Fire And Sword

Keys of Power #2

by Simon Brown

In the second novel of this exciting trilogy, Lynan, the youngest prince, begins to gather an army, vowing to drive his homeland into civil war. In the meantime, his half-sister Areava has been crowned queen of Grenda Lear. The only thing they can both be certain of is that there will be a reckoning between them-one that will threaten all of Grenda Lear...

Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy

432 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Simon Brown wrote his first science fiction story in 1966, read his first science fiction novel in 1968, and by 1970 had decided he wanted to be a science fiction writer more than anything else in the world.

His first professional sale was to Omega in 1981. Since then he has had several short stories appear in Omega, Aurealis and Eidolon.

His first novel, Privateer, was published by Harper Collins in April of 1996. His second novel, Winter, was published by Harper Collins in 1997. A collection of short stories, Cannibals of the Fine Light, was published by Ticonderoga Publications in 1998. A new novel, Inheritor, will be published by HarperCollins in late 2000.

Simon worked as a journalist with the University of Western Sydney, and is now a full-time writer.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad at all..

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book was good; this one was way better. While the first book easily targeted "black and white" characters, Fire and Sword complicates these distinctions. I'm looking forward to the last in the series.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a great epic fantasy. I've had this book (ok the series) on my shelf for years and just never quite got around to reading it.

I think my biggest complaint would be that I don't find the protagonist to be all that likeable. The people he has surrounded himself with are far more interesting and seem better balanced. Even though it is my biggest complaint, it is still small enough to make me want to read the final book (Sovereign) to see how Grenda Lear will survive it's duelling monarchs.

[Catsalive · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/15748...

[Tracy Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Mr. Brown's first book, Inheritance, I was looking forward to reading this. This book continues the quest of Prince Lynan who has now secured support for his cause. Unfortunately, many of the complaints I had in his first book continues here as well. There are a lot of editing errors that are a bit annoying but I was able to ignore those simply because I enjoyed the story so much. I noticed timeline inconsistencies in the story more in this book but it was not a great leap for me to resolve that in my head because of the way the story is laid out. The last book ends with Prince Lynan having had physical changes due to a life a saving elixir administered to him and this books seems to begin months later. He is now a much more mature character who still fights to reconcile the emotions inside him but the change seems so sudden to me. Near the beginning, there are references to him having horrible dreams and nightmares yet there has not been any dialogue on that and, at first, the reader is momentarily confused. These side effects of his healing are explained a bit better latter in the book but this serves as an example of a few areas that seems to be skimmed over when they deserved a bit more attention earlier. I am giving this book four stars because, despite several of the problems I have found, I am just enjoying this story too much. I feel like that with a little effort, this author could really be something great. His writing style, although a bit rough, is easy to read. I am looking for more from him.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as the first book. I think that it had more swearing in it.