A Two-Edged Sword

The Delgroth Trilogy #1

by Thomas K. Martin

A volunteer in a sleep research experiment, Steve Wilkinson gets more than the dreams the researchers promised when he is transported to a magical realm where warring armies clash in a battle between forces of Darkness and Light. Original.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction

263 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Thomas K. Martin was born in a small mining town in the Cumberland Gap region of Kentucky near the West Virginia and Tennessee borders. His father served in the U.S. Air Force, and the family moved frequently when Martin was a child. Martin came to Texas with his parents in 1974 and has lived in and around Dallas / Ft. Worth ever since.

Martin published his first novel, A Two-Edged Sword (the first book of The Delgroth Trilogy), through Ace/Berkley in December 1993. He completed a second series, The Magelord Trilogy, in 1999.

Apart from writing, Martin also works as a computer programmer, creates his own chain mail and serves as a member of The Artemis Society of Dallas. He lives near Dallas with his wife, Mary, and four of their five children.

Reviews

[Tara Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very much the classic, battle-focused fantasy (portal-fantasy that is).
There were many intriguing elements to the magic presented in the story, which I hope are furthered in the other books. I am especially intrigued by that small Appendix included at the end.
Overall, I thought the pace and formatting was an interesting choice for the story, but I was kept invested enough to keep going. The writing itself was solid.
I did have a good enough time that I will likely read the others some time soon.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

An original portal fantasy

[Grant Snoes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book that I read in probably 3 to 4 years, and it was a great book to get me back into it. I tend to lean on the negative side so I'm going to try to give it a fairly even review.

First I'll go over what I liked about this book.

I really liked how the majority of the dialogue was written, it was clear and concise, there was obvious tone written into each sentence and it was a pleasure to read. There was weird dip in quality of the dialogue around chapter 16 where it all felt very rushed and character progression was happening at lightning speed.
On that note, I really loved how battles were written, I never felt lost at any point and it all felt very fluid.

Next, the characters! I really feel strongly that Erelvar is a greatly written character, he had development throughout the entirety of the book, going from a cold leader who only gave commands to a friend of the people who could talk when things got sensitive. He reminded me of Aragorn from LotR.
Steve I feel started better than he ended, but he still made for a good main protagonist for the book and the author did a good job slowly transitioning him from confused to comfortable.
The Dread Lords, SPECIFICALLY Jared and Daemor were pretty good villains, they didn't feel especially scary but I'd say they weren't the main focus so I don't pin too much blame on the author for that one.
The Mistress/Daryna had a neat character and was written relatively well, but I still barely know her intentions when she DOES get ahold of Steve. The "prophecy" was never really explained in detail and reading it for yourself doesn't especially explain any of the outstanding questions you might have.

Now onto the Negatives, and I might miss some here.

Belevairn was like a cartoon villain, always having his schemes spoiled right at the very end. He was goofy and didn't hold any real threat despite having killed 2 of the more important characters.

Why on earth did Steve fall in love with Aerilynn and "make love" with her over the course of 1 chapter, and why was I expected to care when she died. Up until that point she was just training practice for Steve.

Now for potentially my biggest gripe. WHY WAS GLORIEN DUMBED DOWN!!! She had the best potential of the book, the first you see of her she is a badass knight who could easily destroy any citizen or knight of Quarin with ease. But after that she's just Erelvar's husband and that's it... there is absolutely no reason that Aerilynn should've needed to dive in front of a spear headed for Glorien at the hands of a Galdir of all things. The Galdir should've been like swatting a fly for Glorien but Noooooo... she needed to be the little quaint wouldn't hurt a fly husband of Erelvar. I HATE that she was dumbed down, she should've had a leading role in the story, she could've been so cool, she could've been an incredible female lead in a fantasy novel which, at the time, would've been something really new and refreshing.

That was the big one, but the other somewhat big one, what happened in chapter 11... why did Laerdon turn into a wolf, why was it never explained prior and not elaborated after?? Like, the entirety of the Olvir people that were being attacked by Daemor were turned into wolves by the sorcerer??? And they beat Daemor??????? Why don't all sorcerers turn the knights into wolves and win every battle, there were no repercussions for doing so seemingly, Laerdon walked away from that battle unscathed as far as the book mentions, it really doesn't make any sense at all and I think that was my least favorite chapter in the entire book.

Ok, I think that's it, I give this book 3 stars, can't wait to read the next 2 in the trilogy because I have no clue how it could continue after this book.

[Keira · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading an online story accompanied by pictures taken in the Sims by Thomas K Martin, I read the first chapter for this book online and knew I had to get a copy. My mum tracked down a second hand copy on ebay for one of my birthdays, and I read it so many times the book literally fell to pieces. I'm bummed that I no longer have a copy to read, because it has been so long that I can't tell if I immensely enjoyed it because I was young and unused to fantasy novels, or if it was really an amazing book. From my memories of it, its perfectly blended between action and magic, but it was also heavily stereotyped. The likeable, handsome, perfect-moral good guys being attacked by endless hoards of dim-witted, short, ugly creatures under the direction of an equally ugly (but infinitely more intelligent) bad guy on a flying, fire breathing horse makes my present day mind think this may not have been quite as original as I used to think. None-the-less, I liked the presence of strong female characters, as a pet peeve of mine is a fantasy book filled with heroic men but one or two damsels in distress. Not the least of these women is the head baddie, who mostly features as giving directions, but is so evil you somehow like her. On top of this, there is no single main character who has all of the answers and experience to save the day. Instead, all characters have their turn of brilliance, including the baddies. I also enjoyed the way Martin includes historically accurate warfare and social structures into a fantasy setting. While the end of the book is not surprising, it is still a pleasure to read through, and I hope I can get my hands on another copy so I can confirm my 4 star rating, and comment on the writing style.