Don’t draw your blade in the City of Swords, unless you’re willing to kill… or ready to die.

Young and filled with idealistic fervor, Arturo packs his blade and travels to the fabled City of Swords in the hopes of joining the dashing Bravadori. Yet upon arriving he discovers these masked vigilantes have more in common with brutal thugs than noble monster slayers. Disillusioned and mocked, he stubbornly refuses to give up his dreams.

When an impending bandit attack threatens untold depravities upon a distant village, and no others will heed the call for help, Arturo joins forces with a worthless outcast and a walking legend to attempt the impossible, to traverse the demon-haunted wilderness and prove that in the City of Swords, true heroes can rise from the unlikeliest of places.

Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords is a gritty, action-packed standalone novel set in Benedict Patrick’s Yarnsworld, a land where folktales and fantasy mix, where the monsters from stories are real.

Start reading today to discover this epic tale of broken heroes and inspiring hope!

Benedict Patrick is an indie author whose work I have been meaning read for well over a year now and after reading “The City of Swords” I wish I had read one of his books sooner.

The City of Swords may be a small book in comparison to some of the books currently being released but as I have heard over the years always strive for quality over quantity and there are a number of books in my opinion that are quite long but don’t have half the quality that Benedict Patrick’s book City of Swords certainly does.

When I first started reading this book I was very intrigued by the world that was being built. I admit it did take me roughly a chapter or two to find me footing and learn what world had to offer but once I found my footing I quickly found myself thoroughly enjoying it. If I could have one piece of advice about reading this book it would be, once you are a few chapters into this book I would heavily advise clearing your schedule because once I got to this point I found myself finding it very difficult to put this book down. Benedict Patrick’s takes what starts as a slow building but very interesting book and just builds up the pace during each chapter so within a few chapters the pacing is perfect and even after that you will still find it slowly building towards something big.

Out of all the fantasy books I have ever read I don’t think I ever came across a world like The City of Swords offers. To me it almost seems like a mix between luchador vigilantes and The Lies of Locke Lamora. The reason why I say luchador vigilantes is because the book has many characters in it called Bravadori, most of which have their own individual mask design and nicknames e.g. Crazy Raccoon. It reminds of The Lies of Locke Lamora because the world has many different gangs known as stables and the main character’s remind me very much of Locke and Jean. This may seem like a very strange mix but believe me it works.

One aspect I thoroughly enjoyed about this book was that in between each chapter we are given a few pages that delve deeper into the worlds history. I have found more and more books trying to do something like this whether it be having notes in the footer or switching timelines every so often, majority of the time I find this can break your world immersion but The City of Swords certainly doesn’t have this problem and I believe it actually enhances your immersion. Also once you start to get towards the end of the book you start to see everything you have learnt about the worlds history come full circle and it helps you grasp a better understanding.

Towards the start of the book there aren’t to many actions scenes and even when there is they are very short but as the book progresses the do start to become more frequent, especially towards the end. I loved reading the action scenes in this book and even more so when the book starts to describe the use of a characters knack. If Benedict Patrick does more stories contained within this part of the world then I would definitely like to see him go into more detail about the different knacks people have as I felt this is one area the book could have done more with.

If you haven’t already read any of Benedict Patrick’s then I highly recommend you do so because his work is fantastic. The City of Swords is the third book in the Yarnsworld series but all of his books so far are self contained so don’t be afraid to pick this book up first if you want to as you don’t need to know anything about the previous ones. The City of Swords is a truly wondrous experience book filled with vigilante “luchadors” and  I would definitely recommend it to any fan of fantasy or sci-fi. Having read this I am not only looking forward to Benedict Patrick’s future work but also reading the previous books in the Yarnsworld series.