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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 3679916" data-attributes="member: 3649">The Ninth Talisman by Lawrence Watt Evans. Second in a series, the first book being The Wizard Lord. I'd consider the first book to be a stand-alone. It wraps up it's tale and is done, so you're not left hanging. You could probably read the second one without reading the first; it gives a short description of what went before.Breaker is a young man in an isolated village in Baroken. He's been vaguely dissatisfied with his future as a barley farmer, so when the Chosen Swordsman and two wizards arrive, he's interested. The Chosen are eight people gifted with magical abilities; they have one function: should the supreme wizard of all Baroken, the Wizard Lord, go bad then they have to kill him. As one ages, they find a replacement for themselves. Breaker considers that there has not been a Dark Lord in over 100 years, so he accepts the training to becomg the Greatest Swordsman In The World.Baroken is an interesting place. Everything, everything, has a spirit associated with it. Humans can only live in areas that have been 'tamed' so the wilderness between towns and cities is dangerous to someone who doesn't know how to placate the local spirits. Each town is an entity unto itself because of this; the spirits of one town might demand that everyone wear red. Another, that no-one work unless they are a woman. Another, that a baby is given to them on the first moonless night of the year. No armies can be raised, so the people are remarkable peaceful and almost pacifist: Breaker's sword is usually the only real weapon they've seen in their lives. Also reading Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman . I'm not done with it yet but it's a superhero story done with a modern sensibility that manages not to be snarky, post-modern, or mean-spirited. That's virtually unique for mainstream fiction, which is where you'll find it shelved.</blockquote>

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