Sasha by Joel Shepherd (A Trial of Blood and Steel: Book 1)

Every now and again I am surprised by a book that turns out to be entirely genuine and entertaining. Many books come to me with the foreknowledge that they are such, and many more simply fail to live up to hype. So when I picked up Sasha by Joel Shepherd at my Borders the other week, I hoped that the blurb would come through as being at least somewhat decent.

Thankfully, Sasha comes out way ahead of “somewhat decent,” despite a few flaws in sentence flow and grammar.

The story focuses primarily on Sasha, a princess who has spurned the traditional royal upbringing to live with a sword master – her uman – in a rustic town that she loves much more. Horses, sword training, ale and more sword training make up her life, as she studies the svaalverd, a specialized style of sword fighting that is above any other, under the tutelage of the Lenayin hero, Kessligh Cronenverdt.

Without resorting to masses of exposition, Joel Shepherd manages to weave into the story the political intrigues facing a country with a state religion, and a historical religion. There is racial hatred, religious vilification, noble squabbles and a desire for more noble powers. Court intrigues in the royal family, scheming nobles and princes, and a headstrong princess who refuses to recognize her heritage.

And all without ever making you bored with the story.

There have been authors who have totally misunderstood the idea of including political plotlines into their stories. They believe that they can just fit in without any work. These authors usually fail dismally, as their stories continually become bogged down in the mire of real politics.

However Shepherd, and his contemporaries, manages to never lose the reader’s attention. What is more, Shepherd makes us not only love the protagonist, but see that she is flawed. This is another trap that authors can make, writing their character as flawless. This leaves no growth available for the character, and leaves us entirely bored whenever we are encountered with their perspective.

One of the few flaws with this book is the occasional lack of time Shepherd invests in his characters. We are sometimes left with characters that are angry for angers sake or inexcusably grumpy. Including a standoffish character who does not often reveal his feelings is ok, but often it is wise to include the reasoning behind that, rather than just allowing us to blunder along blindly. It builds resentment to a character which is not always necessarily reasonable.

That being said, the few flaws that lightly pepper this book are not enough for me to suggest you do not read it. The whole book had me hardly able to put it down, and my perpetual human need for sleep continually stood in the way of decent reading time. The vague allusions towards what will come in the sequel (currently available) Petrodor has me eager to read more. This is definitely a book you will want to pick up. Not the worlds hardest read, but downright and thoroughly enjoyable.

8/10 Downright and thoroughly enjoyable.