The Seven Swords 2

“I have been wielded by heroes of legend and villains of infamy. By the worst scum and the most noble spirit. And in all that time you know what I learned, my liege? There was no meaning in any of it, no purpose that counted for more than shit in the end. Heroes win their wars only to become tyrants. The worst of murderers may escape punishment but cannot escape their own soul and they will always die pitiful, friendless and unmourned.”

So what’s the book about?

Having survived the fall of the Execration, the former King Guyime must now forge new paths so that he can find the seven legendary swords. In doing so, he once again contains support from his cursed sword, but also from the beast summoner Seeker, who also supports his goal, but actually has her own goal entirely. For they must go to the great trading city of Karthulara, created from the Kraken bones, to triumph in the endless and deadly game for domination. In the centre of the first sea, he also gains new allies to help him fight the deadly game, a powerful mage and a scholarly slave. Thus, Guyime ventures into the dangerous body of Carthage to secure the next sword, guarded by ancient magic, cursed spirits and deadly traps. How he to win the deadly game that no one has ever left alive?

These aspects attracted me the most while reading.

• The game to be played here was created by a deity who again makes it difficult for seekers to reach the goal, thus the sword. To reach this goal, Guyime and Seeker have to solve many puzzles, avoid traps and compete against various opponents. I had the feeling that I was in a dungeon with no end in sight, that it was taking your breath away. The vivid images that spring up in this dungeon could also make me want to play the deadly game where everything was given so that the goal could be achieved. I literally felt myself trying to choose the right answer like in a computer game so that I could get to the next dialogue in the game and be closer to my final goal. This deadly and gloomy game was filled with many exciting smaller puzzles and I especially liked the labyrinth. Every single player in this game was shown other sins of their previous life in the labyrinth, where they had to go through this memory to be able to choose the right way out of the labyrinth. Only from Guyime you learn the sins that give you an even deeper understanding of the character. Whether I would have managed to play this game and escape this deadly realm, we will never find out, but whether Guyime and Seeker manage to escape this game, we will definitely find out – but I have more hope in these two than in myself.
• The world that seems like a nightmare becomes more and more depressing and dark.  The world is so hopeless, also are the characters and the goal, that you already know that the story will have a tragic course.  For one thing, the story and the motivation of Guyime and Seeker give us an almost unattainable goal, which the characters make seem even more depressing. But the dangers that the two seekers encounter also embody this hopelessness. For the world they live in is on the brink, visited by grotesque creatures, by deities who devise hideous games to make the world even more desperate, and also by the inhabitants of this world, where one does not know whether they want anything good for the world. And the poor souls Guyime and Seeker are only trying to pull this world out of the abyss.
• We learn more and more about the mysterious and sinister character Guyime and I don’t know if it makes him seem more sympathetic or if he is just as dark as the world around him. Because at first, only his cursed sword kept revealing Guyime’s true identity, that he is not a hero but that he is the bad guy, and now we get fragments of memories from his former life that show his true nature. For Guyime is certainly no hero, which is why he is surely now taking this daring path to find the swords to atone for his sins. Again and again we get these fragments from his past life through the journey to the octopus bones, to find out about great sins in his life later in the game of the labyrinth. For one sin in particular really shocked me, as Guyime grows on you as he seems so self-sacrificing, yet none of this quality shows in his past life. Now he is a broken man who is simply seeking his way back into the light.

The Second.

To compare the story of the first volume to the second is quite difficult. In the first, I liked especially that the whole world and the characters are very mysterious, this mysterious is lifted a little in the second volume, because you learn more and more about Guyime and you build a bond with him. But this game that is played in volume two could fully excite me that I liked it even better. Also, here in the few pages still a little political undertone are brought in and two extraordinarily exciting new characters. The second volume could convey the mood even better and the gloomy world could pull even more in the volume.

So what are my final thoughts about it?

This pictorial world just completely blows me away, because this dark world with this fascinating main character Guyime just makes all the dreams of a fantasy book come true for me. Sometimes a book doesn’t need this elaborate side stories to create a brilliant book, because this book captivates by the inevitable story that the seven swords have to be found, which is why this path can be walked without any circumlocutions and still you are completely immersed in this world. This gloomy and dark mood leaves one even after finishing the book with a sense of wonder and especially the end of the book had it in itself. Because every victory also means a defeat, even if people can be saved, a bloody end often does remain. I find it a pity that I have to emerge so quickly from this world again, because it is very short with its 130 pages, yet I want to emphasize that the book still brings an incredible atmosphere, great and detailed characters that you just do not want to leave. Incidentally, this series would be the perfect story to make a movie series out of it. I am already very curious how this story continues in the next volume and what paths Guyime and Seeker must take this time.

My Rating

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