This was a book I nabbed from a Humble Bundle long ago and forgot about. One day I dug it up and started reading, not knowing what to expect. I would say I was pleasantly surprised.This is a portal fantasy from the 80s about an engineer named Wallie Smith who is killed by encephalitis. At the time, a benevolent? and whimsical? goddess is frustrated with her inept barbarian swordsman Shonsu. She has him killed and transports Wallie Smith into his body, under the pretense that Wallie "doesn't think like Shonsu." She then charges him with a mission but for funsies, doesn't tell him what that mission is.Unfortunately for Wallie, the World is about as far from modern earth culture as you can get. Slavery is common and even celebrated, the gap between rich and poor is massive, failing to acknowledge the local customs can get you killed. While Wallie is in a promising position, starting in the body of a celebrity among these people, he has a lot of issues to straighten out.This book doesn't concern Wallie's Goddess-given mission. Instead, it's about him getting adjusted to this alien culture and acquiring friends that he can trust. The Holy City is a hostile environment where the swordsman are corrupt and eyeing Wallie's sacred sword. They work against him at every step, to prevent him from finding allies, to keep him from leaving and ultimately to wrest that sword from his rotting hands.It's a slow way to start an adventure, but I appreciated it. The culture is fascinating (It's kind of a heavy japanese context-and-standing-is-everything sort of society), as is the religion and the book explores it in such depth. How Wallie should proceed without sacrificing his celebrity status is often presented as a big puzzle.Unfortunately, one of the book's failings is that it doesn't let ever Wallie solve it for himself. It puts him in a lot of culture shock situations where he oversteps his bounds in some way, but then the goddess or a previously unmentioned loophole absolve him of responsibility. The climax is this sort of thing at its worst--and it's arguably the worst part of the book for it.The book's other failing is Wallie himself. He has a tendency to say/think one way then turn around and contradict it moments later. One of the earliest instances of this is when he's assigned a slave to have sex with. He's all like "No, I won't force this girl to have sex with me. That's inhumane!" But not even a few minutes later, he has a breakdown and cries over his situation. Guess that makes it okay to go for some comfort sex, right? ...right?It's frustrating every time he does this.He is likeable despite this, so I can't say he's a failure of a main character. His supporting cast is mostly flat save for Nnanji (idealistic hero worshipping boy who has to come to terms with the World) and Honakura (sly, scheming priest with a heart of gold), but I enjoyed them both enough that it made up for all of it.Some people might take issue with how the book treats women and I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty uncomfortable. All of the present women are either slaves (with a heavy bent towards sex slave) or...well, slaves. It might be part of the culture, but all of them are passive and weak characters despite that. Only Wild Ani is a presence in the plot that might be more than fodder for Wallie and Nnanji to ogle/bed.One could argue the Goddess is another major exception, but she (like Kikarani, who is played up as a shrewd and influential pimpess) is more a background element than a present and driving character.These issues are significant, but enjoyed the story enough to give it 4 stars. It's one of the better fantasies I've read in recent days. I recommend it if you're looking for a fish-out-of-water portal fantasy but want something a little different than the usual 'We meet in a tavern and go on an adventure!' fare.
This is not the sort of book I would have picked up of my own accord. But a friend loaned me the entire series, and I felt obligated to give it a go, since we usually have similar tastes. This is a fairly standard portal fantasy, overall. The main character is dying in our world and then wakes up in the body of a remarkable swordsman in another. Intriguingly, we get very little of Wallie's life in the 'real' world. We know he's an engineer, has no family, and... that's about it. The focus is entirely on The World.Of course, the swordsman/Wallie has a task to complete, and there are many and significant obstacles to that. This book is basically a getting-the-band-together story, as Wallie figures out what he has to do (which he doesn't really know even by the end of the novel), and gets his people together - an appropriately motley group for an unlikely hero (well, an unlikely hero's mind, anyway). Wallie himself I am largely indifferent towards at this stage. He's an excuse to explore different aspects of the world, and question some of its aspects (more on that later). He's approachable enough, and hasn't done anything quite as repellant as Thomas Covenant manages in his first fifteen minutes. Of the other characters, his sidekick has a phenomenal memory and developing sword skills; his slave girl will hopefully develop a personality; and the elderly priest is the one that I hold out most hope for, of being snarky and clever. The novel suggests a world where gods exist and interact with people - sometimes - and although I guess a direct intervention from a god would have an impact, I found Wallie's change from sceptic to fervent believer a bit fast. I am interested to see how this aspect develops. I'm also intrigued by the notion of unstable geography which strongly connects to the idea of the Goddess; I think this may be the most interesting facet of the world building so far. The rest of the world building... well. There's slaves, and Wallie reacts strongly against this initially, but he does then go and buy one. Admittedly he does so for noble reasons, and he really likes her, honest!... still. That's playing into the system, right? There could have been more conscience wrestling about that. And any moral objections raised are rather undercut by Duncan later in the novel when another character buys a slavewoman entirely based on her voluptuous appearance, and this is upheld as humorous in the first instance and then later as advantageous to the plot. This is a problem for me. I may read the next one, just to see whether Duncan manages to do anything clever or original. I'm not really holding out much hope, to be honest. It would probably have been an enjoyable book when I was 15, but now I'm feeling a little bit too cynical and well-read.
Do You like book The Reluctant Swordsman (1988)?
First read this trilogy back in 80's and have always been a fan of Dave Duncan.Available now on e-book and decided to re-read.Still enjoyable - not a classic, but just a fun read. Not as deep as some of today's modern fantasy and certainly not as gritty as your Abercrombies, Eriksons, Cooks, etc.. but sometimes you need a break from the dark. And this serves as a good interlude to the aforementioned.Interesting world created with its heavily ordered caste/rank system and set of rules. Likable characters. Quick reads.
—Sean Nicley
Yes, I'm giving this the rare 5 star rating. I'm a bit surprised I decided to go that high...but it's a good read. No deep emotional depths here, no great philosophical insights just a good adventurous read.Wally is dying, well actually he seems to be dead. But instead of heading off to the after life he gets a bit...side tracked. See Wally is inside the body of a large, skilled swordsman in a completely different world.Not a new plot device. As a matter of actual fact if you're a fantasy fan (or science fiction fan or science fantasy fan, etc.) you've undoubtedly run across it before.That's cool though. As I've mentioned before there probably isn't a plot/idea/story line that hasn't been used before....multiple times. Mostly it depends on HOW WELL the plot is used or reused. In this case it's done quite well.We get a story here with some humor, a little pain, a bit of romance and lots of action. It's the story of Wally trying to BE a swordsman in a world where swordsmen are royalty and sort combination soldiers/police. He has to learn to function in a world of strict class restrictions, a world of slaves, casts and iron age sensibilities.It's a good book, I've already started the next volume. I can recommend this novel, enjoy.
—Mike (the Paladin)
As I consumed the opening pages of this fine story, my miserable excuse for a brain could not but help attempt linking this work to The Reluctant Sorcerer by Simon Hawke. Hawke also wrote a trilogy featuring someone from our world forced to adapt in an alternate, medieval one; and its no coincidence that both this trilogy and that have an opening novel with the word reluctant in the title. You must forgive the parallel - I was rather heavily entoxicated at the time. 'tis the little things that amuse.anyway apart from that similarity the books hold little in common - this title, whilst not devoid of some comedic moments, only fleetingly alights upon the path of amusement. it has a story well told, characters that are clearly going places, and despite the concept of the uprooted earthman in unfamiliar surroundings and a demigod doing whatever he sees fit with no challenge to his authority being a little old-hat, its a cracking good read and I'm already on the next one.
—Sean Randall
