Series Business

Around the turn of the century, Dave Duncan put together a series of nine novels about a group of swordsmen and bodyguards called "the King's Blades." They concerned the kingdom of Chivial and the best swordsmen on the planet, the dedicated and magic-marked fighters who wore the name of the King's Blades. Each of them was governed by a magic spell and supernaturally empowered to guard their different wards, who had bonded with them by piercing the Blade's heart during the incantation. There were six adult and three young-adult-styled novels, and when Duncan finished them with 2004's The Jaguar Knights, he moved on to other series and worlds.

But fortunately for fans of the series, he discovered he had at least one more tale of Chivial and its gallant knights left to tell, and released it in 2017 as One Velvet Glove. When three Blades are "retired" from their duties and freed from their enchantment, they find themselves with one real skill -- fighting -- that has a limited market value in a relatively peaceful time. Sir Rhys, Sir Sharp and Sir Trusty decide to visit Rhys' father, the Blade Sir Spender, to learn more about a possible lost treasure he had a hand in once. The bulk of The Velvet Glove is Spender telling the story of the treasure to the three younger men, and then all four uniting to seek its present whereabouts and allay their poverty-stricken existence.

Duncan's return to Chivial is just as witty, heroic and swashbuckling as the earlier books -- the influence of Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks is strong and well-used. Our heroes quip bravely in a melee, fight ferociously for their comrades and their wards and outwit villains with their brains as much as their swordpoints. Sometimes Duncan's addition of some more modern aspects to his suave, swaggering swordsmen jar a little, but he manages to fit them into the story properly and not overwrite those details so much it gets distasteful. Velvet Glove's story is a little murkier than some of the earlier books but not enough to dampen the fun.

Duncan passed away in 2018 but not before announcing he had another Blades adventure ready to go. When The Ethical Swordsman releases later this year, the series sadly will come to an end. But unlike so much fantasy writing published today, tales of the King's Blades reward re-reading, as the dashing heroes (and no few heroines) of Chivial are only marginally less fun to travel with when we know the destination than when we don't.

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Although some sense of normalcy is coming to Peter Ash's life -- his PTSD-induced claustrophobia has eased considerably as he has been keeping company with June Cassidy -- he is still restless and not always comfortable staying in one place. June asks him to help her friend Wanda Wyatt, a war correspondent/photographer in Memphis who's been receiving strange threats. When Peter arrives he finds the threat partially realized, as someone has driven a dump truck into Wanda's house. Finding the threat and dealing with it -- as well as dealing with the theft of his truck by a youthful offender he doesn't really want to have to hurt -- will occupy Peter plenty in Nick Petrie's fourth novel, Tear It Down.

Petrie says in his acknowledgments that he wanted to write a book touching on race issues in today's south, and he both does and doesn't. Or rather, he doesn't do it very well. The title, Tear It Down, refers to what some of the villains want to do to Wanda's house in order to find what they're looking for on its site. It's also a phrase heard a lot in the last year or two regarding statues that honor Conferederate war veterans or leaders, said in opposition to those who claim such monuments and statues are only celebrations of heritage and history. Given that the main motivator in the plot against Wanda is an issue of supposed heritage connected to a well-known Confederate figure, the parallel has large signs pointing to it to be sure we don't miss it. The subplot with the young thief, a boy trapped in Memphis's underworld by his own poverty and the city's economic stagnation, is also best described as "unsubtle."

Tear It Down seems loose and unfocused, with a strung-together plot that is busier fitting the author's agenda than it is in fitting together. Petrie's writing is still great, with Peter's friend Lewis showing up to provide help in his borderline unlawful manner and a shoot-em-up car chase that probably can't be equaled unless you start comparing it to movies. Probably with some more eye on narrative or more time to let his ideas develop, Petrie could have written an excellent suspense novel with some commentary on race in the U.S. As it is, he's written one that's not much above "meh."