The Society of the Sword Trilogy

By: Duncan M. Hamilton

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 31 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

Fans have described the trilogy as Game of Thrones meets The Three Musketeers.

When Soren is plucked from the streets and given a place at the prestigious academy of swordsmanship, he thinks his dream of being a great swordsman has become a possibility. However, with great intrigues unfolding all around him, Soren discovers that he is little more than a pawn to the ambitions of others.

As he is swept from high society into exile in foreign lands to escape those who see him as a threat, he must rely on a mysterious gift and the lessons learned at the academy if he hopes to survive in a society where disputes are settled with a sword.

The Society of the Swords Trilogy contains the complete series.

©2016 Duncan M. Hamilton (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Great Series Overall, but seemed Rushed

First, I want to say that I enjoyed the series. With that said, I believe it could have been so much more. The first book was just as I would expect from a fantasy epic. The rushing seemed to come more in the second book, and, even then, not until the ending. It seems like there was much or should have been much more written, but the author was coming up on a deadline and just rushed the ending. To be honest, it was a lot like how I write (technical writing, not stories). I can do great up to 95% complete, but that last 5% is just so much trouble to finish. You know it isn't going to go as easily as it should and you are going to find more things that are going to extend that paper/book, and you just don't want to find them (for me its from ADD and enough meds helps power through!) Anyway, that was a digression, but it felt so familiar how the ending just suddenly happened and part of the end plot was just chopped.

Finally, the third book. I don't want to say too much to ruin the plot, but one major portion of the world is finally starting to be explored, but it was done so lightly that nothing was really revealed about it or why things became the way they were except for the same dogma that has been repeated through all the books.

This review may sound like I didn't like the books, but that is completely wrong. I did. I just thought they could have been so much more. I hope there is another series to go into depth with the dangling points either never discussed or just touched upon lightly. I can see a great world of books continuing from this series, and I hope there is!

35 of 35 people found this review helpful

Great Story

I have found myself, when searching for a new title to read, searching for Derek Perkins. I have never been disappointed. A well written story is always better when narrated by Mr. Perkins.

11 of 11 people found this review helpful

So many threads cut short!

I read a review before buying this book that suggested that Hamilton couldn't keep a story arc going to save his life. I fully believed it couldn't be that bad...but it definitely is! Potential story arc after story arc after story arc that Hamilton just throws by the way side. I honestly couldn't figure out whether Hamilton knew what he was doing or not, or if he just got bored writing this and decided to just finish the main plot instead of making this book the epic that it could have been.

Now, from the main story part, it's actually not that bad of a story. A little magic, a lot of sword play, the characters he sticks with are deep and inciting, and the plot is more than enough to keep you interested. At least, this is true for the first two books. To explain, this product is all three books put together, and this description fits for the first two books to a T. This third and final book in the series, is just lacking. The plot is all there for the final book, its just that the new characters are so incredibly terrible that the whole series is almost ruined. They're desperate and confusing. They seem like they should have been in the story the whole time, but Hamilton is just throwing them in at the end and expecting us to accept that their story's line up perfectly. It's annoying and a little insulting.

All in all though, the story is all there. I'm just complaining for the most part. But i just couldn't rate it any high, having all these potentially great characters and story arc's just eliminated before they could shine is just too infuriating.

It's a good waste of a credit and Perkins is pretty good.

15 of 16 people found this review helpful

Excellent

Fun book, sad its over. If you are looking for a book about sword fighting, this is the magnum opis. I found this book by recommendation from Kel Kade and it was spot on. If you liked the kings dark tidings series this might be right up your alley.

45 of 51 people found this review helpful

loved it

this trilogy was very well put together and the books made for exciting and easy to follow listening.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

omg

i have never ever read of a hero that is so indecisive - when he does decide - 75% of the time he makes the wrong decision. it annoyed me so much...he even admitted to it towards the end. Other than that - the book was ok

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

An Author to Watch

This was much better than expected based on reviews... A swords and sorcery light fantasy w/ emphasis on the swords w/ the sorcery being more of a backdrop... Great pace, characters, and imagery... For a martial kinda fantasy the violence is neither excessive nor gratuitous, and a surprisingly minimal amount of profanity... Nice world building, if the magic system is a bit ephemeral... Bk 1 better than bk 2, and bk 3 as good as book 1... Bargain given you’re getting 3 for the price of one... Narration is excellent and gives the story a very binge worthy appeal... Undoubtedly worth the freight, and am now off to find more by the author...

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

almost great

this would be a great book, except I kept wanting to slap some sense into the arrogant main character. if I could have liked it him it would be good. as it is, I wasn't sure who to root for good guy or bad guy.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Just ok

I couldn't wait for this to be over. There was just something lacking in the story. Not enough details and then lo and behold, the character remembers something from his childhood. The premise was good, I just needed more.

11 of 13 people found this review helpful

Excellent read, Excellent value!!

Great trilogy and all for the price of one and this must be fifteen words long.

13 of 16 people found this review helpful

Took a chance on a new author and....

I was not familiar with Mr. Hamilton's works but thought I would take a chance on a new author. It is not often that I can say that I was drawn in to the story by the narrator so quickly. The characterisations worked (for me at least) the pace was just right and the story and characters developed well. The pictures of the characters and story appeared in my mind with no problems, sometimes this is a hesitant process, but not in this case. I genuinely wanted to know what happened next so I just kept listening. Something of a shock when you consider the length (aka value for money) of the three volumes.

I will not spoil any one's pleasure by discussing the plot, characters of twists and turns other than to say buckle your swash and enjoy.

I shall be looking out for the next offerings from both author and narrator.

Only down side: I used the earlier slightly more compressed format and was plagues by loads of breaks, skips, jumps and odd noises. This was not the case in the past so whatever Audible have done to their production methods has not worked. The new high res format while clear take up an awful lot of space on portable devices. Why the step back? So be careful not to detract from an excellent audio book with a less than optimum presentation.

37 of 38 people found this review helpful

Simplistic but entertaining

Soap opera fantasy by numbers but so fast paced that it remains entertaining. The characters are wooden, the plotting wafer thin but the world is well drawn and the action relentless. Works well as an audio book.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

pretty good

This is no Monte Cristo, but it is a compelling romp through an interesting fantasy world executed rather competently.

combined with good narration and a 30hr length I'd say its a damn good use of a credit.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Derek Perkins is a good narrator. Good story too

Derek Perkins is a good narrator. Good story too. Worth a listen. recommended for people who like books with a bit of magic.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

BigAl

Very enjoyable story, well delivered. Leaves room for further books, but finishes the journey nicely. Thumbs up.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Wonderful long story - I wanted more.

The dislikes were minor (small repetitions which worked well to refresh my poor memory) the likes many. A true story with gentle magic and a little romance. Likeable characters. Thought it was written by a female no idea why. I kept listening until done. I enjoyed the narration which was superbly illustrative without ever drawing attention to the voice per se. I was quite delighted just when I needed a companion in my life. Thank you.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Great story and well paced.

The story was well paced and always had something going on. Occasionally the timescale of the plot wasn't too clear but it all clears up again after a few paragraphs. It is not the most complex of plots but it keeps you interested and always leaves you wanted to listen to 'just another chapter'.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Enjoyable but last book a let down

The story overall was a good bit of fun. Follows a fairly typical fantasy scenario of a young boy coming of age etc etc. The first book was for me the best. Second was ok and the third was really disappointing. It just seemed vague and the last chapters were incredibly predictable.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Generic and lacking character

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Struggled through 5 hours hoping it would launch into something exciting, but it never did. Decided to give up when I found myself flicking through my library looking for anything other than this.

Technically the writing is fine but the story is unoriginal, the characters feel cliche and flat (with a bit of Marty Stu oozing from the main character), and the events that progress the plot are often just a little too unbelievable with unlikely things relying too much on luck or the character being special.

Worldbuilding is done via infodump, where the character looks around and describes what he sees for several minutes, or the narrator describes world politics that are irrelevant to the plot. The author plainly didn't want to waste the passages of backstory he wrote for worldbuilding but this kills whatever excitement or intrigue was developing. I ended up pressing the skip button to see if it got better, skipped into some romance with a princess, and put music on instead.

IMO the story doesn't have the same bold style or strong characters as books like the First Law trilogy, Lies of Locke Lamora or Name of the Wind. It's got potential, but 5 hours in and it's still lukewarm.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Brilliant ....

One for repeating sometime . A great story from start to finish.Well read to.
The characters all fitted into the story and were believable. I found it hard to stop listening, having to find out what happened next.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful