Read our Mark
Robson interview
First Sword is the third book in the Darkweaver
Legacy. Having successfully betrayed the Lords of the Inner Eye and the
Shandese legions at Kortag, Calvyn is appointed King Malo's personal adviser on
the magical arts, and is even knighted as a reward. But his own guilt
will not let him revel in his new knightly wealth and freedoms, for he must
rescue Jez and Bek from the Shandese arena that he sent them to whilst
in the guise of Lord Shanier. The King allows him to go with a
small band of his army colleagues: Derra, Fesha, and Eloise. However,
Calvyn has forgotten to tell the king about a mysterious event at the palace:
why has the tapestry depicting the fall of Derrigan Darkweaver two centuries
earlier been changed? And why does his mentor, Perdimonn, appear to be in
the tapestry?
Perdimonn, meanwhile, is embroiled in his own
quest to prevent the ambitious magician Selkor from gaining any more power.
If Selkor were to gain control of the Keys of Water, Earth, Air, and Fire, then
all nations would be in peril. However, Perdimonn arrives too late to
prevent Selkor from gaining the Key of Fire from its Warder, Arred. For
the first time, we see that Selkor is prepared to kill to fulfill his
aims. However, the Warders of the Keys are a skilled and sturdy
bunch. And yet, they are not allowed to use the great powers at their
disposal as weapons, or to share knowledge of each other's keys.
Perdimonn and Arred do however work together to prevent a volcanic
catastrophe. To Perdimonn and Arred's dismay, when they soul link to the
Warder of the Key of Water, they discover that Selkor has somehow already
gained control of it, despite the Warder concerned having been many leagues
away. To Perdimonn's horror, a trick that he had used on Selkor a year
earlier seems to have been the method that his nemesis has used to bend time.
Now he and the other warders really are in a race against time. But
Perdimonn is not without allies: in attempting to soul link with Jenna, he
discovers, to his delight, that Calvyn's soul has been restored.
Perdimonn commands that Calvyn abandons his quest and go immediately to the
Magicians' Academy in Terilla to tell the High Council of Selkor's
progress. Calvyn is reluctant to leave Jez and Bek to the mercies of the
Shandese arena, but Derra convinces him that she is more than capable of
leading the rescue party.
Even with the use of his skills as a sorcerer,
Calvyn finds it difficult to locate the Magicians' Academy. Jenna, having
been alerted by Perdimonn's attempted soul link with her, has also arrived in
Terilla to look for him. Even although the practice of magic is legal in
Shandor, it is still done behind closed doors, hidden away from the skeptical
populace. Having located the Magicians' Academy, Calvyn learns that
Perdimonn has previously proposed that he be accepted as an acolyte
there. Again, Calvyn is faced with the difficult choice of having to
abandon Jez and Bek, but King Malo has made him his personal adviser on magic,
and where better to learn magic than the Magicians' Academy? Calvyn
decides that it is his duty to stay, although his motives could be seen as
being selfish, for learning magic is all that he has ever wanted to do.
But it's not long before Calvyn finds himself in trouble with the Academy's
masters...
Since they are seasoned, professional soldiers,
Jez and Bek do survive their first battles in the Shandese arena. Bek is
the Thrandorian 'First Sword' after all... But the Shandese Emperor takes
a deep interest in the arena contests, and it's not long before Jez and Bek get
mixed up in Shandese politics. Bek finds that fighting as an art
form and an entertainment is quite different from being a brilliant and
commanding swordsman on the battlefield. The training could very well
near kill him if his bouts do not. Nursing a huge grudge against Calvyn
for having sent him and Jez to the arena, Bek would do anything to
escape, but soon has an even bigger reason to stay - much to the
frustration of the friends that are trying to rescue him. Bek won't leave
until he faces the champion of the Shandese arena, Serrius. Problem is
though, that Serrius kills all those sent against him, and even prevails in fights
involving five against one... Bek's hatred for Calvyn has won him
friends in high places, but not even the Shandese Emperor's desire to kill
Calvyn will make him interfere in his beloved games...
Despite a couple of clumsy metaphors (p. 112
"like looking for a pin in a hay barn" is Mark Robson's attempt to
avoid using the cliché "needle in a haystack"), it does look as
though Mark Robson strives to be as innovative as Perdimonn and Calvyn (I liked
"the ship heaved and wallowed, tossing and rolling like a pregnant woman
unable to sleep" p. 65 - much better). A small indication of how
complex Mark Robson's plots are (and what a good memory he's got!), is the
passage on p. 100 where the Shandese emperor is examining his new purchase
of a "large oval silver serving dish, engraved with a series of dragons
and firedrakes" - surely this is the same serving dish that Edovare was
working on when Selkor came to see him in Trail of the
Huntress? This is not hugely central to the plot, but it does show
the detail that Mark Robson has put into sewing together this particular
tapestry. Calvyn does indeed find that his past magical acts
may have more significance than he or anyone else first realised.
However, Calvyn and Perdimonn did go their separate ways some time ago, so it
is quite surprising that Perdimonn has knowledge of Calvyn's magical
sword. But then, that can be explained away by Perdimonn having met
Jenna, the private in Baron Keevan's army who holds a flame for Calvyn,
and who has no doubt related Calvyn's part in the battle against Demarr
and the Terrachim hordes at Mantor. First Sword is again first rate,
and Mark Robson has done much to make me eagerly anticipate the next part of
Calvyn's story. Can Calvyn and Perdimonn prevent Selkor
from becoming the Chosen One?
Authortrek rating: 9/10
Kevin Patrick Mahoney
