Wielding a Red Sword
core novel 1986 Incarnations of Immortality
Record
| First published | 1986 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.96 (20,024 ratings, collected 2026-08-31) |
| Page count | 314 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780345322203 |
| Internal chronology | 4 |
Synopsis
Wielding a Red Sword follows Mym, an Indian prince who defies his father's arranged marriage plans and runs off to join a traveling circus rather than accept the match. He eventually falls for Princess Rapture, who helps him overcome a lifelong stutter through song, and the two marry. Satan, hoping to exploit an inexperienced ruler, maneuvers Mym into becoming Mars, the Incarnation of War, expecting him to increase suffering across the world. Armed with the magical Red Sword and assisted by the Four Horsemen who serve the office, Mym must learn that War's true purpose is to manage conflict fairly rather than provoke it, even as Satan stirs global tensions and works to prevent the long-awaited Final Judgment, pushing the world toward the edge of apocalypse.
Where it sits
- Universe: Incarnations of Immortality
- Series: Incarnations of Immortality core; position 4 of 7 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Piers Anthony
Notes
- From the series record (Incarnations of Immortality): The original seven-book run, one novel per Incarnation (Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, Good), published together as a complete cycle 1983-1990.
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.
- Publication order, within the series Incarnations of Immortality: position 4 of 7: previous With a Tangled Skein (1985) · next Being a Green Mother (1987)
- Internal chronology, within Incarnations of Immortality: position 4 of 8: previous With a Tangled Skein (1985) · next Being a Green Mother (1987)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Incarnations of Immortality
- bookseriesinorder.com: Incarnations of Immortality
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wielding_a_Red_Sword
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