The Sword of Oops - A Short Story

by D.T. Conklin

What happens when a sentient, magical sword meets a Grunt? Disaster. Mayhem. And a touch of Oops. The tiniest things can alter lives--whispers, decisions, discoveries. For Zerren, an ill-fated Grunt, he uncovers the later. In a field of grass and furrows and glory, he discovers the Krevn's secret. Ah, but what to do with a secret? This short story also contains an excerpt from D.T. Conklin's epic fantasy novel, Eulogy .

16 pages, ebook

First published August 26, 2011

About the author

D.T. Conklin is a writer, and he uses words. Some days, he likes to think he uses them well. Other days, he cries. For the past year he's worked on a novel, and in December of 2010 he finished the first rough--very rough--draft. Now he's rewriting it. The poor guy loves fantasy, and he's rigorously dreamed of being published, recommended, and perhaps even worshipped. He’d also be very content to clean Patrick Rothfuss’s shoes. Lofty goals. Maybe. You can visit his website. Find him on Facebook or Twitter. Become a minion, and he can raise his minion count to 17. He’d like that.

Reviews

[Amanda Papenfus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title story was cute. I couldn’t decide if I liked the repeating of words as in “dazzled and twinkled and dazzled” but lean toward liking them. I liked the dialogue. The voice of Zerren comes through well. The end felt kind of abrupt though. I think on just this story I might have gone with 3/5.

However, this version also contained a preview of the novel Eulogy, which I enjoyed actually a little more than Sword. I had forgotten it’s in my Kindle library so I’ll probably read the full novel at some point. That said, I felt like what was included cut off at a satisfying enough point that it didn’t feel like I was left hanging too much.

It also was nice to see two different stories as it’s clear some aspects (like the repeating words) were specific to the story, which I like as it kind of contributes to the uniqueness of each. I enjoyed the inclusion of in-world-specific phrases in both like “grunt and happy” in Sword and “void take me” in Eulogy.

[E.D. Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and original read. I especially liked the repeating verbs - "a hilt that dazzled and twinkled and dazzled," "the mist surged and whirled and surged," "he drooled and sobbed and drooled" - it adds to the main character's naive/ignorant view of the world.