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The One Kingdom (Swans' War)
 
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The One Kingdom (Swans' War) (Hardcover)

by Sean Russell (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 560 pages
  • Publisher: Orbit (18 Jan 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841490202
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841490205
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.8 x 4.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 705,892 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #12 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > R > Russell, Sean

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
The One Kingdom, the first volume of the "Swans' War" sequence, takes us to a land cut into a myriad of small valleys by an endlessly curving and treacherous river which sometimes wanders out of reality. Selfish nobles have reduced the land to barbarism and poverty with their feuding over what is no longer even credibly a throne--even the honourable Arden and Dease are plotting to kill their much-loved kinsman for trying to make a peace with enemies they will not trust. And into this mess of arranged marriages and evil henchmen and blind minstrel lords wander three young men from the further reaches of the valleys looking for the man who pilfered the minor treasures they had gleaned from old battlefields, a man who is more than he seems and whose enemies are not people to whose attention one wishes to come. Russell is setting things up for the long haul here, and yet this is a book full of set pieces and a sense of the bloody past haunting the present like a nightmare. We find ourselves caring passionately about minor characters: a disfigured noblewoman who attends a ball behind a mask and the minstrels casually butchered by a dark magician's hired thugs. --Roz Kaveney

STEPHEN DONALDSON
'A master of intelligent fantasy subtle, wellcrafted and gripping.'

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy fresh air, 5 Jun 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: The One Kingdom (Swans' War) (Paperback)
Like the previous reviewers I was finding much fantasy writing stale (I was reading Stone of Tears at the same time as The One Kingdom which proved a useful contrast). The One Kingdom is a marvellous, leisurely paced book without many of the usual fantasy cliches. You get a real sense that the main characters are being slowly but irresistably drawn into a greater story with its origins in the distant past. The magic is low key evoking mystery rather than wizz bang pyrotechnics. I can't wait for the second part! Knights of the Vow = Knights Templar?
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Yes Yes Yes, 2 April 2002
This review is from: The One Kingdom (Swans' War) (Paperback)
Fantasy in the last couple of years has become a little jaded, with very little written that comes as close to perfection as "The one Kingdon" (with the possible exception of a "Fools Errand" by Robin Hobb).

A fabulously deep story, with some very good charachter development, one is left gasping for more.

I wont give too much more away - If you like fantasy - buy this book. If you don't like fantasy - buy this book it will change your perception of fantasy.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Truly the best series books I have read..., 9 April 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: The One Kingdom (Swans' War) (Paperback)
Sean Russell is a genius, let it be known.

Starting with what seems like a peaceful traveller joining their campfire, then robbery, then they become hunted, but who is friend and who is foe? Then the genius that is Mr Russell really comes into a different league, forget Tolkien, Russell is simply incredible.

The locations are discribed in such a way that they force you to take notice, in case you have read past a tiny detail, but it is those details which are specks of gold.

This is also true of the charachters, each so different and yet they are so simillar, written with such passion and clarity that you feel you are there with them.

There is also magic, but not the miracle magic that you see in such titles as Harry Potter, but magic that has an effect which cannot always be seen, and superstition also. This, combined with the political intrigue of two warring families, who are about to plunge the nation into a civil war, a princess who flees to escape a union which would anhiliate a whole generation of family, an evil sorcerer and his brother, desperate to stop him, and a group of traders who get caught up in it all.

It may sound complicated but once you read the first page, you will never want it to end... then read the second and the forthcoming third book. Just expect to lose all your friends and not see the sunlight for a long time

Enjoy

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Very, very good... (A "BOOK SWEDE" REVIEW)
Three young travelers leave their village to see more of the world - that's when the trouble begins. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Christopher Halo

3.0 out of 5 stars Unoriginal but enjoyable.
This is a light weight book with little memorable but nothing bad.

The book has lots of good points but lacks originality, it simply uses parts from other fantasy... Read more
Published 22 months ago by plot hound

3.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant read that lacks pace.
Ok sometimes a relaxed pace in a book is pleasant, here i found it a little off putting. The main characters are typical every man style heroes out of their depth. Read more
Published on 30 May 2006 by genejoke

5.0 out of 5 stars There is nothing Lame about Sean Russell or The Swan's War.
And how anybody can call The Swans war a clone of Jordan's The Wheel of time, is a wonder to me. I can only think of one explanation for the previous acid review - It must be a... Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2005 by Isabella Balkert

2.0 out of 5 stars Lame clone of Robert Jordan
I'd heard really good things about the book, but as soon as three young male characters appeared - one with a mysterious past, one cheeky and carefree, one strong and silent - I... Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars The stories that we tell
When it comes right down to it, life is a series of interlocking stories, one of your stories interacting with that of someone else, or maybe those of a few other people. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2003 by David Roy

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply The Best
I think this book is simply fantastic. The plot is deep, the characters complex and the story is truly gripping and intense. Read more
Published on 13 Sep 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars A dream of a book
This is a beautiful book. The plot is intricately woven,layers building one on another, and the characters are believable, flawed, and human. Read more
Published on 29 May 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking to be a promising series.
Looking to become a very promising series. The firest book mainly concentrates on the setting, so there don't seem to be much happening. Read more
Published on 1 May 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars Complex story line building to great tension
This story takes place in an original world unlike his earlier books which have some basis in our own world. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2001

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