The Eighth Sword follows The Swords of Athos. It begins when a young merchant, Adrian, is captured by Genghis Lin to steal the magical sword of Ibernia from his cousin, Antoine. Genghis can’t defeat his arch enemy, King Leopold, unless this sword is disabled. After refusing, Adrian is saved by the mythical gods and sent with Antoine to find the magical sword of Amazonia, an eighth world that has just been discovered and is threatened by the evil wizard Xena. Things immediately go awry, forcing the gods to summon all the keepers of the swords. Join these heroic men on their adventurous quest to keep peace in the worlds.
“Like swordplay itself, By the Sword is elegant, accurate, romantic, and full of brio—the definitive study, hugely readable, of man’s most deadly art.”—Simon Winchester With a new Preface by the author Napoleon fenced. So did Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Grace Kelly, and President Truman, who as a schoolboy would practice fencing with Bess—his future wife— when the two of them returned home from school. Lincoln was a canny dueler. Ignatius Loyola challenged a man to a duel for denying Christ’s divinity (and won). Less successful, but no less enthusiastic, was Mussolini, who would tell his wife he was “off to get spaghetti,” their code to avoid alarming the children. By the Sword is an epic history of sword fighting—a science, an art, and, for many, a religion that began at the dawn of civilization in ancient Egypt and has been an obsession for mankind ever since. With wit and insight, Richard Cohen gives us an engrossing history of the world via the sword. Praise for By the Sword “Touché! While scrupulous and informed about its subject, Richard Cohen’s book is about more than swordplay. It reads at times like an alternative social history of the West.”—Sebastian Faulks “In writing By the Sword, [Cohen] has shown that he is as skilled with the pen as he is with the sword.”—The New York Times “Irresistible . . . extraordinary . . . vivid and hugely enjoyable.”—The Economist “A virtual encyclopedia on the subject of sword fighting.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Literate, learned, and, beg pardon, razor-sharp . . . a pleasure for practitioners, and a rewarding entertainment for the armchair swashbuckler.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
The one holding the weapon is the emperor! This was the story of a young man wielding a divine sword and a bronze mirror, saving the lives of countless mountains and rivers. Close]
