A Time for Swords open with violence. Out of seemingly nowhere ships land and men attack a monastery – wreaking havoc as they rape, pillage, steal and take prisoners to sell as slaves. One young monk finds a warrior within and fights back rather than cowering in fear. Hunlaf had been sent to the church as a younger son but it had never been a burning desire to be a monk. When his “family” was in danger he found his inner warrior. From that moment on though he could not go back to the quiet life.

As Hunlaf goes forward into his new life he finds that traveling this new path is not going to be easy nor is it going to be what he thought it would be when he changed his vocation. But he does find his new band of brothers as it were and he learns his new craft slowly, surely and well.

The book is written as if it were Hunlaf’s diary of sorts. His writing down the story of his life as he remembers it. It makes for a bit of a slow beginning but it does pick up as Hunlaf leaves his monastic life behind. It’s the first of two books so one can guess that Hunlaf had one hell of a life! ( )