The Sword of the Lady

A Novel of the Change

By: S. M. Stirling

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 21 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author S. M. Stirling continues what Library Journal has termed his "epic of survival and rebirth," chronicling a modern world without technology.

Rudi Mackenzie has journeyed far across the land that was once the United States of America, hoping to find the source of the world-altering event that has come to be known as the Change. His final destination is Nantucket, an island overrun with forest, inhabited by a mere two hundred people who claim to have been transported there from out of time.

Only one odd stone house remains standing. Within it, Rudi finds a beautifully made sword waiting for him - and once he takes it up, nothing will ever be the same....

©2009 S. M. Stirling (P)2009 Tantor Media

Wonderful book and story

This is a wonderful book in S. M. Stirling's Embervse series. His world building is so complete that you can truly move into it.

Great line of books

Though I still prefer the original trilogy, these 7 books of the next generation is still a great read/listen. The narrator also does a great job, but mispronunciations of real geographic areas may drive a local a little mad.

Waste of time

What was most disappointing about S. M. Stirling’s story?

Over 20 hours of listening to drawn out descriptions of food, fights, different religious beliefs, and a quest that didn't make any sense. I was expecting it to all come together in the end somehow, but surprise, the ending was the worst part. It was inconclusive, confusing and based of some other world power that didn't fit with the rest of the story. Worst book I have ever downloaded out of the 50 or so I have downloaded. I have never deleted a book from my i-tunes library but this one is getting deleted so I or somebody else doesn't click on it and have to listen to this drivel again.The only good thing I can say about this is that the narrator was good.

Yawn zzzzzzzzz couln't wait to put it down

4 hours in and still didn't know what happend. Why the mid evil sword and arrows. Why the language and religion change in 24 yrs. If I hear one more description of clothing ahhh. The characters aren't even interesting.

The Sword of the Lady

Yet another plodding, over descriptive, and far to drawn out story. S.M. has taken a really cool story concept and stretched it to a point I don't think I can continue listening, even thou when the action is happening it's a wonderful story, but when the mention of food comes into the story it's a 20 minute ordeal just to get back to the flow of the story. The character interaction is at times frustrating, and the introduction of new members to quest is abrupt and with a lack of info that he holds in such high regard for the food. I usually do not listen to abridged versions of a story, but I will take that into consideration if I continue to follow this 'Saga'.

Loads of details, lots of telling, not much craft

I was excited about this book - all the good reviews, the exciting premise. And Stirling does produce in some ways: imaginative cultural responses to apocalypse (and more positive than many), loads of details (esp. armor and smells), distinctive characters.

What really bugs me is that it could be so much better. The story delivery. The integrity of his themes. One of Stirling's repeated themes in the novel is that post-apocalyptic people dont' spend so much time analyzing their choices, their acts, their lives. And yet of the techniques he uses consistently is internal dialogue, which presumably these people wouldn't indulge in much! Certainly when I'm in a place of action, or listening to my heart, that's when I'm FURTHEST from internal dialogue. His point here would have so much more weight and conviction if his writing reflected it.

Another aspect is that often he spends time with characters in conversation or somesuch, acting like NOTHING HAS HAPPENED since we last saw them, acting out some dialogue to move the story forward (or not! sometimes it seems like he just wants to give us a chance to get reacquainted and know the characters aren't dead) but with minimal sense that they've talked with each other in the interval. I find it annoying and distracting to encounter these moments, like he assumes I think of these characters as just characters that he's moving around...I'd rather they were having lives of their own while we're not reading about them.

And that's the last thing. Often the author is telling us that things are a certain way, and expecting us to ignore the inconsistencies, rather than telling us a STORY and letting us draw our own conclusions.

And did I mention that rather than have strong story lines, he has characters explain away weak plot points? Ai.

I expected more. Try David Zindell's The Broken God (not on audible, though, too bad!).

stealth xtianity

At first I just thought this was an unusually tedious fantasy novel.. Turns out it's a Christian story, heavy on the Catholicism, replete with a visit to heaven and all kinds of post-post-lapsarian commentary and hope of salvation.

It's kind of like the Narnia books you began as a kid, thinking Cool, a nice fable with talking animals and magic and . . . turns out they're on a train to heaven.

Not my cup of swill.

Dragging on, and on, and on, and on...

What disappointed you about The Sword of the Lady?

I am getting bored listening to tactics, feasts, battles, and confessions. It's becoming very heavy with religious overtones. At first it was just a hit of religious undertones at the start, but it is now full of piety and self righteousness. Just get on with the the quest, please! I'll admit I'm writing this before I'm even done listening, but I'm halfway through and having a hard time keeping interest. My husband is going to do a search to see if he can find a summary of the last three books so I don't have to listen to them to find out how it ends. I've invested this much time in a series, so I'd at least like to know how it ends. I'm not sure I can suffer through 3 more books.It's almost like the author was just dragging it out so he could pump out some more books. I'm pretty sure there is some fat in this series that could have been cut and still not lose important information.Oh, and the repetitive telling of histories from the previous books is pointless. If I'm this far in the series, there is almost no chance that I've not read the previous ones. If I hear an explanation of what CORA stands for one more time I think I might just implode.

Has The Sword of the Lady turned you off from other books in this genre?

No.

Would you be willing to try another one of Todd McLaren’s performances?

NO!

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Boredom, annoyance, and disappointment.

Any additional comments?

I'm surprised others like this narrator. His accents drive me batty. At the start almost all women, McKenzie or not, sound Irish. His African American men all sound the same. His Midwestern is like nails on a chalkboard to me. In the previous book, where Engulf is introduced, Engulf doesn't have a Midwestern accent. Suddenly, about a quarter into this book, he has a Midwestern accent that makes him sound like a wimp, even then he has it inconsistently. The one guy from Wisconsin that is supposed to be a Native American in this book sounds like he might be from Jamaica. And, his mispronunciation of words is terrible. Is there not someone managing this guy while he reads the story?

I've never been more disappointed with a series.

I loved dies the fire, the protectors war was great, a meeting at Corvallis started to go off the rails.

Scourge of God, Sunrise Lands and Sword of the lady are deliberately slow-paced pieces of garbage. Stirling seems to be unnecessarily fixated on the metaphysical, using it as a crutch to fill in space between plot points as well as his inane descriptive formula, which is essentially just mad libs. Every swordsman is going to have "thick wrists", every time they meet someone they will go over them with an "appraising eye" and under no circumstances will any of the characters develop or have any flaws.

This series had so much potential and it makes me sad to think that either the author sold out and just milked the initial idea for a steady paycheck or was unable to take a concept like this to a truly epic conclusion.

If you are going through reviews and have made it this far through mine please just let the series end with a meeting at Corvallis, let it die with Mike Havel, let the potential be vast and unfettered not sullied and dragged into undescribable ennui by ineptitude.