With strength, wit, rakish charm, and a talking sword named Hrym, Rodrick has all the makings of a classic hero—except for the conscience. Instead, he and Hrym live a high life as scoundrels, pulling cons and parting the weak from their gold. When a mysterious woman invites them along on a quest into the frozen north in pursuit of a legendary artifact, it seems like a prime opportunity to make some easy coin—especially if there’s a chance for a double-cross. Along with a hooded priest and a half-elven tracker, the team sets forth into a land of monsters, bandits, and ancient magic. As the miles wear on, however, Rodrick’s companions begin acting steadily stranger, leading both man and sword to wonder what exactly they’ve gotten themselves into...
From Hugo Award-winner Tim Pratt, author of City of the Fallen Sky, comes a bold new tale of ice, magic, and questionable morality set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
400-page mass market paperback
ISBN–13: 978-1-60125-515-0
ePub ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-516-7
Liar's Blade is also available as a digital edition on the following sites:
One of the best novels in the line, up there with Death's Heretic, Nightglass and the Dave Gross Novels (though for different reasons).
Liar's Blade is laugh out loud funny, with two main protagonists that are so entertaining, you'll find it hard to put the book down. The other characters don't disappoint, either. They've all got their own secrets and agendas, and Tim Pratt does a masterful job of teasing the reader with hints about their origins and motivations. Just a great book, not only funny, but exceptionally well written. I was impressed with Pratt's writing on City of the Fallen Sky, but I'm absolutely a fan now - I'll read anything he puts out, and am very much looking forward to his future contributions to the Pathfinder Tales line, whether it is the further adventures of Hyrm and Rodrick, or something new!
I just finished reading Liar’s Blade, one of a batch of Pathfinder Tales novels I got recently. This is a line of novels set in Pathfinder’s Golarion game world.
This is a well-crafted novel, not standard tie-in fiction fare by any means. It’s a story of a scoundrel named Rodrick and his magical intelligent sword, Hrym. They get hired by some weirdos to go across the River Kingdoms and Brevoy to get some mystery artifact.
The writing is good, with less of the tortured translation of game rules into prose than is customary (I hate that…). The banter between Rodrick and Hrym (and to a lesser extent with their other traveling companions) is really fun. The two people who hire them, the dour priest Obed and his freaky companion Zaqen, remind me of the tag-along bad guys from the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path, who we affectionately referred to as “The Boner Squad” – Shadow Count Sial was the dour one, and then if you kinda combine the perky Laori Vaus and the chain devil into one person, you get a bit of the same dynamic.
Rodrick as a rogue was a well-realized character. He wasn’t uber competent or a hopeless schlep, and he was avaricious but not vicious, scheming but occasionally letting his emotions get away with him. And Hrym is pretty funny, he’s a sword made of living ice who can’t really remember all of his millennia of life; he’s fond of sleeping on piles of gold coins and of Rodrick’s “twisty little mind.” In the afterword Pratt credits Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser as the inspiration for his two characters’ adventures, and the main characters’ bromance in Liar’s Blade definitely puts one in mind of Leiber’s characters.
The travelogue through the River Kingdoms and Brevoy is also nice. The fight scenes aren’t anything to write home about, but since Hrym is super-magical many of the fights end quickly with a blast of ice magic, so we don’t have to dwell on many of them.
I’ve read a half dozen of these novels and this is definitely the best-written. Liar’s Blade is very entertaining, I give it 4 goblins out of 5!
Rodrick is a rakish, raffish rogue, a dab hand with a blade and a con, who is partners with just about the most powerful magic sword in the whole region. Note I didn’t say “owns”- said sword is part of the duo/partnership/friendship of Hrym (the sword) and Roderick (the human rogue).
I really liked this touch. The two really acted like long term partners, with constant bickering and jokes (and you’ll get a few chuckles here and there too). It’s also nice to see a powerful magic item- not many characters in D&D/Frp Fantasy fiction are known for their powerful magic items.
I also really enjoyed the very realistic character of Roderick, who reminds me more than a bit of Cugel the Clever. Not a “good guy” nor a “bad guy” just a realistic guy out for the main chance and some gold. Roderick is not a super-swordsman (altho he does wield a super-sword), nor is he supernaturally fast, smart, lucky or anything. He’s just a regular clever guy who lucked into a partnership with a powerful magic item.
But his quest partners are anything but ‘regular”: Rod & Hrym get hired by a VERY mysterious and odd duo of sorcerer and cleric, who are weird, strange, eldritch and a host of other adjectives- except “normal”. How their mysteries unveil is part of the fun of this book.
And, another part of the fun is the overall ‘tone”. Tim Pratt, being a Hugo award winning author, didn’t feel the need to make this book “dark & gritty” as so many recent other Fantasy novels are. Instead the light tone- which doesn’t mean there aren’t some pretty dark and scary moments. In fact the real identity of the sorcerer and the ultimate plan of her priestly boss could cause a few nitemares. Really creepy & scary. It’s a tribute to the writing skills of the author that he manages to carry off a over all light in tone book but is able to segue into some terrifying and dark encounters so very easily.
Very readable, with plenty of action, banter, magic, mysteries and a great twist ending.
First Pathfinder Tales Novel. First Tim Pratt novel.
This was my first foray into the fiction of the world of Golarion, and I chose to make the little journey with my wife. Keeping this review simple... What makes this great is that it has your typical fantasy tropes. Scheming rogue, evil villains, and a complicated yet intriguing plot.
Then you throw in Starsky & Hutch.... But in this case, Starsky is a plotting rogue with a shortage of traditional morals. And Hutch? Hutch is a talking, magical sword. Need I say more?
Suffice to say, I was able to get my wife to invest time into reading a book that is a part of franchise fiction, which as a seasoned literary nerd... She would never do. And she enjoyed the witty and well timed comedic banter of the books likely anti-heroes the entire time through. We'd be happy to give Tim Pratt and Pathfinder Tales another go.
More so, we'd love to read about the further adventures of Hrym and Rodrick.
Earned this as a GM boon at Comicpalooza, finished it today after starting it yesterday. Might actually start picking these up, even get a subscription when I have a permanent address again.
