{"id":10917,"date":"2018-06-15T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T14:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=10917"},"modified":"2021-05-30T11:45:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T15:45:23","slug":"by-the-sword","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10917","title":{"rendered":"By the Sword"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the Sword<\/a><\/em> (1991) Mercedes Lackey<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It’s been decades since I last read this book. Partially because I haven’t been much in the mood for straight-up fantasy, partially because I didn’t have it as an ebook, and partially because I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to my memories of it.<\/p>\n

Kerowyn is the granddaughter of the sorceress Kethry, and has been keeping her family’s house since the death of her mother. An attack on the family that leaves Kerowyn one of the few able-bodied sends her on a rescue mission that changes her life forever.<\/p>\n

This story is in three parts: first, the rescue that changes Kerowyn’s life and her martial training; second, her time as a mercenary and her meeting with the Herald Eldan; and finally her time as Captain and the war she becomes involved in.<\/p>\n

So, how did the story hold up? Much better than I feared. The things I loved about the story are just as I remember them, first and foremost how sensible the more mundane parts of war and training are presented.<\/p>\n

They were alert, they were armed with the kind of weapons they were most familiar with, and they looked determined. The boys had slings and bows; the old men, spears and crossbows; the women, knives, scythes, and threshing flails.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It takes Kero years of hard work to learn her fighting skills, even though she is deemed to be a natural talent–and that hard work included studying strategy and how supply lines work.<\/p>\n

Although Kero is a mercenary, battle is not glorified, but presented as a dirty, unpleasant, and dangerous task full of waiting and uncomfortableness, including baking in the heat and freezing in the cold.<\/p>\n

And having studied strategy, Kero uses her company in a way that works to their strengths, and tries to avoid their weaknesses.<\/p>\n

When Kero had explained, as delicately as possible, her Company\u2019s other specialty, Selenay had given her another pleasant surprise. \u201cYou mean you\u2019re saboteurs?\u201d she\u2019d exclaimed with delight. \u201cA whole Company of dirty tricksters? Bright Astera, why didn\u2019t you say that before? For Haven\u2019s sake, if anyone questions your tactics, send them to me, I\u2019ll back you!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That doesn’t mean there weren’t weaknesses–for as much research and work as put into the warfare, this bit hurt my head.<\/p>\n

Definitely not natural. Those are fresh apples, pear season is over, grapes are ripe, but cherries won\u2019t be for another moon, and apples don\u2019t ripen until fall.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apples, pears, and grapes are all ripe August to October, while cherries are ripe late spring to early summer. It’s a stupid nit to pick, but it really<\/em> bothered me, since it’s just so wrong; I suppose it’s the disadvantage of modern grocery stories and fruit being available all seasons.<\/p>\n

But aside from that, it really was fun to revisit the story, and discover that what I had remembered as liking so much was as strong as I remembered–especially for a book published in the very early 1990s.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Publisher: DAW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the Sword (1991) Mercedes Lackey It’s been decades since I last read this book. Partially because I haven’t been much in the mood for straight-up fantasy, partially because I didn’t have it as an ebook, and partially because I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to my memories of it. Kerowyn is the granddaughter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,2,48,41,39],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-10917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-fantasy","category-female","category-reread","category-sword-sorcery","tag-mercedes-lackey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2Q5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2398,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2398","url_meta":{"origin":10917,"position":0},"title":"Nightside","author":"Michelle","date":"June 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Nightside (1989) Mercedes Lackey Diana Tregarde and Andre are investigating a terrible something that is eating the souls of it's victims. Another disappointment. Rating: 5\/10","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2396,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2396","url_meta":{"origin":10917,"position":1},"title":"Satanic, Versus","author":"Michelle","date":"June 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Satanic, Versus (1990) Mercedes Lackey As with the previous Diana Tregarde short story I got, it was ultimately disappointing. Diana and Andre go to a romance convention masquerade and trouble happens. I think that the root of the story would have been interesting if it hadn't been wrapped in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2385,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2385","url_meta":{"origin":10917,"position":2},"title":"Lark and Wren","author":"Michelle","date":"May 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Lark and Wren (1992) Mercedes Lackey I read a LOT of Mercedes Lackey when I was in my 20s. Then, several years ago (and several years after I'd fallen off reading Mercedes Lackey) I all but stopped reading epic\/high fantasy. Was there a single reason? Not really. The fact that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/lark-and-wren.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2381,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2381","url_meta":{"origin":10917,"position":3},"title":"Killer Byte: A Diana Tregarde Short Story","author":"Michelle","date":"May 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Killer Byte: A Diana Tregarde Short Story (1994) Mercedes Lackey A really long time ago--a lifetime ago it sometimes feels like--I read the Diana Tregarde books. And was quite disappointed when Mercedes Lackey stopped writing them. But as I didn't have ready access to MZB's Fantasy Magazine, I missed all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/killer-byte.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/301","url_meta":{"origin":10917,"position":4},"title":"Winter Moon","author":"Michelle","date":"August 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Winter Moon (2005) Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, and C.E. Murphy Winter Moon contains three novellas all centered around the moon: Moontide by Mercedes Lackey, The Heart of the Moon by Tanith Lee, and Banshee Cries by C.E. Murphy. Moontide and Heart of the Moon are traditional fantasies, while Banshee Cries\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/Winter-Moon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8615,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8615","url_meta":{"origin":10917,"position":5},"title":"A Fantastic Holiday Season: The Gift of Stories","author":"Michelle","date":"January 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A Fantastic Holiday Season: The Gift of Stories (2014) edited by Kevin J. Anderson & Kieth J. Olexa I picked this collection up solely for the Patricia Briggs story, but once I saw some of the other authors, read through the stories that interested me (but skipped the ones that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Fantastic-Holiday-Season.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}