The Devil's Sword

So the Olympics got to me and I decided to see if there were any books which prominently featured fencing at my local library. This brought me to this YA thriller by Douglas E. Richards.

It is a page turner and obviously geared toward the younger end of YA readers. Mr. Richards spells out many details about the sport of fencing, particularly foil, and uses it to push along his Clive Cussler-lite plot. The multi-ethnic villains are straight out of stock casting. So too are our heroes. Young Kevin is a naturally gifted athlete who hates all sports until he discovers fencing. Rachel is the slightly older, more experienced fencer who is Kevin's best friend. Ben is the final leg of our trio and unimportant in terms of the story - the Zeppo. Actually, all but Kevin are thinly drawn shells and have little effect on the plot. Even Kevin disappears for about 30 pages right as the plot is developing.

But if one can successfully suspend disbelief, the story is perfectly fun. It just takes a little bit to get there - like the black ops group named Black Ops Group, the all too commonly named Excalibur Fencing Club, Nellis Air Force Base - the most secure installation in the US, etc. If you can press past these points, you will enjoy the book. Richards lays out the possibility of a sequel. Time will tell if we get to that point.

Still, it is nice to find a modern fencing fiction book even if it is flawed.