Status Updates From Have Sword, Will Travel (Ha...

SHOUTOUT TO AMY for gifting Rowan this book for Christmas! I’ve been reading a couple chapters a night to the kids and we’re all really enjoying it!!! We’re studying the dark ages right now so it’s perfect.

Also, on another note, the character arcs of the kids are weird. Odo gets Biter (despite not wanting to be a knight), Eleanor gets to be his squire, despite wanting to be a knight herself. I thought that by the end of the story, the roles would be reversed, or there'd be some kind of moral. Instead, 80% in, Eleanor gets her own sword and gets to be a knight too. Um, yay? Feels like a simple character arc.

Mixed. On one hand, after Biter having berated the kids throughout the novel, it's quaint to see him and Runnell now snapping at each other instead. The twist of the dragon not really being a dragon was...okay, I guess. I can't really call it a disappointment, but it's sort of an anti-climax, even if, granted, I'm not at the novel's actual ending yet.

Still mixed. Things are going back and forth - literally, in some cases, given the time spent on backtracking. I was hoping the barrow would have a wight, but alas. Wenneth being a monk - minor point, but despite being a kid's book, I like the hints at wider worldbuilding/culture, even if it's unreasonable to expect the authors to go in-depth.

So Eleanor's fine being a squire now? Okay...

That was an okay plot twist.