The first book in a series, which in itself is a sequel to another series. Whew. :-)

From the front cover:

'The Gods are dead, but the struggle for the Swords of Power continues ...'

From the back cover:

'Vulcan, forger of the Swords of Power, was the last God to die. Now humans possess all the Swords, some for good, some for evil.

Woundhealer is the Sword of Healing, and is said to be held at the White Temple, far to the south. Mark, Prince Consort of Tasavalta, seeks it to help his son regain his sight. But Baron Amintor and the evil wizard Burslam [sic] are also intent on gaining the Sword, at any cost. Before the conflict ends, Mark and his nephew Zoltan will have seen far stranger things than the Swords of Power ...

'Fred Saberhagen has proved he is one of the best'
- Lester Del Rey'

This is a paperback copy from Orbit, published in 1988. The book was originally published in 1986.

Copied from fantasticfiction.co.uk:

Publisher''s Weekly
Returning to the milieu of his Swords trilogy, Saberhagen offers a new scenario. The gods have withdrawn from the human world and the 12 Swords of Power they had forged are now scattered, lost and hidden. The weapons are still coveted, though, by men like Baron Amintor, who has lost one kingdom and now sees them as the means to another. No scruples stop him from stealing the sword Woundhealer from the White Temple, where its powers were offered to cure all pilgrims. His bad luck, however, is to have crossed Prince Mark, who is desperate for Woundhealer''s help in treating his blind, troubled son. The running battle between Mark and Amintor, their allies, their wizards and their swords, is spun out in a light, pleasant adventure that benefits greatly from Saberhagen''s narrative gifts as the various strands leapfrog forward, keeping the reader off balance but constantly intrigued.

I started reading this book yesterday. Only got 20 pages in so don't have much to say yet. :-) But I'm not exactly hooked so far ...

Yesterday I found a receipt in this book. Turns out I bought it at Tanum in Paléet in Oslo on August 16th, 1994. :-o About time I read it ... !!

I finished this book five minutes ago.

This was not a very good book. I don't agree with the review that I posted above. The book isn't very well written - the language is repetitive at times, the names aren't good (names in fantasy are one of my pet peeves) and, well, it just doesn't 'flow'. The plot is pretty standard, not very original - although of course it may have been original 21 years ago when the book was first published, I can only speak from my POV as a longtime fantasy reader in 2007. :-) The characters are mostly one-dimensional and the setting doesn't always make sense. The blurb makes it sound as if this is an epic tale, grand in scope, etc, but it absolutely isn't. ('Mark and Zoltan will see far stranger things than the Swords' ... Yes, one thing that's stranger.) There's really nothing special about this book at all, IMO. So I can't see why it's praised. Not a book I would recommend to anyone except a Saberhagen fan.

The book is now available for other readers. I may pass it on to zaphyrion as he asked me about the Swords books when I first registered the two books in this series that I have ... but that was before I read them and I can't honestly recommend them to him now ;-) ... or maybe I will be able to arrange a trade. We'll see.

Finally it's time for this book to travel ... !! It will go with me to our monthly BookCrossing meetup tomorrow. I will leave it in the zone if no one takes it with them (which is very likely :-).