The Binding of the Blade Series by L. B. Graham
Publisher: P&R
Publishing®
Summery:
[From the back cover
of Beyond the Summerland]
Forged to kill and
wielded to survive, the blade has bound them all…
It was foretold after
Malek’s first fall that twice more he would bring war, and that the last time,
the very waters of the sea would obey him and fight for him. If this be so,
then I cannot imagine how Sulare will escape his wrath…
Introduction:
Since classes have started back, reading has been pushed to
the back burner, so to speak. I’m currently reading three books, and I plan on
reviewing at least one of them, but I have no idea when I’ll finish. So, I
decided, since I don’t want to have a huge gap between updates on this blog (or
longer than what I usually have), I will review some of the books on my shelf
that I read quite a while back, maybe even years back! There are many great
books on my shelf, and a lot of my favorites are not very well known. Which is
a shame, because they were awesome, amazing, and epic! I figured this time, I
would review one of my absolute favorite series back in my early teens. The first
one was published back in 2004, and last one in 2008. It seems like such a long
time ago, doesn’t it? I found the first book, Beyond the Summerland, in the local Christian bookstore maybe a
year after it came out. Back then, I was obsessed with The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles
of Narnia, Dragons in our Midst,
and pretty much anything else that had to do with fantasy and dragons. Reading
the description, this seemed like something very much like The Lord of the Rings, and back then, I compared everything to
Tolkien’s trilogy. No, nothing ever matched up to it, which is why I stopped
comparing and started judging books for themselves. When I started the book, I
was completely absorbed into the world L. B. Graham created. It wasn’t like
LOTR really, there were no elves, dwarves, or hobbits to be found, but the grandeur
of the story reminded me of Tolkien. This isn’t a light read, since the books
are 400-500 pages long, and packed with detail, story, and characters. The
other books were harder for me to find. I searched in vain for them at every bookstore
I came to, but never found them. I then had to order them from the Christian
Book Distributers website. That experience is why I hate ordering anything
online. My copy of Bringer of Storms,
the sequel, has a tear in the binding, and the bottom of the cover looked like
it had been smashed. I was very upset when the book arrived in that condition,
but I immediately went to reading it. The rest of the books, Shadow in the Deep, Father of Dragons, and All My
Holy Mountain were also ordered from CBD, but fortunately arrived in better
condition.
Characters:
There were so many characters in these books, both good and
evil. However, I will only discuss a few of the main ones, since trying to
write about all of them would take almost forever. And I think I’ll just
discuss those in the first book, since most of them are still major throughout
the series. Firstly, there’s Joraiem, who is a young man of the Novaana, which
are like the ruling class of people in this world. He is also skilled in using
his bow, which he calls Suruna. (Archers FTW!) Joraiem is the main character,
and the story follows him as he leaves his home to head for the Summerland,
where young Novaana go to train and prepare for the time they will have to lead
and make decisions for their people. He meets a man named Aljeron, who is also
a Novaana. He has a mysterious past, which is evidenced by the three large scars
on the side of his face. Aljeron also has a tiger friend, named Koshti, who is
always at his side and helps him in battle. And seriously, who’d want to mess
with a guy with a tiger? I loved Koshti though. He was actually one of my
favorite characters, even if he wasn’t human. While in the Summerland, Joraiem
also meets Wylla, who is the princess of Enthanin, the country in the east, and
Rulalin, who becomes another good friend of Joraiem’s. There is a problem
however, because both young men fall in love with Wylla! Talk about tension,
and this leads to something unexpected later. There is also a blind prophet
named Valzaan. He is a lot like a wizard actually, except he speaks Allfather’s
will. Allfather is the god of this world.
My Thoughts:
I was literally obsessed with this series growing up, and I
know a few people who would testify to that. It had the scope of LOTR that I
was looking for, and a clear Christian message that added the extra depth to
it. A person can learn a lot about sacrifice and faith by reading these books,
and a lesson like that is something that will stick with you for all time. One
doesn’t have to be Christian to enjoy this however, there’s still a marvelous
world to explore with amazing people and creatures. Yes, this world is
populated by more than just humans. There are dragons, giant talking bears (who
are original to anything I’ve ever read before or since), and evil creatures
like giants and Malekim, which could give an Uruk-hai a run for its money. Also,
there is a giant snake, which you can see on the cover of the third book. That
scene is exciting and tense, especially since it involves my favorite character
out of the whole series. There is also the most unexpected and shocking of all
plot twists at the end of Beyond the
Summerland that probably has ever been in fiction. Seriously, L. B. Graham,
I never thought something like that would happen! There are a lot of tense and
sad moments, so if you’re one who easily cries, I would suggest keeping a box
of tissues with you. You won’t know what will happen, or who will live or die
during this war. I love that sense of uncertainty in stories.
Not all my thoughts on this are positive, however. Reading
the book can get tedious, just because it is so detailed. If you can read stuff
like The Lord of the Rings, you
probably won’t have a problem with this then. I had read LOTR before this, so
it kind of prepared me, and it’s actually an easier read since it’s written for
young adults. Another thing about it that I didn’t care for was how the
characters talked. The book has this fantastical setting, exotic names, many
fantasy elements, but then you get characters speaking like they’re from modern
day America. It doesn’t have an old world feel to it when they speak. They
don’t say things like, “dude” or “cool” or “Hey, s’up?” but it’s still too
informal. I was eventually able to look over that though, even though it still
felt odd to me. There are parts when it seems to get bogged down, especially
when Valzaan lead this religious ritual that involves a lot of talking and a
lot of repeating what was said. Doing it one time was ok, it showed a part of
their culture, but when it happened a second and possibly a third time in the
series, it grew very boring and I found myself skimming over it. Aside from
those three points, not much else to complain about, unless you want to say
something about hard to pronounce names, but there is a glossary in the back of
the book, so you can breathe a sigh of relief there.
There is this one other thing I didn’t like about the
series: All My Holy Mountain. I can’t
say what I didn’t like about it because it involves spoilers, major spoilers, but
the last book was definitely the worst book in my opinion. Disappointing for me
since I thought each book was better and better. My favorite being Shadow in the Deep! There was so much
about that book that I thought was awesome, but again, I can’t say because of
spoilers. ;)
Warnings:
No language, no witchcraft, no adult themes. It’s completely
decent in those respects. These books do have descriptive violence though. It’s
a war going on, so there’s lots of blood and people getting hurt. It’s not
terrible, but appropriate for teen to adult readers.
My Age Rating: 13
and up (Teenagers would probably enjoy this more than adults, but I’d still
recommend it to them no matter their age.)
Sorry there are no pictures in this post. I couldn't upload anything. If you want to see what the covers look like, check out the site below. It's the main site for the series.
~Cya!
