Sarah Jean Horwitz

In this 2024 Lone Star selection, Nack loves his family but fails them, leading to him being ousted by his family. They are the mighty Furnival clan. Clans fight constantly for power and land. When Nack allows a kid to escape instead of killing him, Nack is blamed for the rival family coming and winning the battle. His brother witnesses Nack's cowardice and supports Nack's ouster. Nack abounds with goodness and has no violence within him, which is why he couldn't justify killing; the reason didn't seem to fit the violence. He does, however, need to prove himself, which leads to a whole new life for him.

Nack finds himself in a barn where the innkeeper takes some kindness upon him. His situation gets worse when some adolescent hooligans take his sword while he's sleeping. How can he prove himself without a sword. He hears about some trouble happening up in the hills and decides he will prove himself. He needs to beat the itinerant knights who are headed that way to solve the problem so that he can do it instead. He and the knights keep crossing paths, as Nack learns what true knights should be. Upon arriving, Nack finds monsters, but he also hears a voice and finds a sword. The sword Asperides. You see, Asperides is a demon sword, not an angel sword. Asperides chooses not to mention this fact. He has been holding an evil sorcerer hostage, but someone is awakening the sorcerer. Therefore, Nack needs to grab the sword and fight the monsters and try to keep the sorcerer from attaining his soul back. The catch is that any wielder of the sword will condemn his soul to hell for eternity, boundin the sword. Nack figures these conditions must be what every knight does with an angel sword. Nack pulls the sword out, agrees to the terms, and learns that the sword is very verbal, talking in his head all of the time.

Nack and the knights retreat in order to make the greater plan of how to defeat the evil sorcerer who has been raised by a young girl who loves evil. Asperides lacks patience and finds himself annoyed by this hapless youth. He controls him for a while, but Nack's goodness cannot be controlled and begins to rub off on Asperides. How embarrassing! Nack focuses on regaining his place in his family, which Asperides has not time for, but he does know that he must train Nack in sword fighting. They end up rescuing a young moon seer from her nunnery. The knights, the girl, and Nack eventually will have to battle the sorcerer. To keep the story fun and to not give anything away, I'm stopping there.

You will enjoy the book--it's kind of a silly, funny book. It's good vs evil. It's also a standalone, but it does leave room for another book if the author wanted.… (altro)

This was such a fun book! I believe that this middle grade fantasy is a perfect read for both younger readers and adults. We meet the sword Asperides right away once I realized a sentient sword would be one of the main characters, I knew that I was in for a good time. I was entertained by this fascinating tale from beginning to end.

Nack has been cast out by his family and hopes to prove his worth by completing a task to win back his place. I felt horrible for Nack since he was truly on his own with no place to go and even loses his sword right away. He decides to go on a knight’s quest where he finds Asperides and enters into a contract believing it is an angel sword. Nack was such a great character and I adored his interactions with Asperides. I found this story to be really exciting with quite a few surprises worked in. The characters all grow and change over the course of the story as they try to do what is right.

I listened to the audiobook and thought that Mark Sanderlin did a great job with the story. I have listened to this narrator’s work on a couple of adult romance novels so it was fun to see him tackle a different genre. I thought that he did a great job with the various character voices which helped to bring the story to life. I do believe that his narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story.

I would definitely recommend this book to others. It was an entertaining story featuring wonderful characters that should appeal to a wide range of readers. I would not hesitate to read more of this author’s work in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from Algonquin Young Readers.… (altro)