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Description
-Society of the Sword Trilogy Book 1- -The Tattered Banner placed 8th on Buzzfeed's 12 Greatest Fantasy Books of 2013- Unique talent always attracts attention… In a world where magic is outlawed, ability with a sword is prized above all else. For Soren this means the chance to live out his dreams. Plucked from a life of privation, he is given a coveted place at Ostenheim’s Academy of Swordsmanship, an opportunity beyond belief. Opportunity is not always what it seems however, and gifts rarely come without conditions. Soren becomes an unwitting pawn in a game of intrigue and treachery that could cost him not just his dreams, but also his life. The Tattered Banner is the first book of the swashbuckling fantasy trilogy 'Society of the Sword'. Read more
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : November 30, 2013
Language : English
File size : 2.7 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 374 pages
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Kindle
I LOVE this writer! The book has a great balance between medieval world building and fleshing characters slowly but thoroughly. Getting hints at intrigues from other scenes not near the main character keeps the reader supplied w a number of hints of vast intrigue that the main character has no experience. He takes some of the disillusions of childhood very harshly but begins to grow at accelerated pace to stay alive. Surrounded with vivid descriptions of both city and international areanas, one can keep a fairly detailed map in one's head because of the character is observant and his stream of consciousness keeps the reader aware of what is going on in important places as well as a trip through the market without it being slow or methodical. There is plenty of fights, military campaigns, & rivalries to keep an action junkie entertained as well as those that want clear depictions of the places and so many intrigues-some short term and others taking years to ripen in the other books. Definitely a great read for all fantasy lovers.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2014 by kdd
Format: Kindle
The plot is easily predictable. The main character is lots of fun. My favorite feature of his is his cavalier attitude towards death. In many fantasy worlds people die all the time in many fashions. Seeing a MC who properly reflects such a world is a welcome addition to the ranks of good novels. The only gripe I have is with the girl. In nearly every fantasy setting a girl is what screws things up. In this particular novel, I was glad to see that she had very little screen time, I glossed over most of her parts. Sure she gave something to look forward to for our MC, but in all honesty I was glad when she had disappeared and had hoped that she would remain so. Therefore leaving the MC with a fruitful line of future exploitable work. MC's almost always think with their D and not with their brain.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2014 by Cameron Gully
Format: Kindle
Two things I want to point out: While this book follows the stereotypical peasant to hero plot arc, it avoids a lot of the issues that normally come alongside it. No one ever tells Soren where he should let his life lead him. Consequently, his decisions are much more organic. I also very much liked that the system of magic is clearly integral to the setting but is never forced upon the reader. Obviously this is possible because so much of the system is unknown to the characters. I mention this because I only realized it when we came to the one scene that does explore what Soren knows of it--as he sits under the tree and recalls what he knows. My only complaint is that the editor missed a breath/breathe typo. Twice.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2014 by Charlie Carwile
Format: Kindle
Outstanding story, albeit one that has been done before. Prose certainly needs an editor, but the weakness is in the sometimes too "purple" writing rather than any fault in typos/grammar. Despite its small faults, I stayed up reading this book until 3 in the morning and finished it in a weekend. The story of young men training to be bad a** at something is a 'classic' in fantasy, and one I enjoy. This book reminded me of Raven's Shadow, Ender's Game or The Name of the Wind, although not as good as any of them, it is well enough done that I would easily recommend it to friends who read fantasy. I won't rehash the plot, because if you like those books, you'll enjoy this one, regardless of who pokes whom with what magic sword. So you can judge whether your taste matches my own, my favorite books are: A Game of Thrones: A Storm of Swords (book 3), The Name of the Wind, The Heroes, The Lies of Locke Lamora,
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Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2016 by Kindle Customer
Format: Kindle
I gave him a 5 star writing because I felt that his book didn’t rely on stock fantasy subjects, no dragons, no elves, no dwarves, etc. etc. he had a completely different take on magic than any other fantasy writer that I have read. I found Duncan Hamilton’s writing very compelling. I was completely drawn into the book, at times I found myself cheering when the main character made a good choice, and other times wanting to scream out and tell him not to do what he was thinking when he made the wrong decision. I couldn’t put the book down and I read it over the course of 3 days. I
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Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2014 by john borgeson
Format: Kindle
I like the world Mr. Hamilton has created, and the politics and people who inhabit it have potential, but as a novel, this book reads like a first draft. The dialog is paced and reads like it was written to dispense missions to a player in a computer RPG. More often than not, a character will issue a pronouncement to Soren in one long paragraph, at the end of which he has received the details of his mission and exits with little or no reply. A related minor pet peeve is the use of exclamation points in the dialog, which adds a distinct "young adult" feel to the book. Finally, the ending is not handled well at all. SPOILERS FOLLOW: 3 2 1 Keeping details here to a minimum, the Duke is assassinated while under Soren's watch. The scene that illustrates the distraction which takes Soren from the Duke's side and allows the assassins to access the Duke's tent reads like a video game cutscene. It's forced, and the people in the scene don't behave like real people. Soren is arrested and charged with at worst being complicit in the assassination or at the very least in gross dereliction of duty, and is sentenced to death. The villain is revealed to have been exactly who I guessed it would be after his second appearance in the first few chapters. Soren at this point completely abandons all hope and meekly awaits his fate - completely out of his character as shown throughout the rest of the book. At this point he is rescued. This could have been quite an exciting sequence, but the author chose to have Soren completely passive and helpless (head hooded, believing the prison guards are leading him to his doom) in the scene, rendering the scene just as completely without tension or drama. In summation, it's not a bad book, but it needed either a professional fiction editor, or at least to be critiqued in a writers' group.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2014 by Generic Amazon Customer
Format: Kindle
This great fantasy ranks up there with Blood Song and The Red Knight and The Throne of Bones as one of the new excellent epic fantasy tales that have come out the last couple years. Not much magic in this first book, mostly swordplay, but it's a unique coming of age tale in which our hero rises and falls and rises again, from the gutters to the aristocracy to the front lines of war. Complex storylines and deeply realized characterizations blended with a lot of action. Worth so very much more than the low price, it's a classic.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2013 by Captain
Format: Kindle
The Tattered Banner is not your typical rags-to-riches fantasy story, but it does start out as one. The hero, Soren, is plucked from a starving street urchin’s life by a famous nobleman to attend Ostia’s prestigious Academy of Swordsmanship. Magic is outlawed in Ostia, so the Duchy’s best and brightest become master swordsmen to move up in society. It’s an opportunity that’s too good to be true, and Soren recognizes this. He becomes the hardest working student at the Academy because he knows that one failure could throw him back on the streets; something his rich, noble classmates don’t have to worry about. It soon becomes clear that Soren has a magical “Gift” with a blade that enables him to defeat almost anyone he faces despite his limited training. That’s where the story turns away from the typical hero’s journey. The Tattered Banner is not about undertaking quests or vanquishing dark lords, but how one young man survives from day to day with only his wits and his Gift. Soren’s journey throughout the book is like a series of random encounters—something happens to him, he makes a choice, and then he blasts off into a totally new direction. His adventures are certainly thrilling and had me turning the pages. I suppose random encounters are what real life is like. Which leads to my one criticism. The Tattered Banner is well told, but I felt like there was something missing: an overall goal for Soren to work towards that ties everything together. Soren simply tries to survive from one unrelated situation to the next. He has an intriguing magical skill with the sword, but that doesn’t seem to be at the top of his “to do list” to investigate. I was hoping the book would make that Soren’s overall goal, and show how it conflicted with Ostia’s anti-magic laws. But it never happened. Though Soren makes some poor decisions, I still rooted for him, nonetheless. He never forgets that he was once a starving orphan on the streets, which makes you understand his actions when he does things that are, at best, morally questionable. The Tattered Banner is book one of a series, so I hope future volumes will explore the mystery of Soren’s magical Gift with the sword. I did enjoy the book very much because of its action and interesting characters, despite my reservations about the plot structure. Highly recommended. Cross-posted on New Podler Review of Books.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2014 by Robert Steiner