Saber and Shadow

Fifth Millenium

by S.M. Stirling, Shirley Meier

In the corrupt metropolis of Illizbuah, priests, lords, wizards, merchants, and thieves vie for power, and two homeless wanderers join forces to change the city forever. Original.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Queer, Science Fiction, Lesbian, LGBT

380 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 4, 1986

About the author

Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.

MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY:
(personal website: source)

I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.

Reviews

[grosbeak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing about this book is good: to describe the characters as one-note would imply that they have distinguishable personalities, the plot (?) doesn't really hang together at all, and the worldbuilding is painfully earnest
and overdetailed (4 languages! 40 pages of appendices full of pseudo-scientific anthropological trivia that is irrelevant to the story) while also being exceedingly predictable: noble barbarian savages take on a decadent imperial city full of Factions and Fanatics and an Assassin's Guild.

Shkai'ra and -- wait for it -- Megan each have a couple of distinguishing characteristics (Shkai'ra's from a warrior tribe so ferocious they don't have a word for "love", fights with a big sword, and has a cat sidekick, Megan was kidnapped and sold into slavery by a mercantile rival, uses magic, and has turned her fingernails into metal). Set up from the first time they meet, they have to endure 250 pages of shipwrecks, bar-fights, state-organized massacres, attempted assassinations, a secret roller-coaster chase through the back stairways of the Evil Temple, sewers, man-eating crocadiles (twice), flight over rooftops while shooting a crossbow backwards, and dramatic duels with master-assassins on rickety rafters over vats of boiling candy-sugar before they can even kiss. (Apparently an earlier edition had sex scenes but they were expurgated for the mass market. This is of course unfortunate, except that the writing is so bad that I'm not sure I would have had the will to continue if I had to read the authors' idea of erotica.) And we haven't even gotten to the Auto-da-fe Carnivale...

Eventually it ends. Something bad is averted? The evil god-king is foiled again? Whatever. Our gals ride off together on a boat (with cat) to I guess have more adventures. And maybe some sex, no thanks to Baen.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really one of my favorite books, and not just cause of gay warrior chicks. Okay, a lot cause of that, but this is first a tale of warriors and second a tale of friends. So women who 1) are friends, 2)fight battles, and 3)don't need a dude to revolve the plot around. Yay!!! The other stuff is just a nice bonus.
I'm trying to find the rest in this loosely-linked group of books.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books 1 & 2's protagonists' origin stories come together in Book 3, which gives readers a wild (and very entertaining) ride through another area of its world.

[Robert Furlong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was honestly surprised at how quality this book was. I've been skipping around random books in the series and none of them were all that great, so I wasn't expecting much more than dumb fun from this entry either. However, I was happily surprised that it stayed fast paced and fun throughout the entire novel, introduced a compelling cast and characters, and wrapped up all the story leads satisfyingly by the end of the book. Best entry in the series I've read so far.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew nothing about the authors or the Fifth Millennium series before picking this one up at the local friendly thrift store, but the cover was mildly titillating and I felt there were some lesbian vibes. And indeed I was correct, but the depiction of their relationship was very PG. Disappointing!

[Jp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read through Saber and Shadow and my first thought was how derivative it was of Fritz Lieber's Ill Met in Lankhmar, one of my favorite books. The barbarian with the sword and the smaller thief/mage, it was a gender-opposite clone of the classic.

There were some brief moments that hinted at the talent that S.M. Stirling has shown in other works, but this book wasn't one of his better ones.

[Judith · Rating 1 out of 5]

THought this one was a waste of my time.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Detailed Review here

[Flitterkit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series, despite the difficulty in FINDING them all in the days before the internet was widespread. Interesting characters and constant well played action. Fun!

[Rob Tesselaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, makes me want to track down the rest of the series.