When you take the master of Golden Age Science Fiction and combine his plotting with the writing of Spider Robinson, you get a winner.
When Heinlein died, he left behind a full plot outline (except for a lost final page) of one of his 1950 era juveniles. Robinson agreed with the estate to write a book based on the outline.
The result is first rate. One of Robinson's strengths is that he is not tone deaf, either to language or to music. Even Heinlein fans -- and I'm one -- have to admit that that's one of Heinlein's weaknesses. (The old joke about Horatio Hornblower was that he knew two songs -- one was "God Save the Queen" and the other wasn't -- could apply to… Read more
I generally avoid first novels, especially first novels of fantasy fiction. I made an exception in this case, and I'm glad that I did.
"The Blade Itself" is dark fantasy with a barbarian, a slick swordsman, a master magician and a twisted torturer as the central characters. That sounds like standard fare. It's not. Each of the charaters is flawed and each elicits his own kind of empathy. The supporting cast is even better.
The politically and morally corrupt environment in which the book is set is well drawn. The book has humor, action and biting commentary. It is the first book in a trilogy, so there is a good deal of context setting that should be missing from the… Read more
