Dave Duncan’s Seventh Sword series is, at this point, an unusual series. It didn’t start out that way—originally, it was a pretty conventional trilogy where a guy from our world is pulled into a fantasy world and gets involved with gods and prophecies and quests, in a way that combines sword-and-sorcery fun with Duncan’s characteristic inventiveness and propulsive narrative.
But then in 2012, 20+ years after the series was originally published, Duncan wrote a fourth volume, The Death of Nnanji. I actually re-read the original series before reading this—if you think I remember the details of a series I read 20 years ago, yeah, not so much—and I was impressed by how similar this felt. Being able to match the tone and feel of a story you wrote decades earlier is no small feat. Beyond that, the fourth volume is probably unnecessary, as the original trilogy had a perfectly fine conclusion; but it was enjoyable and didn’t feel especially tacked-on.
If you haven’t read this series at all, it’s absolutely worth reading, like just about anything Duncan’s written. If you’ve read the original trilogy and liked it, The Death of Nnanji isn’t a mandatory must-read, but you’re likely to enjoy it.
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