The Sword Triumphant by Gareth Hanrahan

Book Review

Sarah Deeming

Old Alf of Mulladale is regarded as a solid man. Dependable, reliable, strong, if a bit dim. But he is hiding a secret. In his youth, he was the Lammegeier, the legendary hero. One of the Nine who defeated Lord Bone and saved the world from darkness. The wielder of the demon sword, Spellbreaker. All that is behind Alf now. He no longer has Spellbreaker, and he is content with fixing the barn roof, drinking in the local inn in the evenings, and training the young people how to defend themselves.

But heroes can never retire. A face from his past arrives unexpectedly with a message from one of the Nine whom Alf had thought dead, asking for Alf’s aid and for him to bring Spellbreaker. Alf has no choice; he must answer the call, no matter how old he is, and get back his sword. However, now in his seventies, the world is not the one of Alf’s youth. The land is a lawless patchwork of fiefdoms and bandits. The Lammegeier’s name is no longer respected, and his knees are not the same. Nor is he the only person looking for the sword. Time may have finally caught up with the Lammegeier.

If you have read my reviews of The Sword Defiant and The Sword Unbound, then you will know how much I loved them. Elves are not pure creatures, but dark and manipulative, with some of them becoming vampires to extend their already long lives. Instead of giving us the story of Alf defeating Lord Bone, we have the story of the power rebalance that followed, along with the political jockeying for more wealth and power. At the start of the series, Alf is in his forties, with all the scars and aches and world-weariness of someone who yearns for simpler days when all he had to do was kill monsters.

The Sword Triumphant goes one step further and gives us a man in his seventies with aching knees, a bad back and a lifetime of regrets. He doesn’t have the strength to swing a sword anymore, which brings a new dynamic to the fantasy genre.

My favourite aspect has always been the sword, Spellbreaker. A sentient weapon, it knows it is a sword and wants to be used. It is neither good nor bad; its sole motivation is to be used, and Alf regularly battles against Spellbreaker’s encouragement to violence. Nothing has changed in The Sword Triumphant save that Spellbreaker is bitter that Alf abandoned him, and Alf’s age has left him needing the strength Spellbreaker can give him more than ever. Their changed relationship is a natural evolution for them after what has gone before.

The Sword Triumphant takes us to a landscape which has been irreparably changed by Alf’s actions, this time from the end of The Sword Unbound rather than a battle that happened before the first book in the series. There is no central law structure in place, a dystopian world where the elves, humans, and dwarves are all separated, focusing on their own internal affairs and not interested in working together. The main religion has fallen, and the paladins and clerics are powerless, and magic has faded, leaving wizards impotent. The world-building is spectacular. Hanrahan goes into great detail, expanding the familiar places from the previous two books to a broken shadow of themselves. He also brings back characters from the earlier books, so we discover what happened to prominent characters, like Lord Vond, with whom Alf regularly butted heads throughout the other novels.

The Sword Defiant begins with Alf receiving a prophetic message about a new darkness rising, and it culminates in The Sword Triumphant. It is an emotional story and a satisfying conclusion to one of my favourite series of recent years, with an ending fitting for such a sweeping tale of the pitfalls of heroism. This is an epic series perfect for fans of Tolkien and David Gemmell, full of memorable characters, politics, betrayals and companionship. Highly recommended.