• Oath of Swords

  • War God, Book 1
  • By: David Weber
  • Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
  • Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,978 ratings)

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Oath of Swords  By  cover art

Oath of Swords

By: David Weber
Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
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Publisher's summary

Bahzell is no knight in shining armor, and besides he has too many problems of his own to be messing with anybody else's problems - let alone the War God's. Unfortunately, the War God has other ideas for him.

©1995 David M. Weber (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Weber builds [worlds] with a nice eye for detail, above-average knowledge of history, and a pleasing amount of wit." (Booklist)

What listeners say about Oath of Swords

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Almost Returned This One

And that would have been a mistake. I now eagerly await a chance to get the sequel. Aye, ye ought to give good listen and not give up less ye've given good time and reason. Expect that style of language to be presented by some of the main characters. I did not find this distracting in an audio format and feel it lends some identity to the characters. David Weber is a great writer and I was impressed with the progression of his protagonist. Now that I have had the pleasure of enjoying at least four of his series I would say I am a true fan. However, there are some things different about this tale than other books that Mr. Weber has written and it may not be a fit for everyone. This is magic oriented, not space, and the battles take place in a middle earth setting. Also, the battles are more one on one rather than involving commanding a legion of ships or men. The story is also more adventure based with a hero, companions, and an evil antagonist to defeat. Yet, in the end, we have an intelligent fearless hero who does the right thing despite the consequences, and these were some of the elements that drew me into this tale.


Sword of Oath is tale of swords and sorcery with many races of creatures like dwarves, halflings, elves, wizards, cultists, Gods, and men. We begin with Bazhell Bahanakson who is a prince and great warrior of his people, the Hradani. He is not human and his race has been cursed with the "rage" which is some sort of a berserk war cry that lends strength when facing an enemy. Bazhell is special in that he can overcome the recklessness of this rage and control it with great clarity and precision to the devastation of his enemies. He is a very noble and honor driven creature, and when it comes that a women is being raped by prince Harnak, he has no choice but to come to aid and rescue her from his clutches. Unfortunately, he is a political hostage of this prince Harnak's family. Over time he has become humbled to insults to prevent war for his people. But rape is too much and he figures he must now flee because there is no good way out of this situation. And so begins his journey for a new life; a journey involving many different cultures, creatures, and Gods. He is a reluctant hero, but does the right thing, which tends to lead him into trouble because there is much strife, evil men, and different ways of life in the lands ahead.

Although I had a hard start absorbing the details and making up my mind on the protagonist and style of language used, these issues were resolved shortly. I found myself liking the story more and more as it progressed. I should mention the same sort of thing happen to me with Honor Harrington and now I am an avid fan of that series. Audibles has a great return policy so consider listening to at least half of the first part before giving up, because I don't think you will regret it.

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54 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

About Time! Epic Fantasy inside

If you could sum up Oath of Swords in three words, what would they be?

Awesome Epic Fantasy

What did you like best about this story?

I love that David (The Mad Wizard Weber, or MWW) writes fantastic fantasy as well as scifi. The use of gods in this universe is very well done. The maigc systems are to MWW done in a way that is logical and has rules, you can wave a hand and destroy a world without the right tools, and magic is never used as a crutch.
The Bloody Hand is born in this novel folks, and if you are a fan of Elizabeth Moon's Fantasy you will enjoy this story

What about Nick Sullivan’s performance did you like?

David has always said that Bahzel's accent is irish, and he hits it very well

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The argument between Bahzel and Tomanik is one of my favorite parts of this story, and of course the very end but no spoilers i think

Any additional comments?

These books are alot of fun MWW has always said that these first 4 books (Oath f Swords, War God's Own, Windrider's Oath, and Warmaid's Choice[forthcoming]) are the basic backdrop on which is

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very Good Read

Would you consider the audio edition of Oath of Swords to be better than the print version?

The way that the reader identified each character by changing his voice and easy at which he portrayed the lighter moments made the audio version better than the print version.

What did you like best about this story?

The story had a feel of a young adult fantasy series. Put simply it just flowed and was a pleasure to listen to.

Which character – as performed by Nick Sullivan – was your favorite?

I loved the way Nick Sullivan portrayed Bazell

Any additional comments?

I would recommend this series to all ages of fantasy readers.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fast, Fantastic and Funny!

Wow... I couldnt put it down! I finished the book in 2 days time. I loved the banter between the two main characters! The world is interesting and the fight scenes are fast and furious! I cant wait to get the other books in this series on my Ipad!

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great story overal, but gets bogged down in parts.

Oath of Swords was my first David Weber read, so I was unfamiliar with his writing. I was pleasantly surprised by his treatment of the well worn genre of fantasy. He took some different an interesting takes. The cast of characters were great, and I really enjoyed interesting history behind the different races and how this particular world came about. Nick Sullivan's narration was MASTERFUL!

Character development was good and bad in this story. Bahzell and Brandark connected with me quickly, which made going through the story fun. However, most of the story dealt with the heroes, I felt that the antagonists were very under developed, almost to the point of being an afterthought. The main battle too, along with the resolution seemed short and anti-climatic.

The appearance of the different gods at every turn made them seem commonplace. Also, the over simplification, over humanization, and over explanation of the relationships between the gods and man, made the gods seem more like mascots, or genies than all powerful beings.

The battles were fantastic. Weber knows how to do an epic fight. With Sullivan's narration, you can feel your pulse elevating. These are the parts of the book that you fly through.

There were times where the story got bogged down though, attempting to flesh out Weber's fantasy world, and the characters relation to that world. There was tons of inner-monologue, and page after page of narrations about their histories. It sometimes seemed like the actual current events were little islands in a sea these narrations and soliloquy's.

As I said before, Nick Sullivan's performance was simply outstanding! He is one of my Top 5 book narrators! His depth and range of voice is amazing. He doesn't simply read the story, he acts out the characters for you, and their personalities just pop out in the voices.

Sullivan goes from American, to English, to Scottish, and Irish accents without missing a beat. Simply stunning voice acting.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I was really blown away by the narration of Nick Sullivan. Absolutely one of the best narrators on Audible.com.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Barbarian Paladin

One can tell this book is written by an author who normally writes science fiction. I enjoyed the style o f writing that it is fast and fun. Style of this book is typical of an epic fantasy where adventure is taking place during travel. Book reminded me of Belgariad a bit due to its style and to some extent the subject matter.

Book is about a barbarian who gets recruited as paladin. It is an intriguing concept in itself and I enjoyed it. Narrator did a great job, and book is joy to listen.

I thought that book was hand waving a bit in the beginning, but as book progresses, author added a lot of depth. Interaction of God with its subject was a bit odd, but again it is about a Paladin. Author does bring of humor and at times book is amusing though similar type of jokes are used several times.

I am planning on picking the next book soon.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

War god seeks a champion

Narration is clear and crisp, but Sullivan emphasizes nearly every sentence. I found that type of stress distracting, and it frequently felt like he was reading to children. I read the book when the narration got too annoying.

A fairly good fantasy with likable protagonists, but Weber gets wordy. He digresses, slowing the plot. Sometimes he digresses with too much internal rumination and reflection. Sometimes by too much description.

Some nasty scenes of virgin sacrifice, rape, etc.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An Enjoyable Romp

An exciting story combined with a great narrative performance creates a rollicking tale. Weber uses his talent for detailing battles to good effect.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Fun fantasy

I`m a fan of Webers Harrington series so i figured id use a spare credit to check this one out. Its start out really generic, and i actually stopped listening to the book and moved on to other ones.
But i figured hey i bought it so i shud at least listen to the entire thing. And it gets a lot better. Some great ball busting humor between the story's to main character and some good action scenes.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Hold judgement through first five minutes.

The is a good book, by a good author. However, the opeing is crude; as in not very adult; get past the first five minutes and the book is quite good.

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