Fire and Sword is the second book in Brown's Keys of Power trilogy.  Like most fantasy trilogies, the middle book is largely maneuvering the characters into place for the main action of of the last books: start the war, forge alliances, establish any relationships that still need establishing, etc.  As a result, though still very solid and a good ( Read more... )

 In the kingdom of Kendra(this universe likes to gives its countries people-names)  Queen Usharna is dying.  A powerful monarch, Usharna has 4 children from 3 husbands.  Berayma, the crown prince, is kind, generous, a good leader and as smart a pile of bricks.  His father is never really mentioned.  Probably because poor Berayma is rather ( Read more... )

1.  I spent most of today reading Simon Brown's Inheritance, the first book in the Keys of Power trilogy and a rather good coming of age fantasy.  It starts off seeming to be a fairly generic but solid and enjoyable fantasy novel but consistently becomes better and better, succeeding largely because of Brown's refusal to take easy roads and a very ( Read more... )