The Empress Sword by Paulette Jaxton, a book aimed at young adults published a year ago this March, is a quick entertaining tale set in a magic kingdom, that while unique enough, should still be familiar to anyone even remotely familiar with fantasy fiction.
Taking place mainly in the European like kingdom of Caledon, it deals with 13 year old Prince Aster and his quest to save the kingdom from a dragon that has been burning crops, villages and warriors foolish enough to stand in his way for 10 years.
Discovering what may be the answer to killing the dragon,
Aster and his friend Paul set out on a journey to the long lost and mysterious Eastern Empire to find and bring back the one thing that can stop the dragon.
Full of interesting and imaginative details, and likable characters, heck even the dragon isn’t that bad a fellow once you get to know him, The Empress Sword is light fantasy with an underlying theme of be who you are.
Well that’s nice, but why is this being posted here?
The reason, and below here be spoilers, is that there are two transformations, one minor and one major.
The item that is the kingdom’s only hope against the dragon is a magic sword known as The Empress Sword, which originally belonged to the Empress Afanasia of the Eastern Empire , and who a thousand years before used it to not only control all of dragonkind, but rule over the four kingdoms to the West.
As yet no one has gone looking for this sword due to the Eastern Empire having disappeared behind an impassable mountain that appeared out of nowhere a thousand years previously, and the King’s head wizard Mandoline declaring that such a search would be pointless at the time without more information, magic being at best a tricky affair.
Aster, determined to find the sword, steals into the wizard study and finds just the information that he thinks he will need to complete the task.
To cut to the chase, Aster is able to find the Eastern Empire, The Empress Sword and the apparently still alive and active, but rather spooky, Empress Afanasia, it’s only then that he finds that, as with most magic objects there is a catch, the catch being that no man can use, or even touch The Empress Sword… unless that is Aster agrees to a great sacrifice.
Thinking the sacrifice means that he will be able to use sword but it will kill him Aster agrees to lift the sword to see if he is worthy, apparently finding him so the Sword, after knocking him unconscious, lets him live and keep it in his possession.
On waking up and finding the Empress gone Aster also finds what his real sacrifice is to be, the Empress Sword has turned the plucky young blond prince into a plucky young Asian girl.
Adventure, misunderstandings, growth, leaning how to deal with misogyny, mild romance, sword fights, dragon battles, betrayals, revelations, and a few surprise twists then follow.
Yes, this book is aimed at the young adult audience, however it is a good first novel, and there is no reason that older readers shouldn’t enjoy it, I know I did.
The Empress Sword can be found in paperback and E-book format for the Kindle.
Highly recommended
