Acquire The Sword (The Legacy Chronicle #1) By T.H. Paul Issued As Textbook

Sword by T. H. Paul is a truly thrilling epic, It's a classic fantasy book with elves, dwarves, orcs, and magic, It's a very enjoyable read if you like the fantasy genre, It follows the story of a hermit elf who lives in seclusion because of his past but is called back into the world after rising tensions.
This is the kind of book that has multiple narratives of different characters and paths woven throughout the book, All in all, this is definitely a good read if you're a fan of the fantasy genre even though the plot is somewhat traditional, This is one of the SPFBO books I have been reading and I actually very much liked this one, even though I did have one or two quibbles.
This is a long read, definitely one that falls under the sprawling 'epic', and it has many different characters, places and plots to follow, It's a debut and has a lot of potential as a growing start to the series, but it also needs some work in terms of trimming and editing to make it a topnotch read.


So, the story starts off with a scene where we see all the Gods of the world gathered together, For me, this is great, I really enjoy when we get to see the Gods of a universe interfering and manipulating all the characters within the world.
This scene was probably the most interesting to me because of the differing roles the gods play, we have the God of Time, God of Betrayal, God of Death and many more.
All are different, and they all stood out as characters I would be awed by,

Next we move onto the main plotline which follows a whole host of characters, We have an invading force from the North, led by Wolfbane he's accompanied by Mages, Undead and many Broken warriors and Gnolls, Wolfbane himself doesn't feature too much in the book, but the people working for and against his reign do including his good friend Edge who is now turning against him, his undead advisor Daeveon who knows far more than meets the eye, and his battle leader Valissa.
Each of these characters get their own plots but all are either former friends of Wolfbane or current workers for him, helping to expand his empire.


On the other side of things we have Trem Waterhound, a young man in looks but an old soul in reality, Trem has been gifted the 'gift' of immortality and he has had his ageing frozen in time as some of the Gods believe that he will do great things.
Trem is a hermit at the start of

the book who lives alone in a forest and makes a simple life there, One day he stumbles over a neardead man called Javon and ends up taking hi home and nursing him back to health, This all leads to Javon sharing his story and the quest he's on to find his father, so Trem decides to accompany him on this quest.
. . but he doesn't reveal all his secrets too soon, . .

Another part/plot of the world is focused on a King who is beloved by his subjects and despised by many of his high lords.
He is about to be forced off the throne by one of the High Lords called Vendille, and we follow the King and his son Vorasho as they try to keep a hold over what is rightfully theirs and put down the coup organised by Vendille.


Eventually we end up mostly focused on a band of heroes: Trem, Ghost, Diaga, Jovan, Grimtooth and Logan, Each of them has a past and backstory, many of which tie into the other main plotlines and other key chaarcters, Over the course of their travels and the events in the book you start to see how these things tie up, and it unfolded at a relatively good speed once I'd hit the halfway point.


Things to note about this: it's complex, There's a lot of different characters many have similar sounding names and they are all doing many different things and working towards and for very different aims and people/beings.

The other thing to note is that this is a chunky book and it definitely could do with some slimming down as there are some fight scenes and scenes of exposition that went on a bit too long and I found myself getting a little dazed with all the description.
There's also still a fair few typos and moments of slightly clunky writing which would be helped by a copyeditor/proofreader,
My final quibble is the female characters, Although they are in the story and some of them are really quite epic too their time as centre stage is so minimal I felt a bit cheated.
I really wanted to see a whole lot more of these wonderful ladies, and i feel like the story is lacking something because it is so male dominated.


The magic of this world is definitely interesting, We have the Gods as physical beings, mages and wizards who can use vast amounts of power, dream worlds where the gods can influence people, magical creatures who are rather wolflike, undead mages and much more.
I think the magic could have been explained/expanded upon a bit more, but overall I had a lot of fun reading about the things this world offered.


With all that said, I actually read the whole book, and it's a long read, so that is a definite plus, I wasn't sure at first if this was a standalone or not it's not but I felt like I wanted to find out where it was all going, and I definitely enjoyed the climax of the book and would probably pick up the second one when it came out too.
It's not going to be a story for everyone, there's a lot to take in, but it's definitely a story I had fun with and I would give its overall.
In The Sword, the first volume of his new fantasy series The Legacy Chronicle, T, H. Paul brings you into a vast world of gods and mortals, The story of The Sword follows the life of Trem Waterhound, a halfelven hermit who, against his own judgment, heals and befriends a wounded young man when he finds his unconscious body in the thick undergrowth of Silverleaf Forest.
Together, Trem and his former patient, Jovanaleth, embark on a journey to find Jovan's missing father, Along the way they become embroiled in a conflict that extends across the mortal world of Tethtenir and even into the Godly Realms, and both are forced to confront their past in order to face an even more dangerous future.
T. H. Trevor Howard Paul is a private secondary school literature teacher at Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine, T. H. has lived most of his life in Maine, though he did attend Wheaton College in Massachusetts and spent time living in Germany and the Peoples Republic of China.
T. H. started working on the Legacy Chronicle when he was a freshman in high school, tasked with writing a serial story by his freshman English teacher, Ross Markonish.
That story blossomed into a lengthier book, a deepening mythology, and even spawned his own variation on popular tabletop role playing games, which was dubbed Ascension by one of his good friends and players in Tianjin, PRC.
T. H. lives on the campus of Hebron Academy with his wife, Molly, and their dog, Z T, H. Trevor Howard Paul is a private secondary school literature teacher at Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine, T. H. has lived most of his life in Maine, though he did attend Wheaton College in Massachusetts and spent time living in Germany and the Peoples Republic of China.
T. H. started working on the Legacy Chronicle when he was a freshman in high school, tasked with writing a serial story by his freshman English teacher, Ross Markonish.
That story blossomed into a lengthier book, a deepening mythology, and even spawned his own variation on popular tabletop role playing games, which was dubbed Ascension by one of his good friends and players in Tianjin, PRC.
T. H. lives on the campus of Hebron Academy with his wife, Molly, and their dog, Zoe, When not writing he enjoys playing ice hockey, board and video games, drinking tea, and hoarding Legos he swears are for that aforementioned tabletop RPG he runs sometimes.
This is his first novel and series built from over fifteen years of tinkering, rewriting, frustration, and hope, sitelink.