The Golden Sword
by Fiona Patton
Reviewed by Coral
This is the fourth book published but the first book chronologically in the Branion Realm series.
Camden DeKathrine has always felt out of place in his family. Having a great affinity for the Wind, he wishes that he could be dedicated to that Aspect, but as a squire to his older brother Alec, he is instead dedicated to the Flame.
After the death of his father, Cam feels even more adrift. He finds himself drawn to one of his cousins, Danielle DeKathrine who notices his connection to the Wind and reveals her own connection to the Sea. Invited to spend the summer with Danielle and her father, his Uncle Celestus, and two other cousins staying with Celestus Quinton DeKathrine and Alisha DeMarian, Camden finds himself drawn into a heretical conspiracy that threatens to destabilize the Prophetic Realms ad destroy the DeMarian family itself. I found this book to be quite boring. I felt that there wasn’t really a lot that happened in the story. There was too much time spent on Camden and his cousins training and, for me, not enough time spent on the actual conspiracy. I don’t think the book was helped by being mainly set six years after the initial conspiracy and then flashing back first to when Camden and his cousins first came together and formed their circle. I feel there is no suspense when in the first couple of pages I’m told what the result is of their past plotting and even who died before the flashbacks catch up to this point. Later on in the “present” it's revealed that someone involved in the conspiracy has escaped their prison, basically again removing all suspense from the flashbacks on their fate in the past. Although I complained about the time jumps in book three, given the smaller time frame in this book I think that the book should have been told in that narrative form. It could have started when Camden met his cousins, spent some time on their training, then jumped to the initial failed conspiracy, spent more time on the years in between the failed conspiracy and the “present” main time of the novel and then to the escape and all of the actions that followed. I actually think that if the book had spent more time exploring the relationship between Camden and his family after his initial arrest I could have understood his decisions in the last section of the book, especially considering some of his earlier actions seem to be in conflict with his later actions. Though the flashbacks were supposed to be told mainly from Camden’s point of view as he is telling his story to a friend, there are some flashback chapters told from other people’s point of views. Given this, I wish there would have been some chapters from the point of view of his cousins and fellow conspirators. Out of the six books I have read from Fiona Patton I am actually a little shocked that I’ve only kept and really enjoyed two. I like a lot of aspects about her worlds, like how gendr equality is a normal part of them, where men and women can be soldiers, lords or rulers without anyone thinking anything of it. I also like how sexuality is handled in her stories, with everyone pretty much being bisexual or it not really mattering the gender of the person you love. I just wish that some of her stories were better plotted. Grade: C
