Blade in the Angel's Shadow

The Blade in the Angel's Shadow is an Elizabethan sword & sorcery novel, an alternative history that is based around the birth of the British Empire.

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This is really nice. We love our sword andsorcery books, adventure books, swordplay, action, and grim combat, and thisbook has all of the above. Also, when we think about sword and sorcery, it hasall the key components of a classic sword and sorcery novel.
 What isit about sword and sorcery that makes sword and sorcery what it is? You've gotmorally ambiguous protagonists, and I think it's fair to say that Lament andPieter, by their own admission, have engaged in fairly horrific activities intheir pursuit of war across the continent because, of course, this is setduring Elizabethan times, during the 80 Years War or events during the 80 YearsWar. It's that complicated European history of conflict around turf wars betweenwarring States, but what we have in this book, which is lovely, is it'soverlaid with not only the complications and religious upheaval of theCalvinists versus the Protestants versus the Catholics. But it's actuallyoverlaid with this kind of supernatural, almost Moorcockian cosmologicalconstruct to add even more layers of psychedelic madness, death, carnage, anddestruction. You see the cosmology, but most of it is left unexplained. That’sgreat for me because we love all those sword and sorcery and fantasy and sci-fibooks from the 60s and 70s, you know, good quality, roaring pulp adventure, andthis fits right into that niche for me, and the reason why I enjoyed it so muchis that it doesn't over-explain everything. I think there's a temptation withmore modern audiences that, and you see it in films as well, the way they spelleverything out, spell out everybody's motivations.
So, we've not only got the magic that's weirdand dangerous, which I think originates earlier on in the story with John Dee.But we very quickly come across it from other angles as well. We've got magicalMcGuffins that they need to go essentially on a quest to find, which is a swordand sorcery staple component. We've got wizards and witches, fights, and horrorelements, and it is all set in a really, really dangerous world with complexcultures and cultural motivations. And when you think about that period ofhistory in which it's set, well, what a perfect world and environment toactually set this kind of tail.
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