Publisher's Weekly
Saberhagen established himself in the '60s and '70s with his intense, ambitious Berserker series of space operas. Lately, however, he has devoted himself increasingly to a more relaxed, playful sequence of fantasy adventures, the Books of Swords. Each is a model of action writing, clear-sighted, graphic and agile. The present story limits itself to a single locale, the island castle of the wizard Honan-Fu, where Prince Mark is imprisoned in ice alongside the wizard by the usurper called the Ancient One. Mark's friends find themselves the temporary allies of Honan-Fu's traitorous daughter, Ninazu, and of the magician emperor, currently incognito with a traveling show. Keeping the major players off balance and providing a comic mirror, there is a wild card, a peasant enamored of Ninazu who has chanced on the Sword of Power, Sightblinder, which makes him seem whatever an onlooker most loves or fears. An entertainment of high order.

Genre: Fantasy