2 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
The Dunston Blade by John Nelson Daines is a historical fiction novel. The story begins in England at the end of the reign of Henry III. In a small village there is a man named John Ivanson, who is the son a smith. John just assumes he will train under his father and eventually take over the family business. Until one day, a knight is traveling through the village. His name is Sir Cedric and he asks for shelter from John's family. Cedric sees something in John and asks John to be his squire. John realizes the opportunity and heartily agrees to go with Cedric. John's father gives John a beautiful sword he made from a special metal, a sword fit for a king.
Over the next few years, John follows Cedric into many battles to keep the peace in England. When John wields his sword he feels stronger and faster but isn't sure if that is from his training or the sword itself. The rest of the story goes through John's life and adventures of becoming a knight, fighting, and marrying the woman he loves.
Since the story is about John's life, the story mainly revolves around him. He is the most developed character in the story which was great. John is an honorable man who the reader roots for throughout the whole story. There are several other characters that are introduced that could have been more developed since they had such an impact on John's life. I would have liked to see more depth to those who were around John.
Overall, I enjoyed the story. Daines made sure he did his research on the time period. English history is a fascinating time period. However, since the novel is the adventures of John's life there is no climax to keep the reader wondering what will happen next. There were also several errors on every page. The errors were mainly missed punctuation, spacing and spelling. I was still able to read through the story with clarity. However, one of the major errors was the different spellings of characters names. For instance, on one page the character's name would be spelled Ralf and on the next page it would be spelled Ralph. This also happened with the character, Laila. Sometimes the name was spelled Laila and sometimes it was spelled Leila. This would cause some confusion at times.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I gave this rating because of the many errors throughout the book, the lack of development in the other characters and no climax. However, with some story editing and grammar editing this would be a fantastic epic about the life of John. It was very well researched and would be a fantastic read for anyone who enjoys English history.
******
The Dunston Blade
View: on Bookshelves
Like jemgirl202's review? Post a comment saying so!
