So The Broken Sword is a book I've had since I was in Junior High (I'm now 33). My copy is beat up and stained and one of two I still have from that time. It is also the sequel to my absolute favorite book The Forever King. That said, I don't think I've ever read the pair one right after the other, and boy, did that diminish my ranking of The Broken Sword. This reread was also my first time reading The Broken Sword with any kind of critical lens, so that also had something to do with it.
I was really looking forward to reading this series as a series, as I've relatively recently discovered The Third Magic existed. However, as a sequel, The Broken Sword doesn't actually hold up or even stack up against The Forever King. First and foremost, the addition of a boat load of new characters makes the story messy, in my opinion. The Forever King was able to weave the backstories of Hal, Taliesin, Saladin, Emily, and Arthur into the overall narrative without pulling you from the story itself. The Broken Sword doesn't manage to do this in a satisfying manner. In fact, toward the end there, it was downright annoying. The main thing that pulled me out toward the end was having the gods literally tell Thanatos that the "old gods" and the "dark gods" were one in the same and then having everyone else for the rest of the story referencing the "dark gods" as having won... which just had me rolling my eyes.
It's not that I didn't enjoy getting Kate and Zack and maybe even Aubrey's backstories, but having to shoehorn them into the rest of the narrative felt clumsy. Trying to recapture the magic of The Forever King and mostly failing because they just weren't integral enough to the rest of the plot. Nor were those backstories nearly as interesting as Saladin and Taliesin's.
My second big issue with the story is Aubrey/Thanatos, the main villain. First off, I don't believe that Saladin would have suddenly decided to appoint anyone his heir. It seemed really out of character for him. In fact, he seemed very out of character for his entire appearance in The Broken Sword. But hey, gotta give Aubrey a backstory that loops him into The Forever King and the mythology of both books somehow. Cue much shrugging and hand-waving. But honestly, my problem with Aubrey is that he's just boring. Like, Cochran and Murphy attempted to make him interesting and a little quirky, but it really didn't succeed. He felt like a caricature of a person rather than an actual threat. Lot of Rheged was more menacing as a villain and he was only a threat to past Arthur. Aaand then there was the whole thing with Morgan. She's one of the most enduring villains from Arthurian legend and probably the best known female villain period... and her truly most evil act is co-opted in this book by Thanatos. It's not through her power that she conceives Mordred, it's through his. This bugs me. A lot.
My last two issues are Portugal and the knights. Hal's whole thing in Portugal had me a) rolling my eyes and b) heading to Google to look up Faro. Antonia, though I know she's literally just a plot device to get Hal back to England, annoyed the heck out of me. She's barely a person and has one of the most stereotypical (and actually insulting) motivations you can give a female character. That was the rolling eyes bit. The Googling of Faro, Portugal, had me wanting to smack Cochran and Murphy. Faro, as it turns out, is actually a pretty big tourist destination here in 2022. I HIGHLY doubt it was a one-rental-car town as depicted in The Broken Sword back in 1997. Really, I'm annoyed on Faro's account. Misrepresentation of places annoys me. Always has. As for the knights: I know they're from medieval times. I know the behavior expected of them probably wasn't typical of how we behave now. I know they'd probably be pretty rowdy after having been pulled through the veil and set in a pub. I get all that. HOWEVER, they've also gotta be pretty smart. Maybe not book smart, but smarter than they were depicted in the modern parts of The Broken Sword. They definitely seemed to be less stupid back in their own time, that's for sure. This mix of characterization for them just bugs me.
Anyway, The Broken Sword definitely doesn't match The Forever King as far as storytelling goes. It's messy and the addition of all the new active characters really doesn't do the story any favors. Taliesin's whole thing with Mona was definitely a thing. Served the overall plot but wasn't super interesting, truth be told. I am also not sure how I feel about the very ending of the book... which I won't talk about, but yeah... Anway, again, I'm not sure I'll pick up The Broken Sword the next time I feel like reading The Forever King.
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