The Second Book of Swords (urspr publ 1983; utgåvan 1991)

So I never read a dungeon crawl before.

Certainly not what I was expecting -- not from something written in 1984 (I thought fantasy authors were better than that) -- but it's the best way to describe it. It's straight out of Dungeons & Dragons. The main characters start by going to a town. They meet some supporting cast who are on their way to a quest. There's negotiations and debates and arbitrary motivations. One of the characters drops out and is never seen again, like she stopped coming to the meetings. And then they break into this vault guarded by a dragon, and descend one floor at a time to get the priceless treasure, ending with a confrontation with a hell-demon and a god. That's the whole book. And it's not really thrilling. Just a paint-by-numbers.

You'd think the second book of a trilogy would focus more on bridging the first book and the second. Nope -- here we're just getting more swords. Adventuring in a hole while exploring nooks and crannies, occasionally losing redshirts. There isn't any greater sense of what's at stake. No new character development. No changes to the world. In fact, it seemed the whole purpose was to warp the characters closer to collecting all the swords (although who knows what happens when they do that). If this is supposed to be the "defining moment" for the character, it's not a very explicit one. Everyone's still bland, and worse, there is zero female presence. It's no wonder I stopped reading here years ago. ( )

It’s been five years since the battle at Sir Andrew’s castle. Ben has enlisted in the Blue Temple Guard and is on a mission to escort bags of treasure to a hiding place deep in a cave guarded by a dragon. Once his company unloads the riches he becomes concerned that it is a trap. He escapes and sets out to find Barbara and the sword Dragonslicer. Ben’s friend Mark has gone back to his village after serving with Sir Andrew’s army. He sees the poverty and destruction caused by the war and decides to go back to Barbara and Ben and take the sword Coinspiner to Sir Andrew to help his cause. When the three friends meet again they devise a plan to steal the treasure. Ben wants to use part of the wealth to buy a home so he and Barbara can marry and live a normal life away from fairs and dragonslaying. Ben tells Mark that some of the swords forged by Vulcan are part of the precious valuables in the cave so Mark decided to join Ben on his adventure. On the way to the treasure trove they meet Baron Doon who is using the sword Wayfarer to find the very loot they are looking for.

This volume in Saberhagen’s Sword Series is about Wayfarer, a sword that points you in the direction of your heart’s desire. Other swords come into to play, but only at the end of the book.

I was a little disappointed in this novel when I first started reading it. The first book in the series ended so abruptly I thought the next book would pick up the action right at the end of the first story. Instead the novel picks up five years later. This story didn’t seem to have anything to do the first tale except for the characters and the magical swords. By the end of the book I understood where the author was going and how this novel will link to the next. ( )

The Second... remains one of my favorite books ever. It's a heist novel, mostly - it draws characters and some of their larger motivations from The First... but for the most part it's just the story of a well-executed raid on a fabulous dungeon full of more treasure than anyone could reasonably steal. It's vivid, well-paced, and a great deal of fun. Saberhagen provides us with another reasonably strong female character (albeit again only one) who is, quite literally, a self-rescuing princess.

It's in many ways a very odd choice as the second book of a trilogy - it really doesn't develop the overall plot much at all, except for one scene and the distribution of a few Swords whose location we never knew about anyway. But it's such a damned fun book I almost prefer it this way, because I can reread it independent of the other two and not miss out on anything. ( )

Not as good as the first book, this continues the adventures of Mark, Ben, and the quest for the swords of power. This is more of a classic fantasy adventure novel, as there are a limited number of characters and the plot almost entirely concerns Baron Doon's quest for treasure. Along the way, his Sword, Wayfinder, points him to some warriors and wizards, along with Ben, Mark and Ariane. Ben and Mark have tried to give up being involved with the Swords, but it is clear that their fates are mixed in with the Swords, whether they choose it or not.
I really enjoyed the vision and creativity of these books, especially the swords themselves. Wayfinder, Stonecutter, Shieldbreaker, Dragonslicer (the Sword of Heroes) all appear in this book. ( )