kill every mother fucker in the room if needed, with absolute courage in the face of overwhelming odds.
And each character is drawn as clearly, allowing you to picture them in your mind, making it very easy to keep track of each character as the epic unfolds. Lee helpfully includes a cast of characters at the end and I never once needed to refer to it to remind me who someone was. And it’s complete...if someone is mentioned by name in the book, they’ll be in the cast of characters in the back.
And while it is fantasy, there are very definite parallels to be seen in today’s world. Some of them subtle, some of them not so subtle. But I’ll stop there to avoid spoilers. At this point, this is the only book Lee has written, but I do hope he keeps going, because I would be very interested to see what happens next with Ivonwell and Andelon.
