Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
Originally Published: November 2018
New Deluxe edition: February 25, 2025
Summary from NetGalley:
Halla has unexpectedly inherited the estate of a wealthy uncle. Unfortunately, she is also saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her.
While locked in her bedroom, Halla inspects the ancient sword that’s been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. Out of desperation, she unsheathes it—and suddenly a man appears. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel.
Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword, and for Halla—a most unusual wielder—he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all—the sword itself.
ARC provided by Tor Publishing via NetGalley for an honest review.
Confession:
I absolutely loved this book! I think it is my favorite of the series. Although this isn’t really a series is it? It doesn’t follow just one group of characters in each book, but it is all set in the same world, so not sure what you would call that. Whatever you want to call it, this one is my favorite.
I just adored all of the characters in this book. I think Halla and Sarkis are my favorite couple of the year. They are perfect together, but they also do well as individuals. Hala asks a lot of questions, which would probably make me just as crazy as it did Sarkis, but I also loved that about her. She also had such a quick and witty mind. I loved how she used her wits and her ability to question people to death to get them out of some very sticky situations.
Sarkis also had his charms, and he was a perfect straight man to all of Halla’s comments and questions. I also found him pretty hot, even though he is an old soldier who has seen better days. His backstory is slowly revealed over the course of the story and it was one that I really need to know more about. His loyalty to Halla makes up for some of his mistakes of the past. I also loved how willing he was to do all of the experiments Halla and Zale request of him to help them figure out how the sword works. Some were quite hilarious.
This book had two of the best side characters as well. I loved Zale, a priest of the white rat who helps Halla get her inheritance back from her nasty relatives. Zale was very sweet and also committed to helping both Halla and Sarkis. Brindle is a Gnole, a type of sentient badger like creature, that we first meet in the Clocktaur War books. I enjoy reading about the Gnoles, but I think Brindle is my favorite so far. His comments about human behavior are often hilarious.
I really enjoyed the world building and the writing was of course wonderful. The story is well paced with lots of action and adventure. Even the somewhat boring times while they were traveling were taken up by their experiments to help them understand how the sword worked were fascinating. And even though this is the third book set in the same world, we are still learning more about it.
I partially listened to the audiobook for this one, switching from listening to reading depending on my time and what I was doing. I loved Jesse Vilinsky as the narrator. If I was able to I would have listened to the whole book. She does a great job with voices and bringing all of the characters to life. I will have to keep an eye out for other books narrated by her.
So this was originally published in 2019, and the author mentions in her acknowledgements that it is the start of a trilogy, but so far no other books to be seen. This one left me with so many questions, I certainly hope we get those other books someday soon. But even with all of those questions, this is one T. Kingfisher you don’t want to miss.
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