Of demon blades and elephants in the room

Taming the Demon - Doranna Durgin

Ok, I've read...a few...fantasy books where characters had sentient weapons. The general theme is that the wielder comes to an accord with the weapon - and fast - or else. People don't live long, and by not living long, I mean hours, if they don't reach some sort of understanding with said weapon.

 

So for a H to be in possession of such a weapon, and to try to marginalize it... it's like the elephant in the room - you might try to ignore it, but it's still there, and everyone else is questioning your intelligence - like this reader, who decided quickly that the H, especially after watching his brother going slowly bats trying to ignore it, showed a disturbing level of TSTLness.

 

The h wasn't much better. Instead of making the same mistake he was, she made all new ones. She got involved with bad news in college, and instead of coming to her senses, she pretty much let him make all the decisions. He, of course, was working for the bad guy - who wanted the blade. She split up with him after the incident involving the H's brother, and began trying to be respectable. It never once occurred to her though to connect the dots - until the dots were so obvious a blind man - and a nearly crazed blade wielder - could connect them.

 

There were highlights though occasionally - banter that was somewhat amusing (his noting internally that she didn't add "doofus" onto an explanation as an example), the mostly glossed over sex scenes where he apparently lost the ability to speak coherently.

But then there was also the point where she blackmailed him into meeting her boss (the bad guy?)

 

Would I read it again? I'm not that desperate, so no. Will I continue the series? There is, as yet, only one more. The author has a lot of irons in the fire, and some are far more interesting than this one. I personally wish she'd work on them.