Thinblade

Sovereign of the Seven Isles, Book 1

By: David A. Wells

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 18 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

When second son Alexander Valentine loses his brother to an assassin's arrow, he discovers that his family protects an ancient secret and reluctantly finds himself at the center of the final battle of a war that was supposed to have ended 2,000 years ago.

Pursued by the dark minions of an ancient enemy, Alexander flees to the mountain city of Glen Morillian where he discovers that he is the heir to the throne of Ruatha, one of the Seven Isles, but before he can claim the throne he must recover the ancient Thinblade. Seven were forged by the first Sovereign of the Seven Isles and bound to the bloodline of each of the seven Island Kings in exchange for their loyalty to the Old Law. Each sword is as long as a man's arm, as wide as a man’s thumb and so thin it can’t be seen when viewed from the edge.

Thinblade is the story of Alexander's quest to find the ancient sword, claim the throne of Ruatha, and raise an army to stand against the enemy that has awoken to claim dominion over all of the Seven Isles.

©2011 David A. Wells (P)2014 Podium Publishing

This is how you do adventure

This is exactly what I was looking for. Five main characters, with a male protagonist who is relatable, and actually a nice person. Fantasy, heroics, tragedy, adversity, magic, mystery, love, family, etc all of this while being entertaining and providing plot with progression. It’s builds the world in a fun way and we learn with the main protagonist how life in the seven islands works. So fun I’ll be reading all of them.

Excellent Story

I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next book
I would recommend this book and the series to anyone.

Mostly entertaining.

Upon the unexpected death of his brother, Alexander becomes the heir to an unlooked for birthright. He is heir to a throne, but before he can claim that right, he must first recover one of the ancient Thinblades. Friends and allies assist Alexander upon his quest even as a myriad of evil doers work to thwart him.

The story started off strong with Alexander and his siblings seeing to protecting livestock from local predators. When an assassin’s arrow takes his brother, Alexander then gets told the family secret: they are the line of succession to an ancient throne. It’s a pretty heady thing to dump on a person who is just coming into adulthood. The action starts up early on in the story as Alexander, his sister Abigail, and their tutor and healer Luki flee the family estate.

The action weaves in and out of quieter moments. There’s weapons training, battle planning, a bit of romance, and some magic learning. At first, it was a pretty good mix, holding my attention without giving me battle fatigue. However, once Alexander dives into learning magic, there are chunks of the story that slow way down and get a bit tedious. I wanted to fast forward through most of these sections. Having one or two to show the reader how much effort the main character is putting into it is cool; having several, nearly back to back, was over kill.

At first, there’s only one female character (Abigail) but she’s right there with her brother riding and fighting. She’s good with a bow. She’s well written. Later, we get a few more female characters. Isabel is the daughter of a lord whose lands neighbor Alexander’s family. She’s also good with a bow and has a magical connection with a small hawk, which she uses as a kind of scout. Sometimes she is well written, and sometimes she falls into cliches. Alexander treats her with a kind of respect even as he very quickly falls in love with her. I felt the romance was forced, like the author felt he had to check that box off in order to have a complete epic fantasy. One of the cliches involves a kidnapped female who ends up weeping on her savior’s shoulder once she is rescued. Sigh…. I would have kidnapped Alexander and forced him to carry the firewood and water skins.

The world building is pretty standard for epic fantasy. I liked it and it worked for the story, but nothing special stood out about it. I enjoyed the quest in general, even if things got bogged down here and there. The Thinblade is a near myth even among the learned and wise. Indeed, it will take someone special to find one of these remarkable blades, and even more special to wield it with results.

Luki was one of my favorite characters. He had more than one role in the story and I liked this multi-dimensionality. Throughout the tale, he plays the cook, the teacher, the healer, or the alchemist. He’s a wealth of knowledge and also the confident to Alexander and Abigail. He also has a sense of humor.

Where this book shines is with the antagonists. Oddly, I found them more interesting than Alexander. Prince Faine of the Rishi has arisen and he means to conquer all of the seven isles. He’s been in this kind of suspended animation for hundreds or thousands of years and he’s not fully sane. This makes him unpredictable not just to the good guys, but also to his own baddie team. Then there is Patel. This dude scares me for several reasons. He’s dedicated, a true believer in where he has chosen to put his loyalty. He’s very, very skilled at what he does. Because he has such a sense of dedication and loyalty, he may turn out to be one of those characters that will sacrifice all to accomplish their commander’s goal even if he knows it is wrong. Yeah. He’s that kind of baddie. The sections with this characters were some of my favorites.

Narration: Derek Perkins did a nice job. Most of the book is told through Alexander’s eyes and Perkins had a nice young man’s voice for him. I liked his rougher voice for Patel and his somewhat mischievous voice for Luki. His crazy Faine voice was a little chilling! His lady voices were OK, perhaps needing a little more femininity.

Exciting and very entertaining. Can't wait for the

wait for the next book. Please convert the complete works. Was hard to stop listening

Nice story!

a little slow at times. Lovely characters even funny at times. Overal I enjoyed it.

ecellent story

loved it. the story kept you wondering what is going to happen next. will read the next book.

interesting plot. rich in fantasy elements.

worth a listen for sure. very fine attention to details. lots of fantasy elements. author paints every scene and thought very thoroughly. plenty of twists and surprises although some are partly predictable. my interest is piqued for the next in series

A great read

Would you listen to Thinblade again? Why?

I am not much for writing reviews, but when I find a book that really takes me into their world, then I do. For me, this is one of those books where I am present with the characters. It is magical when that happens.Looking forward to book two.Magic fascinates me. Within these pages, magic is not felt through the story. Magic is told. I really do enjoy feeling the magic, the body, texture and the difficulty in mastering. The author fails to bring magic alive. Instead Alex (the main character) learns from a book and a statue that comes to life. That said, perhaps in book two the connection will be better made.

great story

fans of terry goodkind will love this story while waiting for the next sword of truth book to come out. I was reading it to kill time for just that reason and fell in love. I will definitely be reading the entire series!

Awesome!

If you could sum up Thinblade in three words, what would they be?

Clever, Romantic, interesting

What other book might you compare Thinblade to and why?

Eragon series and the Hobbit

Which scene was your favorite?

too many to count.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Good against Evil.

Any additional comments?

All three were great and can't wait for the fourth.