Six Sacred Swords: Weapons and Wielders, Book 1

Reading this book has made something clear about other writing in modern movies and TV: you can tell when an author loves clever characters, loves wit and banter. Andrew Rowe does. Many modern writers do not.The entire book is full of cheerful, almost flirtatious quipping between the main characters. They have sharp enough minds that they aren't playing catch-up with the words that come out of their own mouths; in the time it takes to talk they have analyzed what they said, come up with something else clever to add on to it, or strung together an entire sentence full of alliteration or puns.It's far too rare to see that nowadays. When you compare it to a television show where the format is character line, laugh track, rebuttal, laugh track, you can see a clear difference: Rowe, like me, and I hope like many other fans, genuinely enjoys a quick back-and-forth, with ideas meshing together not only in substance but also in time. You can find plenty of writers who will put together a few one-liners scattered through their book, but Rowe does far more than that.That is something that is a treat to read, and it is how clever, intelligent characters ought to be written. Bravo.

The MC is supposed to be a 20 something man but he acts like a 5 year old anime character. I kept hoping that it would get better towards the end but no. Children have more mental maturity and strategy sense than him. I gave the book an extra star because it was slightly entertaining at times but NO, this book is not worth it.

I stumbled upon the Arcane Ascension series about a year ago and absolutely loved it. Since then I have read all of Andrew Rowe's published books. Six Sacred Swords has brought each of the other series together and starts to fill in all the gaps between the two. I'm so excited for the rest of the series along with the other two! This book is worth way more then what I bought it for!

I am a huge fan of Andrew Rowe, so perhaps that colors my perception of his books, but Six Sacred Swords is an awesome installment into Keras' story prior to the Arcane Ascension series. Unlike the War of Broken Mirrors series and Arcane Ascension series (which you can read or not with little worry of being lost), this book really benefits from reading both Sufficiently Advanced Magic and On the Shoulders of Titans first. Luckily, they're also great, comedic, and action-packed books.

So this book is closer to a 3.5 for me. It wasn't a very long book but felt longer due to how much time was spent on the two dungeon areas. I really enjoy the spires portion of the other series so I'm surprised that this dragged. I guess when the book only has that, it tends to wear thin.The tone of this book is far lighter than Arcane Ascension which was surprising. Lots of banter between the chracters and not a ton of emotional depth. I am excited to learn more about Keras since he's an interesting character but he loses a little bit of his mysterious charm here.He also felt underpowered since his powers should have really been used on all the challenges.Anyways, still a really fun book and expands the world of this series. Interested to read more!

Spin-off series can be hit or miss. Their very nature means that you are stepping away from the main story, one you likely enjoy if you are interested in a spin-off, and spending time in that same world but focused on something new or something that is usually off to the side. Not only does a spin-off need to be good, but good enough that you aren't wishing the author would have simply written the next book in the main series rather than the spin-off. At least in my opinion, Six Sacred Swords accomplishes all of this.Keras is an obvious choice for a spin-off series and having him as a viewpoint character manages to make him more enjoyable rather than less so. I was initially worried that he would be one of those characters who were more interesting the less you knew of him. I'm happy to say that isn't the case. He is the perfect narrator for a more light-hearted and fun series set in the world created by Rowe in the Arcane Ascension novels, Not only is this a great palate cleanser after the much longer and heavier AA novels, it manages to be a blast while adding to the world and answering a few questions along the way. I can't wait for the next one and am desperately hoping that we will get to see the characters introduced in this novel in the main series one day. Reika, in particular, has shot up to the top of my favorite characters list.

This book is a funny, quick-paced adventure story with a (mostly) new cast of great characters in the Arcane Ascension universe. Arcane Ascension books 1 & 2 are some of my favourite books of all time, so, in my humble opinion, it doesn't matter how will this book works as a standalone since you should read AA regardless.I really enjoyed this book, and I'm writing this having just finished my second time reading it (which I almost never do.) This book has lots of over-the-top almost Dragon-Balls level action, and lots of great comedic moments throughout to break up the pacing.I highly recommend it. (After you read AA1-2 first...)

Basically an origin-story-on-this-continent tale for a character shown later in life in the author's Arcane Ascension series and actually introduced in his... what's it called... War of Broken Mirrors series (I think). It's fun enough! The Arcane Ascension books are still my fave out of those, but I don't regret the time I spent reading this and I'll prob grab the next one once it's out.

As someone who has read Andrew Rowe's previous title, this book was a delicious delightful dessert.Told from the perspective of someone telling a story to a bunch of kids on a long journey, the voice of the story is always finding humour and turning a phrase every other paragraph to entertain his audience and thus makes the whole book very easy to read and hard to put down.A fresh start to another series of books within the Rowe universe of tales and I'm very excited to read more!

While I do like the story and light-hearted writing style, I find it extremely annoying and distracting that the author uses "they" as long as someones gender has not been established.This started in the main series with a gender fluid character and is continued here. Either the author or someone close to him is transgender or transitioning or something or this is supposed to cater to a very specific clientele. To most others like me it is annoying and dampens the enjoyment I could have from this, especially as it doesn't add anything good to the story whatsoever.

I really enjoyed the other two works the author has put out in this world, but sadly this one missed the mark. There's a number of concerns I could go into, but ultimately I think it failed for a single reason--none of the characters took the book seriously.I am completely okay with humor and comic relief, and really enjoy some of the author's jokes, but there's a fundamental rule that's missed here--comedy requires a 'straight man'. Someone has to be taking the situation seriously, in order to make the jokes land. Sadly the three main characters are all ridiculous, basically all the time in this book. There are multiple times where it's literally several pages in a row of three characters bantering.This is a problem in any comedic medium, as 'comedic relief' specifically implies you're being relieved from seriousness for a time; if the seriousness never occurs, it's just endless goofiness. However this is monumentally more important in the fantasy genre. Readers are already suspending disbelief just to enjoy a fantasy world. If the characters themselves don't even take it seriously, how can the reader? The characters continuously joking about the protagonist being an archetypal hero is a prime example.The author's second work was a clear step forward from his first. The stakes were higher, the characters took the story more seriously, and there was more focus on character development than jokes, but sadly this felt like a clear step backwards. I really hope the author find his course again, because I *want* to believe in the world he's creating, I * want* to be pulled in and get lost in the story and the characters. There's always room for humor, but you can't be pulled into a world when you're continuously being reminded that it's just a book.

Who doesn't like big, brawny dudes and awesome, romance-loving dragons being badass and fighting?I sure as hell love it.Getting a glimpse behind the veil that is Keras is interesting, fun, and a good bit of story telling and world building.I wasn't as in love with the fact Keras is telling this to the SAM crew, but that was easy to overlook and didn't detract from the story.Overall, very good story. Very enjoyable.

I didn't expect the trainride to be quite this extensive, when I was done reading "On the shoulders of titans". Well I'm happy it was. Now I'm eben more hyped for the next arcane ascension book.