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Title: Reread and Not as Good as I Remember
Review: I hadn't read this in about 20 years but decided to try it again. I really do like many of Bradley's Darkover books, especially the Renunciate books. However, The Spell Sword, one of her earlier works, has little depth to its characters and is not as well written as her later books. As another reviewer said, The Forbidden Tower, which I really like, has these same characters. The Forbidden Tower was published 3 years later and Bradley had improved her character and plot development skills most satisfactorily by then. The Spell Sword left me feeling unsatisfied and frustrated with the weak characters presented in the book. What little informationthe Spell Sword has can be found in later, much more well-written books.Its most interesting to read the Darkover books in chronological order (as listed at various websites), but you can skip this book and go directly to The Forbidden Tower and you would not have missed anything.
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