Sword of Truth By Gilbert Morris [Buy this book] Review by Ellen Isaacs Rating: 0 -4 -3 -2 -1   0 +1 +2 +3 +4

I bought the four books of the Gilbert Morris Wakefield Dynasty series from Ebay, not knowing anything about them except that it was historical fiction about medieval England, which I tend to enjoy. What I didn't realize was that the books must have been intended for a child or teen audience. Or at least they read that way. Here are some of my favorite examples of great writing.

When two characters are carrying a loom upstairs:
"It was somewhat of a struggle to get the loom up, but finally they succeeded."

When one character removes a disguise he's been wearing to spy on another charater:
"As soon as the door was closed and he was alone, he threw off the clothes he had been wearing and began to cleanse his face of the oils he had used to disguise his rather youthful skin, and scratched his head. Now I can get this counfounded powder out of my hair, he thought. I'm sick of being a gray-haired old man!"

The story is about a servant boy, Myles, who turns out to be the son of a nobleman, and his adventures as he grows up and enters adulthood. It takes place during the early-1500s when Henry VIII was King. The characters end up meeting Henry, Queen Catherine, Ann Boleyn, Cromwell & others. The story is extremely simplistic, with good characters and bad characters (who others somehow don't realize are bad), and a love triangle situation with two good characters and one bad character, and you can guess how it all works out. I'm not sure why I read all the way through it except that it was easy reading.

Perhaps this book would be good for exposing a child or teen to medieval England or historical fiction, but it would be better to have them read the good stuff, most notably books by Sharon Kay Penman. In the meantime, maybe I'll go back to Ebay to try to sell the series to someone who might like it better.

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