fan-fiction written by the author for the lovers of the original Seventh Sword series.
Doesn't stand so well on itw own two feet, but works fine as a lightweight coda to the main epic.
to be continued ... (sorry, I'm on the phone connection for the next month or so, so my might be shorter than usual)

Wally Smith died in our world and woke up as Shonsu, a master swordsman, in the world of the Goddess where a mighty river encircles the planet and deities interfere in the fate of mortals. His adventures are recounted in the original Seventh Sword trilogy: first his acceptance of his role as world saviour, next his quest to solve the riddle of prophecy guiding his future, and lastly putting a stop to the ancient conflict between swordsmen (rigid traditionalists and despotic rulers) and the sorcerers (technology oriented innovators, but equally ruthless autocrats).

At the end of the original three novels, Shonsu establishes a fragile truce between the two sides and passes the mantle of power to his fiery friend Nnanji, tasked with overhauling the social system along the river, bringing the swordsmen under control and opening the doors to progress from feudalism into industrial revolution.

I hesitated a long time in picking up the sequel, because I didn't feel it was needed and also because the title ticked me off, implying the death of one of my favorite characters. But it turned out reasonably fine:
The action takes place fifteen years after the final events in The Destiny of the Sword. As predicted, WAllysmith's plan worked as intended, the swordmen are gathered under the banner of Nnanji, they expanded from isolated city states into a formidable empire and the truce with the sorcerers is holding, for now. Yet assassins attack both Nnanji and Wally/Shonsu and ambush their army exploring a new section of the river. Nnanji is left at death's door and Shonsu is forced to pick up the magical Seventh Sword again in order to lead a retaliation expedition against Kra, the sorcerer fortress opposing the pact.

A younger generation picks up the story thread, as a lot of the novel is told through the eyes of the sons of Shonsu and Nnanji. The narrative is more broken in alternative points of view than the original trilogy, including the adversaries angle told through several characters. The style itself remains clear, concise and entertaining with numerous flashes of humour needed to relieve the darker theme of all out war and a further development of the theme of industrial revolution. I felt let down though by the ending, who was a tad too cookie-cut convenient and upbeat given the ominous title.
All in all, a good choice for the fans of the original story, as I already mentioned in the intro.
201413 s Sean Randall1,952 44

"Come and stand at my right hand, son. Push that stupid swordsman out of the way."

It was a wonderful and strange experience for me, reading a new work in an already established, and hither too done with, world. Being late to the Duncan party I usually get to have the whole series at once, and plow through them with reckless abandon.

It's been exactly 1,191 days since I first picked up a Dave Duncan book; it was January 2009 and those first five days, when I consumed the then Seventh Sword Trilogy, will forever remain etched in my memory. I moved on to other works, and I think I prefer some of the others, but I did come back to the world of the Goddess and have read them at least twice since then.

So what of this forth installment, you ask? Well, it's as near a perfect novel as you could wish. A strong story, the characters we all know and love already, and some of Duncan's greatest hallmarks thrown in when the man is, undeniably, at the very top of his game.

Batty, fruit-cake-style monarchs, for instance; we've seen them cantankerous, indecisive, delightfully vindictive and everything in between and Arganari here does not disappoint. It's also a very clever use of what was a minor but poignant character from the earlier trilogy, bringing in the Arganari family with such flair. But what else can you expect of this genius of an author?

Then, there's the sublimely written characters. Duncan's always had a thing for bringing his characters through Adolescence, if not physically then emotionally. He takes the coming of age of a character, intertwines it with a problem of the world and lets his imagination and wit roam free and it shows in many of his works. Here, Addis and Vixini are in the limelight and I can't remember when I've enjoyed reading about characters quite so much.

Then, of course, there's Liege Lord Shonsu, Swordsman of the Seventh rank, who's world this was until the kids started to grow up. I must admit I wondered how Duncan would handle it, with an aging lead who must of necessity slow down physically in a world where the physical is everything. And yet I needn't have worried, for Shonsu never felt written in to fill a gap or just because his presence was expected.

I won't espouse anymore: if you haven't read the series and think you might enjoy it, this is a most worthy addition thereto. I've tried not to spoil anything whilst giving my impressions, so will simply conclude by saying that it's been a long time since I bought a book with every intention of staying awake until I'd read it on the eve of purchase. Even longer since that book has actually lived up to and surpassed every expectation. What more can a reader ask?5 s Kathleen1,370 29

Swordsman of the Seventh Rank and Chancellor of the Tryst, Lord Shonsu / Wallie Smith returns to fight another sorcerer uprising, this time on a different loop of the endless River, from a different coven, in the distant cities of Plo, Fex, and Soo. These nasty sorcerers have no spells or potions, only technology disguised as magic, including gunpowder, poisons, writing, acids, matches, etc. But they can't fool Wallie Smith — formerly a chemical engineer from Earth — and his son Vixini and oath-nephew Addis are no pushovers, either.

This book is set 15 years after the Destiny of the Sword. It features many characters from the prequels, including Shonsu’s oath brother emperor Nnanji, his wife Thana, his brother Kitanji, Shonsu’s wife Jja, her baby Vixini — now a mid level swordsman at 16 years. It also features Nnanji's eldest son Addis, who plays a surprising role. Twisty turns in the plot.

Complaints and Quibbles:
This series portrays women as sex toys, mainly. This book, not so much, but it’s still in there, and I was totally disgusted by Kitanji and an adolescent girl.
This series, especially this book. Yet maps are almost impossible because the River Goddess moves position.
All the complicit sorcerers should have been severely punished for multiple murders, including slaughtering children, women, a whole town.
The inventions are coming one after another, relatively fast. But okay.
Narrator didn't pronounce Jja and Nnanji correctly.
Ebook has quite a few typos, punctuation errors, probably due to digital formatting glitches.asian-themes audio fantasy ...more5 s Metaphorosis819 57

3 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews

Wallie Smith, reincarnated as Shonsu of the Seventh Sword, is now the deputy head of a widespread Tryst of peace. When his principal Nnanji is attacked and badly injured, the entire Tryst risks coming apart unless Wallie can find a clever solution.

The Seventh Sword was Dave Duncan's first fantasy trilogy, and not a particularly good one. With The Death of Nnanji, he revisits the world with a great deal more authorial experience. Unfortunately, little of it shows.

I'm a fan of Dave Duncan, but the original Seventh Sword trilogy was badly flawed and unsatisfying. I had hopes that this fourth, additional volume would see Duncan bringing his wealth of experience to bear in a way that would resurrect the series. In practice, the book went the other way - drowning Duncan's experience in all the flaws of the original trilogy.

As always, the story is light and quick to read. Wallie/Shonsu tries to bring his engineering experience to bear on World problems, but fails to take the culture fully into account. The result is disappointing and formulaic - setback, solution, setback, solution, with no great effort at credibility. To complicate matters, by this last book I've given up on understanding the geography of the World and its river, never well explained. Though travel is important to the plot, I just ignored the parts where Wallie talks about how you can get from here to there, but not there to here. None of it really made sense.

This was a book that didn't need to be written. Duncan resurrects some backstory, and the plot ties in reasonably well, but there's really not much new presented here. There's some nice wrap-up that the original trilogy was missing, but it wasn't really vital to have.

Substantively, the book is a modest continuation of the story, but it feels a bit tacked on. Duncan appears to lose track of some of his own world's rules (a king ordering a swordsman reeve to do something), and the treatment of women hasn't improved much (though this is a pretty male-focused story).

I had hoped for more - particularly, more evidence of Duncan's skill and maturity as a writer, but it doesn't show up. If you d the original trilogy, you'll this. For anyone else, there's no strong reason to buy the book.

_
As so often, this is one of Open Road's apparently un-proofread books - there are frequent typos.
2015-rev reviewed2 s Mitchell Friedman5,023 202

The fourth book in a completed trilogy that I read for the Endeavour. I really didn't want to this book. Prior to this year I had read a few books by Dave Duncan, none of which I d - but this year I've read three for the Endeavour and they are all good. This one is a world somewhat reminiscent of River World with a character that apparently parachuted in sort of John Carter with rules of life vaguely the Rules of Acquisition and a bringing of technology somewhat a Lest Darkness Fall or perhaps a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. With kind of a silly plot with loads of Deus Ex Machina. But it came across as a pretty good story that was just plain fun to read. As a fan of this series, I'd have to think this book is probably a gift-wrapped present. Is this exactly what I to read? No. But it was certainly good enough. 3.5 of 5. author-d borrowed endeavour ...more2 s Kevin KingAuthor 1 book58

I love the original trilogy, but if this book didn't have Dave Duncan's name on it I would think someone else wrote it. Besides the blatant grammatical errors, which could have just been poor editing, there is also a marked difference in style. Either this work was really rushed and sloppy, or Duncan let one of his grandchildren write it and then published it in his own name.
The writing was clumsy, sometimes to the point of being completely nonsensical. The plot was contrived and only semi-believable. The action scenes were described so poorly I couldn't even really picture what was happening. The dialogue was contrived and mostly juvenile, even when it wasn't one of the juvenile characters speaking. The descriptions were muddled, and full of random modern American slang that doesn't really fit the setting of the story. Even little things the names of the characters was very hit and miss. A few of them were okay, but really - a street-fighting female swordsman named 'Helbringr?' "...the name did not mean what it would sound in English." If you have to state that, then you shouldn't use the name. And someone in charge of a small boat whose name is 'Capn?' Even the character who heard it was confused about whether it was his name or his title. Things ending a sentence with "..., but." In the middle of a dialogue between a boy and a girl there is this lovely gem of a sentence which doesn't even seem connected to the dialogue or the situation - "Stupid, stupid slut, she was." Or this very imaginative description - "He saw one that looked cleaner and sleeker than the rest, with two men in it, doing whatever it was that sailors did in boats." Or this one as a lead-in to dialogue while eating - "Gnaw, chew, swallow..." Those are some prime examples, but not a single sentence in the book is something I would consider well-crafted, which is quite a change from the original trilogy. Sure it was all light fiction, but the first books had a poetry about them that this one completely lacks.

I gave it two stars because it did wrap up the loose ends of the trilogy fairly well, and it wasn't quite so terrible as to be unreadable. But the terrible writing did make it almost unreadable - I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone.1 Robert RunteAuthor 30 books20

I read the original books in this series when they first came out, nearly 25 years ago, so when I first read The Death of Nnanji, I couldn't actually remember the first three books, but nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed the novel. So it is perfectly possible to read The Death of Nnanji without actually knowing who Nnanji is or any of the history that has gone before. However, I urge you to start with the previous three books in the series because they are quite wonderful novels, and reading the Death of Nnanji would give away too many of the surprises. (I went back and reread all three anyway, and thoroughly enjoyed them, spoilers notwithstanding.) This has always been Duncan's best selling series, and stands up incredibly well. Absolutely archetypal fantasy.

Back to Death of Nnaji: The fourth book in the series takes place 15 years after the events in the first three volumes, so the viewpoint character is older, more mature, so the novel has a slightly different tone. I don't think it gives too much away to say it's about passing the torch to the next generation, so this fourth volume introduces a couple of new viewpoint characters who pick up the action. Fans of the original series should find book four equally entertaining, and if their hero is a little past it, the youngsters more than make up for it.

What struck me, however, is that even though the original series was written over 25 years ago, the plot elements here all mesh with clues from those early books. This or that passing remark from some character there turns out to be the basis of the story here. Remarkable!

So: excellent story of swordsmen in a changing world, wonderful addition to the series. canadian-sf-f edited-by-robert-runte1 Baron Rothschild221 44

Amazing series. It's a book about talent, having no pride and having true love and making your children greater than you are...excellent read...1 Kes2,069 48

I d this sequel - it picks up on Nnanji's Empire, how people are getting older and slower. Nnanji is still wielding the seventh sword when he is hurt. Shonsu/Wallie are picked to lead the revenge against the sorcerers, who have been planning this.

There's another happy and peaceful ending here - Nnanji's son is installed/adopted as the next prince, the right people die, and Nnanji manages to recover from his wounds. This is less overtly religious / magical then the previous book (where Wallie knew the gods were involved).

I d this series for its focus on the fighting aspect of fantasy. fiction read-2022 Alan1,490

Book 4 of the binge read. This takes place 16 years or so after the events of The Destiny of the Sword. Most of the action passes on to the children of Shonsu/Wallie and Nnanji, his friend and blood brother. The sorcerers in the south have restarted the war with the Swordsmen, and Nnanji has been given what appears to be a mortal wound by an assassin. As Shonsu/Wallie heads out to deal with the sorcerers, he takes along his adopted son Vixini, a swordsman of the 3rd rank, and Nnjani's son Addis, who has just joined the Swordsman as a novice. This is their story Astra Astrid369 1 follower

I've been doing a re-read of this series; I remember reading a fourth, in which Shonsu is the reeve of that quasi Elizabethan town he d. I don't think this is that book. So, unless I was hallucinating, or this is it, there must be a fifth. Maybe a novella?

I guess I'll figure it out... eventually.

Finished. It would appear that I haven't read this book, previously. I'm not sure quite how that happened, but none of it was familiar. And I still have no idea what the story I thought I read, the one with a retired Shonsu, might have been.

Ok, so the actual story was... well, if you d the previous ones, chances are you'll this one. It has a lot more action, and is almost a stand-alone, un the previous 3. Of course, reading it without having read the trilogy would deprive one of the... attachment... one would have made to the characters, but I think it would be possible to follow the story, given that the action takes place an entire generation later. BRT1,600

A nice closure to the saga taking place 15 years after the last book. The Tryst is going strong. Everyone is happy, or are they? Both Shonsu & Nnanji are victims of assassination attempts. Now Nnanji is near death and Shonsu reluctantly takes back the reins of power. This time, the next generation solves the problem. Shonsu & Nnanji's sons end the war and carry civilization into a brighter future. All in a shorter time and with less effort & killing than their parents took. John5,630 5

When i think of Dave Duncan first thing that comes to mind is fun.I that his books aren't overly complicated,his characters are relatable,and he paints a very visual picture of his worlds.The Seventh Sword is his signature series and this is the final book and wrapped up the complete saga in a way that was very satisfying.If you your fantasy with plenty of laughs and lots of heart look no further then The Seventh Sword series. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full reviewfantasy novels-2020 Ray210 2

Dave Duncan's 'The Seventh Sword' series turned out to be a big winner with me. The 4th book is set some years later. Several of the younger characters are now grown and with children of their own. Nnanji, who seemed unly to make it through Book 3, is finally near his end, and the concluding book of the series wraps everything and everyone up in a touching and heartwarming way. I look forward to reading more of Dave Duncan's work in the future. fantasy-adventure Nance Roepke794 4

I almost didn't read this book but I am so glad that I did. I had read the first three books in the series. I really d the first one a great deal but I thought books 2 and 3 dragged a bit. And the quest was finished in book 3. Book 4 is actually 15 years later and since I had gotten a little bored with the story, I almost didn't read book 4. But it is extremely well done. Definitely a four and edging up to a four and a half. Martin575

This was better than I expected, having read some pretty scathing goodreads before deciding to reserve it from the library. I wouldn’t say it had nearly as many of the unexpected twists and turns that made the earlier books in the original trilogy great, but I wasn’t disappointed either, and it was just as much of a page turner. Roy660 3

What a fantastic end to the series! Although the last book would have served well as an ending to the series (and it was actually meant to be), but this book really brought a wealth of meaning to the prophecies of the end of the third book. And it was all very well done!

I think that I recommend this book above the other three! Very well done!! Douglas Debner873 14

This is a solidly enjoyable story. When viewed as a part of the whole series it is almost a nostalgic wrapping up of the story. It seemed a sincere attempt to put icing on the cake for readers and not some cynical attempt to get another 10 bucks out them. Bryan5 1 follower

Read this trilogy in 1988 when it first came out and thoroughly enjoyed it. I missed seeing that Duncan had written a fourth book in 2012, luckily the whole thing showed up in my free and cheap ebook list. The last was the best. It was a perfect wrap-up to the series. Dan Lewis121 2

This is probably the last time I'll read this book or the others in this series.

The swashes definitely buckle, but that doesn't feel enough.

Wallie has a unique perspective from his life on Earth, but his native language, it doesn't translate. He is not a revolutionary, per se. He works to transform his new world inside of the confines of its caste society, content to live with its givens. His new gods leave him to struggle and punish him for failure. His contribution is his engineering inheritance.

In this story, we get The Seventh Sword: The Next Generation. Instead of meditations from an older, wiser Wallie on time and change, the unbroken circle of heroes revolves. The most powerful women are wives.

After following the series for many years, this feels anticlimactic. I have d other Dave Duncan books, but I don't think this work is his best. Ken173

I was so happy when I saw that there was a book 4 to this favorite series of my formative year. Now I am sorry I did. Mr. Duncan was correct there was nothing for him left to write here. My original review was too harsh, but this was a book for the most part that didn’t need to be written. Chip860 52

A weak and unnecessary late addition to the original trilogy (which I read at least years, and maybe decades, ago). No suspense, no drama, no depth of character, etc etc. fantasy Marsha Fuller46 7

A fitting end to a righteous and just ruler and bringer of peace through industrial revolution! Mike Chombeau23

fun seriesfantasy Septentrion231 4

I loved this book. I found it even better than the original trilogy.fantasy John Krippel8

Dave Duncan is one of my favorite authors. I have loved everything of his I have read, and this is no exception. Chris Hicks51

Good end to a good series

This was a fitting end to a wonderful series. I really enjoyed going back to the world of the Goddess.2019 Julie261 7

Wow, this was great! About halfway through it becomes un-put-downable. Though the title is a cheap trick to get people to buy it. It's a great book nevertheless. Jennifer LeeAnn Jones147 2

An original idea for a series and I really enjoyed it. I've actually read it a couple of times. Joel627 15

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