Name: Woundhealer's Story
ISBN: 9780812520583

Fred Saberhagen

Prince Mark of Tasavalta embarks on a perilous journey to find the Sword Woundhealer to cure his son of a terminal disease...but an evil wizard has other plans.

Woundhealer's Story

Kirsten Simkiss

I'm going to come right out and say that I did not finish it.

First of all, while this is the first book in a series, there is a previous series that is 100% necessary to understand the world of this series. The author makes no attempt to explain anything to those, like me, who picked books up on a whim. There was clearly some manner of war that you get in snapshots, but nothing concrete to fill in what you missed in the previous trilogy. The book also doesn't mention anywhere that there is a previous series.

Secondly, I can't actually get into the series because the characters have names that are all over the place. Every time I read a name that is just so foreign in comparison to the other names, it breaks me out of the story and I simply can't enjoy it. I would understand if these characters were from different regions, but there's a kid named Zoltan surrounded by people named Elinor and Mark and Ben and Adrian and Kristin. It makes no sense.

Definitely do not read this unless you have read all the necessary prerequisites. Otherwise, you will get about as far as I did - about 90 pages in.