Fred Saberhagen: Empire of the East / Swords

Post by **Triock** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 3:34 pm

Has anyone read these books? I just got done reading Empire for the first time and really enjoyed it. I was curious as to other opinions about the connection between them and general discussion about the entire works.

Post by **[Syl]** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 4:00 pm

I've read all the Book of Swords and Lost Swords many moons ago. Great stuff.

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 4:45 pm

I read Empire looooooooooooooooong ago. Probably 20 years. I remember liking it a lot, but I only remember a couple of vague details now.

Post by **danlo** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 7:27 am

I've met him twice-cause he's been on a panel each time I've seen SRD. And lives in NM YEA! But I've never really read him. Tried to start some Bezerker stuff, but got sidetracked. I did post a photo of him in the Member's Gallery if you're interested.

Post by **Lord Mhoram** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 8:17 am

I'm interested in Saberhagen after reading one of his short stories in the Lord of the Fantastic anthology. What's Swords about? I've heard about that series.

Post by **duchess of malfi** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 3:22 pm

It was actually a fun series...the Greek god of the forge makes magical swords, each one with a different magical attribute and the swords get out in the world of mortals...with some pretty interesting results...won't say more, don't want to spoil...

Post by **Ryzel** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 5:23 am

I have read them all. The Empire of the East, The Book of Swords Trilogy and the Book of Lost Swords Series.

Generally I liked all of them. Solid fantasy, and the twelve swords gives Saberhagen the opportunity to write lots of stories which is set in the same world but which are only loosely connected. For example The Book of Lost Swords: Stonecutter's Story is a detective story set in a city far from from the rest of the stories.

What is important to note about Saberhagen though is the SRD has written a short story from Saberhagen's Berserker Universe. The story is called "What Makes Us Human" and can be found in Reave the Just and other tales.

Post by **Triock** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:37 pm

I was curious most about the Emperor in EOE. Was he the same "person" in both novels?

I have heard that Saberhagen considers both of these series separate works in themselves, but I believe that there are two many connections and common characters between the two for that to be.

Post by **Ryzel** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 10:56 pm

They are set in the same world, I believe, but a lot of years apart. I do not remember the Emperor or anything about him any more.

Post by **Zarathustra** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:04 pm

I got bored with my Runes reread, so I picked up the First Book of Swords to give it another try (first time in 20 years). At first, I was struck by how inferior it was to Donaldson. I wasn't even sure if I was going to finish it. But very quickly I got sucked into the story again. I think I might actually reread the entire series back to back ... something I wasn't able to do originally because he was still publishing them at the time.

I remember the first 3 being good, and the next two or three being great, and then some hits and misses in the rest. Stonecutter's was cool (the detective story). Farslayer's was a little boring. Woundhealer had one of the best getaway scenes I've ever read (where the guy forces his horse to jump to the bottom of a cliff, then heals himself and the horse and rides away), in addition to getting into the mystery of Mark's son's magic.

Has anyone else read these recently?

Post by **Avatar** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 5:47 am

I have a bunch of them...two of the Swords books, and three of the Lost Swords, IIRC. Been a little while since I read 'em, but not too long.

I like the whole "gods walking around" thing.

--A

Post by **Farm Ur-Ted** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 3:51 am

I just finished Woundhealer's Story, and am getting into Sightblinder's. Yeah, the plunge off the cliff in Woundhealer's was pretty good.

I figure I'll finish out the Lost Swords series, and then maybe do the Empires of the East books or omnibus. These books are all pretty good. They remind me a bit of Amber.

Post by **Zarathustra** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 2:23 pm

Funny, I was thinking about checking in on this thread yesterday.

I remember Sightblinder's being good, and then that was the last one that was really memorable. But I couldn't find my copy, so I stopped last year with Woundhealer, and reread Empire of the East. Then I started my Grand Tolkien Reread, and never picked Saberhagen back up (best name ever for an author who's main work was Book of Swords

).

Post by **Farm Ur-Ted** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 2:33 pm

I hadn't thought about the name, lol.

Even if some of the books slow down, at least they aren't 3,000 pages long. And they cost 5 bucks from bn.com, and a so easy to buy.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

Fred Saberhagen: Empire of the East / Swords

Fred Saberhagen: Empire of the East / Swords