Wielding a Red Sword

Piers Anthony

3/14/2004

Mym is an Indian prince on the run. His older brother will be the next Rajah. Mym wants to be obscure, so he disappears. But, when his brother is killed in war, Mym is brought back to the castle away from the woman he loves. His father insists he marry a princess. Mym resists but finally meets and falls in love with Rapture, the princess. He agrees to marry her.

Then fortunes change, war dies down, and the Rajah makes a new alliance. Rapture is taken away and Mym is now to marry yet another woman. He doesn't want his father to run his life again. Mym chooses another life where he can keep Rapture. He becomes the Incarnation of War. Now Mym is one of the five Incarnations, along with Death, Time, Fate, and Nature. He joins the other four in a war against Satan.

But Mym finds it difficult to go up against the Father of Lies. First, because of Mym's Indian culture and beliefs, he has trouble with the occidental religious beliefs. Then Satan starts seducing Rapture into a new set of ideas. Plus Mym has to control the wars on Earth. He finds it is a fine balance to allow war without propagating evil.

In Wielding a Red Sword, author Anthony brings another Incarnation to life. This novel has the extra twist of the Eastern culture rather than a Western, American culture base. Anthony is able to pull the religions and ideals together in a manner that doesn't degrade either. Wielding a Red Sword is a fun, light novel, part of the Incarnations of Immortality series.

This novel also deals with a difficult subject in a manner to make the reader think. Wielding a Red Sword proposes that war can be put to good use. Humans are bound to disagree. It is our nature. That leads to disagreement, arguments, and at times, finally, war. Mym is in a position to minimize the hazards of war without eliminating it. Wielding a Red Sword takes the fine line between the bad and the good effects a war can have.

You can find more about this book at .

The Series:

On a Pale Horse
Bearing an Hourglass
With a Tangled Skein
Wielding a Red Sword
Being a Green Mother
For Love of Evil
And Eternity