The Shield, Sword, and Crown

If any of you can recall, or care to go to the columns this is a book review. The problem is, I read a lot of books, at least one a week, sometimes more, and quite frankly I did not feel like writing that many book reviews. Luckily, I came up with a clever solution. 

I read a lot of series, and I could cut the number of reviews I would have to write if I lumped in all the books in the same series into the same book review. Look at this as more of a place of recommended books really. If a book is terrible I probably won't bother posting about it, unless of course it is to warn others. 

The series I want to talk about today is a trilogy called, The Shield, Sword, and Crown by Hilari Bell. 

The story is told from the perspective of three people. Weasel, an ex-pick pocket who is now a clerk of the law, Arisa, the daughter of the rebel bandit the Falcon, and Edoran the young prince of Deorthas. The shield of stars, the sword of waters, and the crown of earth are items of legend, and all three must be found to return balance to the politically unstable kingdom of Deorthas. 

The series is fantasy, and could probably even be classified as epic fantasy, but it doesn't have that over-the-top thing that many fantasy stories have. No sweeping epic battles where the forces of evil and good battle in an unbelievable power match where the action is explained in overly flowery language. There is magic present, but it feels almost natural and believable. The villains in the story is realistic; regular people. The characters are well-drawn with good development, and are just as realistic as the villains. I personally liked how the series handled the idea of religion. Technically none of the religions on the books were actual religions, but the series still did a good job and presenting religions in a real light, whether you are religious yourself or not. 

There is some mild language and violence, but other than that the books were very clean, which I also enjoyed. For future reference, I plan on using the rating scale from Fiction Ratings, and I would give this book a K+. 

And for the other form of rating I give this series 4 out of 5 stars. While this series was written with a younger audience in mind, the author doesn't dumb down the ideas of evil, or right and wrong. In fact a saw a depth that is lacking in many books written with adults in mind. I think the series is a good read for anyone who likes fantasy.