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Guardians of the Light #2
Hedda's Sword
Contains murder and mayhem, drugs and slavery, patricide and references to a memory of rape. Take one narcissistic queen bent on genocide, an assassin nun made of ice and a hero convinced he can change the course of Fate by his will alone. Add a true queen with an aversion to power and a mercenary with a secret that threatens to tear the land in two. Stir briskly. Season with a child-Seer who never shuts up and a tree sprite looking for an apprentice. What do you get? Either a rollicking rebellion or a recipe for disaster. Look for a few familiar faces from DUALITY. Be prepared for tears and laughter.
270 pages, Paperback
First published December 16, 2008
2 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Renee Wildes
24 books145 followersRenee Wildes is an award-winning WI writer. She grew up reading fantasy authors Terry Brooks and Mercedes Lackey and is a huge Joseph Campbell fan, so the minute she discovered romance novels it became inevitable that she would combine it all and write fantasy romance. Renee is a history buff, from ancient Greece (esp. Sparta)through Dark Ages (esp. Celt & Viking) to medieval times.
As a Navy brat and a cop’s kid, she gravitated to protector/guardian heroes and heroines. She’s had horses her whole life, so became the only vet tech in a family of nurses. It all comes together in her sci fi, paranormal & fantasy romance books for Champagne Book Group – fantasy, action, romance, heroics and lots of critters!
As a Navy brat and a cop’s kid, she gravitated to protector/guardian heroes and heroines. She’s had horses her whole life, so became the only vet tech in a family of nurses. It all comes together in her sci fi, paranormal & fantasy romance books for Champagne Book Group – fantasy, action, romance, heroics and lots of critters!
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 20, 2017
I truly enjoyed this dark, atmospheric fantasy novel. Told through the eyes of the strong heroine, Maleta, and her Life-Mate, Cianan, this book took me on an adventure full of hope, grit, courage, self-doubt, self-determination, and love.
Hedda, the Grey Goddess, is a tough taskmaster. It is to be expected. She’s a goddess, after all. Her purpose is to ensure the balance between good and evil in her realm, the land of Shamar. Humans are her tools for maintaining this balance--one, in particular, Hedda’s Sword is feared by all. At the moment, Maleta is Hedda’s Sword, and the scales are tipped decidedly toward evil in her land.
Maleta is more than competent in this role. Her skills as a swordswoman are impressive. What she may lack in size against some of her larger opponents, she makes up for in intelligence and willpower. However, she is a tall, physically fit woman and lethal. When she discovers that the evil in her land stems from the queen, she realizes she must depose her to save her people and restore balance. Her past and what she has endured, and the fact she survived it, make her perfect for this task.
Cianan is from another land and worships the goddess of the light. In fact, he is her champion sent on a quest to save a master of sword fighting who has already captured his heart. While he is close to perfection, thankfully, he’s not perfect. Handsome, intelligent, compassionate, and strong, he is a true force of light.
Ms. Wildes has a way of writing that immersed me in the world. It felt real and vital. I loved the characters I was meant to love and cheered for justice against the characters who deserved it. I wanted Maleta to evolve enough to let Cianan in and to fall in love with him. Her reasons for taking so long were completely plausible to me. When they finally came together, I wanted to jump up and down and shout, “Bravo!”
The one thing that stopped this from being a 5-star book was I felt like we hit the climax with the conclusion of the battle against Sunniva. When the story continued far past that, I had to change my mindset. Although I knew logically that more needed to be done to conclude the story--and I think the true climax was what happened when she took back her family fortress--for me, so much focus had been on beating Sunniva that, when she did, I felt like the story was concluded. It wasn’t. There was a more than satisfactory ending, but that was just how I felt.
That being said, I will happily pick up book one and devour it just as I did this one. At which point, I will follow suit with the rest in the series. Luckily for me, there are six more.
Thank you, Ms. Wildes for taking me on this multi-faceted journey through this fascinating world you’ve created.
Hedda, the Grey Goddess, is a tough taskmaster. It is to be expected. She’s a goddess, after all. Her purpose is to ensure the balance between good and evil in her realm, the land of Shamar. Humans are her tools for maintaining this balance--one, in particular, Hedda’s Sword is feared by all. At the moment, Maleta is Hedda’s Sword, and the scales are tipped decidedly toward evil in her land.
Maleta is more than competent in this role. Her skills as a swordswoman are impressive. What she may lack in size against some of her larger opponents, she makes up for in intelligence and willpower. However, she is a tall, physically fit woman and lethal. When she discovers that the evil in her land stems from the queen, she realizes she must depose her to save her people and restore balance. Her past and what she has endured, and the fact she survived it, make her perfect for this task.
Cianan is from another land and worships the goddess of the light. In fact, he is her champion sent on a quest to save a master of sword fighting who has already captured his heart. While he is close to perfection, thankfully, he’s not perfect. Handsome, intelligent, compassionate, and strong, he is a true force of light.
Ms. Wildes has a way of writing that immersed me in the world. It felt real and vital. I loved the characters I was meant to love and cheered for justice against the characters who deserved it. I wanted Maleta to evolve enough to let Cianan in and to fall in love with him. Her reasons for taking so long were completely plausible to me. When they finally came together, I wanted to jump up and down and shout, “Bravo!”
The one thing that stopped this from being a 5-star book was I felt like we hit the climax with the conclusion of the battle against Sunniva. When the story continued far past that, I had to change my mindset. Although I knew logically that more needed to be done to conclude the story--and I think the true climax was what happened when she took back her family fortress--for me, so much focus had been on beating Sunniva that, when she did, I felt like the story was concluded. It wasn’t. There was a more than satisfactory ending, but that was just how I felt.
That being said, I will happily pick up book one and devour it just as I did this one. At which point, I will follow suit with the rest in the series. Luckily for me, there are six more.
Thank you, Ms. Wildes for taking me on this multi-faceted journey through this fascinating world you’ve created.
March 9, 2017
Maleta has pledged her life to the goddess Hedda. The young mercenary, referred to Her Own, would gladly lay down her life to do the will of her goddess. Though Hedda sent Maleta to destroy the the evil queen, Sunniva, the mercenary has her own reason for revenge. The tyrannical monarch had Maleta's parents killed, and she took her younger brother hostage. Things become more complicated when an elven prince, Cianan, joins her mission. While Cianan years for a soulmate, Maleta's main focus is revenge. Interesting things unfold when their two worlds collide. The story is a bit difficult to follow sometimes, and the author makes pervasive use of "fantasy speak," but I read this book without any knowledge from the previous title. Hedda's Sword is a great read for lovers of both fantasy and romance.
April 15, 2011
~* 3.5 Stars *~
Well Written Romantic Fantasy
Giving Renee Wildes the credit she deserves, Hedda's Sword is better written from a technical standpoint than Duality, a book I had difficulty with in several spots for the choppy and abrupt narrative and lack of exposition throughout. This book doesn't suffer the same fate in that regard, as the narrative is much smoother and the plot flows far more cleanly and clearly. It's quite obvious that Wildes had a better hand on those aspects of writing than she had in the first book. I still think there are some issues with world building to be ironed out, because while I enjoyed the story, I never felt like I had any true picture of the land of Shamar and it's people and traditions beyond the dubious scope of Hedda's Own. The quest and the pacing of the story were satisfying, though, and I was familiar enough with Cianan from the first book to enjoy his travails.
At the urging of dark and foreboding nightmares, the elven Cianan has travelled to Shamar to find and save his elingrena, his soul mate - a woman he's never seen with his own eyes, but a woman he knows hefts a flaming sword and is in dire danger of falling beneath a skeletal army foe. Upon arriving in a bleak and hopeless land, he is conscripted by his honor as champion of Light to aid Hedda's Own, his elingrena, in the fight for freedom against a mortal but insidious foe, the evil Queen of Shamar, Sunniva. With Cianan comes rebellion and a fight for freedom for all of Shamar's people. His boon should they all survive, perhaps the love of the one woman for whom his heart beats.
It was a good story, solidly told, but I don't think Cianan and Maleta's story quite matched the level of intensity, danger, and emotion that was evoked in Duality. It may have been technically better written, but I didn't feel nearly as intensely for Cianan and Maleta as I did for Loren and Dara. Despite the technical issues I had with the first book, I felt that story was a true triumph, and would have preferred suffering the slights of technical imperfections for the joys of emotional investment in story and character.
I just felt everything came too easy and was too quickly resolved in Hedda's Sword, and while there were moments sprinkled throughout that did engender an emotional connection, I wasn't able to keep that connection steady and never felt that any of these characters truly wavered on the precipice of victory or defeat. It was a solid story, told well, but no true risk was realized before resolution was afforded, and that doesn't make a sweeping epic tale. I did very much like Cianan, but even his character lacked the depth of Loren's, who never struck me as too good to be true like Cianan did a time or two. I guess that's what bothered me the most about the lead characters, there just didn't really seem to be many layers or much complexity to them. Even Maleta with her dark history and deep pain seemed to triumph over her issues too quickly and easily.
I feel almost churlish complaining about that, though. I don't want my lead characters to suffer miserably...but do tend to find them more interesting when they do. That's horrible of me! Still, it kept this particular book from being more than a 3.5 star read in my opinion - technically well done, but lacking the impact to really wow me.
~*~*~*~
Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.
Well Written Romantic Fantasy
Giving Renee Wildes the credit she deserves, Hedda's Sword is better written from a technical standpoint than Duality, a book I had difficulty with in several spots for the choppy and abrupt narrative and lack of exposition throughout. This book doesn't suffer the same fate in that regard, as the narrative is much smoother and the plot flows far more cleanly and clearly. It's quite obvious that Wildes had a better hand on those aspects of writing than she had in the first book. I still think there are some issues with world building to be ironed out, because while I enjoyed the story, I never felt like I had any true picture of the land of Shamar and it's people and traditions beyond the dubious scope of Hedda's Own. The quest and the pacing of the story were satisfying, though, and I was familiar enough with Cianan from the first book to enjoy his travails.
At the urging of dark and foreboding nightmares, the elven Cianan has travelled to Shamar to find and save his elingrena, his soul mate - a woman he's never seen with his own eyes, but a woman he knows hefts a flaming sword and is in dire danger of falling beneath a skeletal army foe. Upon arriving in a bleak and hopeless land, he is conscripted by his honor as champion of Light to aid Hedda's Own, his elingrena, in the fight for freedom against a mortal but insidious foe, the evil Queen of Shamar, Sunniva. With Cianan comes rebellion and a fight for freedom for all of Shamar's people. His boon should they all survive, perhaps the love of the one woman for whom his heart beats.
It was a good story, solidly told, but I don't think Cianan and Maleta's story quite matched the level of intensity, danger, and emotion that was evoked in Duality. It may have been technically better written, but I didn't feel nearly as intensely for Cianan and Maleta as I did for Loren and Dara. Despite the technical issues I had with the first book, I felt that story was a true triumph, and would have preferred suffering the slights of technical imperfections for the joys of emotional investment in story and character.
I just felt everything came too easy and was too quickly resolved in Hedda's Sword, and while there were moments sprinkled throughout that did engender an emotional connection, I wasn't able to keep that connection steady and never felt that any of these characters truly wavered on the precipice of victory or defeat. It was a solid story, told well, but no true risk was realized before resolution was afforded, and that doesn't make a sweeping epic tale. I did very much like Cianan, but even his character lacked the depth of Loren's, who never struck me as too good to be true like Cianan did a time or two. I guess that's what bothered me the most about the lead characters, there just didn't really seem to be many layers or much complexity to them. Even Maleta with her dark history and deep pain seemed to triumph over her issues too quickly and easily.
I feel almost churlish complaining about that, though. I don't want my lead characters to suffer miserably...but do tend to find them more interesting when they do. That's horrible of me! Still, it kept this particular book from being more than a 3.5 star read in my opinion - technically well done, but lacking the impact to really wow me.
~*~*~*~
Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.
February 17, 2017
After spending centuries fighting goblins, trolls and demons, Lady of Light's Champion, Cianan, searches for the woman who has been haunting his nightmares: the other half of his heart and soul, so he can prevent her death. Cianan "is a warrior who didn't know the meaning of the words betrayal, impossible and quit".
Maleta becomes one of Hedda's Own when as a sixteen year old girl she witnesses her mother's throat being cut and her father beheaded by Queen Sunniva's nightwatchmen and she is thrown to the henchmen as their entertainment while the evil Queen "rescues" her twelve year old brother, Jovan .
Hedda is one of three protectors and nurturers of the land, "the great equalizer", Goddess of death and judgement. When the heated tip of Hedda's sword is held to the throat of a rival, their sins are revealed and Hedda's Own becomes judge, jury and executioner.
When there is a massacre at Nerthus' Abbey, and the nuns are slaughtered by the order of Queen Sunniva, all three protectors of the land, Hedda---Nerthus---and Orthia, unite the opposing tribes of Sahmaru and Shamari people to bring down Queen Sunniva by attacking the palace through the sewers of Soto.
When Maleta is struck with an arrow and near death, Cianan restores her to health. When the battle is over and a new Queen and King are appointed, Maleta and Cianan are released from their duties of their respective gods and are free to marry.
It took quite a few chapters for me to become buried into this story, to understand what was going on. It is not normally a book I would read, and perhaps if I had read the first book before this one, I may have had a better understanding. However, in saying that, once I got passed the first 6/7 chapters, I became engrossed in the unfolding story, and the unity of the two main characters---willing them to succeed in their journey...and I must admit to having a little "oh-no" moment when the arrow struck Maleta. I found it to be an enjoyable book, and enjoyed getting to know the characters.
Maleta becomes one of Hedda's Own when as a sixteen year old girl she witnesses her mother's throat being cut and her father beheaded by Queen Sunniva's nightwatchmen and she is thrown to the henchmen as their entertainment while the evil Queen "rescues" her twelve year old brother, Jovan .
Hedda is one of three protectors and nurturers of the land, "the great equalizer", Goddess of death and judgement. When the heated tip of Hedda's sword is held to the throat of a rival, their sins are revealed and Hedda's Own becomes judge, jury and executioner.
When there is a massacre at Nerthus' Abbey, and the nuns are slaughtered by the order of Queen Sunniva, all three protectors of the land, Hedda---Nerthus---and Orthia, unite the opposing tribes of Sahmaru and Shamari people to bring down Queen Sunniva by attacking the palace through the sewers of Soto.
When Maleta is struck with an arrow and near death, Cianan restores her to health. When the battle is over and a new Queen and King are appointed, Maleta and Cianan are released from their duties of their respective gods and are free to marry.
It took quite a few chapters for me to become buried into this story, to understand what was going on. It is not normally a book I would read, and perhaps if I had read the first book before this one, I may have had a better understanding. However, in saying that, once I got passed the first 6/7 chapters, I became engrossed in the unfolding story, and the unity of the two main characters---willing them to succeed in their journey...and I must admit to having a little "oh-no" moment when the arrow struck Maleta. I found it to be an enjoyable book, and enjoyed getting to know the characters.
May 4, 2017
I've often wondered if in romance and fantasy novels a class was taught about 'how to recognize your life mate and ways to ensure they don't run away', it might solve a lot of issues. For one thing, you won't make stupid blundering comments or move too fast when you should be learning the lay of the land (so to speak). I have a feeling Cianan might have taken a class along those lines, for his patience with Maleta is extraordinary.
Cianan has a hard time ahead of himself. Maleta isn't sure she wants Cianan--not because of anything personal, its just...she's had a hard life. Not any easy life. You don't become a tool vengence without giving something up (well not if you're a well-rounded character at least), and Maleta gave up what she thought she didn't need.
I really liked Maleta, her worldview wasn't completely black and white and she straddles the line of 'almost going too far' well. She struggles and tries and understands that not everyone is like those men who used her so long ago, but what the mind understands doesn't mean the heart does. She's a strong woman--her past wars with her present (and future) with equal strength, but its not until Cianan that she consciously works past the issues.
Cianan, as I mentioned, is a patient and gentle guy. Unlike Loren from the first book he recognizes that his life mate isn't going to be on her knees blessing the Lady for the wonderful fortune of having Cianan as hers. He understands that to get to know Maleta, get her to trust him and open her dormant heart to him, he has to work with her. Prove himself. So nice to see in a hero!
This is a shorter novel then Duality was, but it didn't feel like anything was cut out. Wildes does a really good job of keeping the pace moving without sacrificing detail or development.
Cianan has a hard time ahead of himself. Maleta isn't sure she wants Cianan--not because of anything personal, its just...she's had a hard life. Not any easy life. You don't become a tool vengence without giving something up (well not if you're a well-rounded character at least), and Maleta gave up what she thought she didn't need.
I really liked Maleta, her worldview wasn't completely black and white and she straddles the line of 'almost going too far' well. She struggles and tries and understands that not everyone is like those men who used her so long ago, but what the mind understands doesn't mean the heart does. She's a strong woman--her past wars with her present (and future) with equal strength, but its not until Cianan that she consciously works past the issues.
Cianan, as I mentioned, is a patient and gentle guy. Unlike Loren from the first book he recognizes that his life mate isn't going to be on her knees blessing the Lady for the wonderful fortune of having Cianan as hers. He understands that to get to know Maleta, get her to trust him and open her dormant heart to him, he has to work with her. Prove himself. So nice to see in a hero!
This is a shorter novel then Duality was, but it didn't feel like anything was cut out. Wildes does a really good job of keeping the pace moving without sacrificing detail or development.
March 8, 2017
This is the first book I've read from Renee Wilds and I didn't know what to expect. To my delight, I found that I quite enjoyed this story. I did have a bit of trouble getting into the gist of it since this is the second book in the series I believe.
Cianan had visions of his life mate for most of his life. He traveled to the destitute land of Shamar to meet her. The land ruled by the cruel and greedy queen Sunniva.
Maleta or once known as Von Marete, had witnessed a brutal murder of her family, she was given as a war gift to soldiers. Rescued, she has pledged her life and sword to Goddess Hedda, and is to spend her life fighting to restore the balance between darkness and the light.
When Cianan meets her, he offers his help in her fight of darkness and evil.
Their path is hard and danger lurks at every step.
But his love for her is everlasting, patient and passionate.
I was bit confused with all the names they called each other. She calls him the paladin at first, then the warrior, then the ranger, then the priest, which confused me.
He has several names for her too, from "ventreyna" (I think that's how it was spelled in the book) which means warrior woman to 'elingrena' which means his soul or his heart.
The ending scene when they finally join their bodies is a real feast for the eyes. I hope you'll give this book a fair try and find out for yourselves.
Cianan had visions of his life mate for most of his life. He traveled to the destitute land of Shamar to meet her. The land ruled by the cruel and greedy queen Sunniva.
Maleta or once known as Von Marete, had witnessed a brutal murder of her family, she was given as a war gift to soldiers. Rescued, she has pledged her life and sword to Goddess Hedda, and is to spend her life fighting to restore the balance between darkness and the light.
When Cianan meets her, he offers his help in her fight of darkness and evil.
Their path is hard and danger lurks at every step.
But his love for her is everlasting, patient and passionate.
I was bit confused with all the names they called each other. She calls him the paladin at first, then the warrior, then the ranger, then the priest, which confused me.
He has several names for her too, from "ventreyna" (I think that's how it was spelled in the book) which means warrior woman to 'elingrena' which means his soul or his heart.
The ending scene when they finally join their bodies is a real feast for the eyes. I hope you'll give this book a fair try and find out for yourselves.
June 2, 2010
Yet another great book. While this book's characters may have been a little flat, the book was an overall improvement on the first. I thought is was a very good story and an enjoyable read.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews