The Sword of Happenstance

by Steven Brust, Skyler White

From the best selling, award winning, masters of fantasy, comes a charming story about a prince who wasn't, a king who shouldn't be, a fairy who was also a hat, and an inappropriate number of witches. The Sword of Happenstance follows a group of young adventurers who ask questions that change their world.

The king is an imposter, ruling a society that is neither fair, nor equitable. There are expectations about who can rule, who can love whom, and who can use magic. When a boy from the country finds a remarkable sword, and a girl from the castle saves his life, they begin a journey that could change everything.

Suitable for young adults, but sophisticated enough for a mature audience, Brust and White have crafted a wonderful story that is destined to be a classic. Sword of Happenstance is filled with puns and wordplay, but has a real heart and an important message too. A parable for our world, but never preachy, the Sword of Happenstance is a rollicking good time. Fans of the Neverending Story will love the narrative style as the subjects tell their grandchildren how they changed the world so many years ago.

Genres: Fantasy

252 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2021

About the author

Steven Karl Zoltán Brust (born November 23, 1955) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent. He was a member of the writers' group The Scribblies, which included Emma Bull, Pamela Dean, Will Shetterly, Nate Bucklin, Kara Dalkey, and Patricia Wrede, and also belongs to the Pre-Joycean Fellowship.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/steven...

(Photo by David Dyer-Bennet)

Reviews

[Frank Vasquez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I wound up enjoying it. There’s heaps of excellent word play, as advertised, a talking sword, unreliable narration, magic, and a huge adventure with twists and turns! There’s whimsy you expect in a post-Princess Bride world, and other things you don’t expect. It’s the narrative style that overwhelms/encumbers the story. Alternating between two grandparents telling their childhood story to their grandchildren in a cohesive yet often confusing sequences of exposition-laden dialogue and perspective play that’s mostly for the sake of wit and commentary, the narration does begin to drag in the closing act. Reveals fall flat and the things the authors want to say cease to feel like natural progressions of the story. At no point is this book not fun or otherwise poorly written! Less quotation marks and more atmosphere/poetry could’ve helped this tale happen more smoothly, but it’s a strong offering from a pair of writers comfortable and familiar with one another’s styles.

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the opening of this book, when it's a simple fairy tale largely about two kids, a witch or two (or more), and a magic sword, where nothing is quite what it appears to be, and the rules keep changing. But as the characters started piling up and the wordplay progressively got denser and denser (there's a character who's on-and-off named Wut, which sparks about a thousand who's-on-first jokes that get pretty tiresome), I really lost the sense of the characters who mattered, and the central story. There are just so many players here who don't contribute a ton and don't mean a ton, and they seem to be meant to contribute to an antic, slapsticky tone. (I periodically thought of Connie Willis while I was reading this, and occasionally Terry Pratchett, when the puns parted for a moment to let a little magical philosophy through.) But so many things happen in this book that feel Clever instead of evocative or satisfying, and by the end I felt pretty disengaged with it all.

[katrien Van Lerberghe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The meaning of magic

First and for all , this is a fun book . An adventure by two innocent children who live in a complicated medieval world with witches , and enchanted sword , kings who are true and false , ordinary people who have need of peace and less taxes ( don’t we all ) , a wyvern who thinks he’s a dragon , lost and found heirs to the throne and much more . The children pick up a following , go on a quest and get into trouble , what would you expect . They also mangage to get themselves out of it again , in a fashion . Along all this , as if it’s not enough , you get the Question of what is magic , what is reality and how many ways there are to see reality and still manage to live in it . I will have to read this book again , for I’m not sure I completely got it . But that is on me , I wanted to read on instead of taking notes .

[Ogre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started strongly, with an interesting take on various characters having different perspectives on heroism, magic, even to it leading to different visual interpretations and memories of events.

Then it got silly. It got very silly. Magic becomes just...handwaving. With magic, all is possible, except when it isn't, and when it isn't, it still might be.

There's a decent amount of representation in the book, having a wide variety of characters, with different genders, orientations, races, etc. But honestly, I expected more story from Brust, and this was just...ok. It's not bad and there are those who will love this. But I simply thought it was ok: I don't regret the time spent reading it, but there are much better novels out there.

[Howard Brazee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll have to read this again.

In this kingdom, magic is about illusions, and is fluid, with different people experiencing different things. So when the protagonists go after the false king, it is very confusing. Besides the sword changing, the fairy changing, the prince or princess changing, the rules changing, we have less traditional love stories. (Well, the confusion between whether the usurper is (sometimes) a dragon or a wyvern isn't due to their magic)

Fortunately, the story is being told much later to the grandchildren of the protagonists, but they are confused as well.

Fun book.

[Coldbrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A modern take on the old fairy tale, up-to-the-moment in terms of liberal sensibilities, and liberally sprinkled with puns, double entendres, and allegorical asides. A fun read for us grups, and safe to read to your children, although you'll likely need to explain a lot . . . but on the other hand, you need not fear having to temporize all that much (e.g. the prince -actually- had a pre-nuptial consent with explicit conditions for when he could kiss his princess, e.g. coma-like sleep for the purposes of life saving and devoid of any erotic intent). Enjoy.

[Psychophant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful subversion (for grown-ups) of a fairy tale. Including novel takes on princes, princesses, fairies, dragons and magic swords.

With two alternating unreliable narrators you cannot really be sure of anything, but they tend to cancel each other and let you choose what is really happening. Which is a lot, and most of it funny, some tender, and a good lot exciting.

I could not put it down, except for work and some rest. If you like Fantasy as letting your imagination go wild, and do not mind breaking a few stereotypes and conventions along the way, you will enjoy this.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Steven Brust books. But this was not my favorite of them. So I only rated THIS one 3 stars. Freedom and Necessity is a much better jointly-written book, IMHO - this one kept switching between narrators and I felt it was unnecessarily confusing. I presume Steven wrote from the grandfather's perspective, and Skylar from the grandmother, but I'm not completely sure. It was all designed to be confusing, and it succeeded in that!

[marc tasse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little story with a very interesting style. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Suitable for readers young and old and a nice twist away from the blood and gore that seems to fill fantasy novels these days. Great story and not a report.

[D · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Brust. I did not love this book. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes the characters were just too dumb for words while the authors were busy entertaining themselves with wordplay. I wanted to like it, it ended well, but it was stupid.

[Jonathan Knaur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wild ride!

I really enjoyed this one. There is a ton here to unpack! I look forward to rereading this to catch all of the things I have missed!

[Johnie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

One sitting read

I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who has a flexible mind and like magic,dragons, witches and action.

[Dan Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like The Princess Bride or Discworld, you'll also thoroughly enjoy this creative and humorous fantasy quest.

[Madelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful engaging read. This is a feel good story that kept my interest throughout. I loved the format.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brust and White try to be clever and witty but it came up flat and hard to follow for me. The story could have much better if they had actually made about the sword and developed its personality but it was was relegated to Arnold level one liners the entire book. I have reread Brusts’s other books many times over the years and always enjoyed them every time. This one will never get read again and I don’t know if it was Whites influence but Brust tried to be too clever and shot himself in the foot with this one. Sorry but this was a failure for me.

[Bob Novak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not what you expect

Great story that will keep you guessing and turning pages until the end that comes too soon. I appreciate the style - dual narrators and dual authors. Definitely twisted.