Sword of Fire
core novel 2020 Deverry
Record
| First published | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.80 (702 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 384 |
| First-edition ISBN | 978-0-7564-1367-5 |
| First-edition date | 2020-02-18 |
| Internal chronology | 16 |
Synopsis
Opening the fifth act of the Deverry Cycle, the Justice War, this novel is set in a Celtic-inspired Deverry where the bards are described as the people's voice, and their sword. The scholar Alyssa and the nobleman's daughter Dovina uncover evidence that the kingdom's legal system has been corrupted, with judgments manipulated to serve the powerful rather than deliver genuine justice. Determined to see the wrongdoing addressed, the two women attempt to bring their evidence to the proper authorities, a decision that immediately puts both of them in grave danger as those benefiting from the corruption move to silence them. Their investigation draws on the long history of dweomer and prophecy that has shaped Deverry across the earlier acts of the cycle, reframing the kingdom's magical legacy around a more grounded struggle for justice within its own institutions rather than against an external supernatural threat.
Where it sits
- Universe: Deverry
- Series: Act Five: The Justice War core; position 1 of 1 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Katharine Kerr
Notes
- From the series record (Act Five: The Justice War): A second Justice War volume is announced but remains untitled/unreleased, isn't counted here yet.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Internal chronology, within Deverry: position 16 of 16: previous The Silver Mage (2009)
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deverry_Cycle
- The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
- https://www.isfdb.org
- https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555191/sword-of-fire-by-katharine-kerr/
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