It starts in exotic Morocco with an attempted assassination of a former American president. A young blind girl in the crowd is affected. Miracles occur. From here, The Broken Sword by Molly Cochran & Warren Murphy takes off on a thrilling adventure full of action. This second book of a trilogy is an Arthurian Fantasy set in our present day world. An engaging plot, likable characters and familiar themes makes the book very entertaining.
The engaging plot of the author hooks the reader quickly. The Holy Grail comes into the story at the beginning. Beatrice, the blind girl, has possession of it. She finds herself the target of a killer. In attempting to escape her pursuer, she joins up with Arthur, his bodyguard Hal and an old man named Taliesin. They discover that she has strange powers too. This group finds itself split up and fleeing an evil magician. From there, the book keeps moving at a rapid pace. The authors create a smoothly flowing story of action broken by interesting interludes of the characters’ life stories, producing slightly different perceptions of the Arthurian legend.
In addition, likable characters help keep the plot in perspective. Arthur is an adolescent boy who feels inadequate to handle problems of the modern day world. Hal, a former knight of the Round Table, strives to regain his honor by protecting Arthur. Beatrice is an interesting young girl with troubling powers. Even the villain Katsuleris has understandable motives for his actions. Taliesin is an interesting rendition of Merlin. The authors created characters that readers will want to follow to the conclusion of the book.
In the end, it is the familiar themes that give the readers a strong reason to stay with the book to t he conclusion. One of the themes is the struggle between good and evil in our world. This is answered with Arthur’s confusion in deciding his destiny. The fight with the black magician decides it all. Hope is another theme played out with the young girl Beatrice, Taliesin and the Grail bringing hope for the world’s future. The themes keep the book satisfying for readers that don not like bleak ending. The authors weave these very well into the book.
The Broken Sword by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy is the second book of an Arthurian Fantasy trilogy. It is an entertaining book for readers due to the engaging plot, likable characters and familiar themes. Readers will enjoy this book because it does not suffer from a middle book slowness some trilogies possess. The third book is The Third Magic.
