The BEST Fantasy Novel You Haven't Read

Añadido: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Heat.

[00:00:15]Heat.

[00:00:39]Hey fellow travelers. I'm Tim from Secret Fire Books and today I'm going to be talking about a book that I'm almost positive none of you have heard of before. And to be fair, I had never heard of this book either until a friend of mine gave it to me as a gift. a couple of years ago and only recently did I decide to finally read it and figure out what it's all about. This is The Sword of Morning Star by Richard Meade. Now, if you've never heard the name Richard Meade before, you can be forgiven because it's actually not a real name. It is in fact one of many pen names used by an author named Ben Hos. I tried to do a little bit of research about Ben Hos going into this video and I found that there's actually not all that much information about the guy out there on the internet uh aside from what I could scr up from his Goodreads profile and some other websites that catalog all of his various books. Uh but from what I could find, Ben Hos, like a lot of the other authors that I've talked about on this channel, got his start writing short stories for Pope magazines. But it wasn't until uh later in his life around the late 1960s and early '7s did he finally achieve his dream of becoming a full-time writer.

[00:01:49]And from that point on, he wrote a ton of books under various different pen names. Uh most of his books were westerns, but he did write two short fantasy novels under the Richard me pen name. The first one was The Sword of Morning Star in 1968 and the second was a sort of prequel called Exiles Quest in 1970. I don't know anything about that book aside from the fact that apparently it does take place in the same universe as The Sword of Morning Star. Now, if you give this book a passing glance and you see that wonderfully cheesy Jeff Jones painting on the front cover, you might think that this is a a Blood and Thunder Conan the Barbarianesque sword and sorcery novel. And that's certainly what I thought, but it's actually not the case. Uh, this this story does have some things in common with the sword and sorcery genre. Uh, for one thing, it is a very fast-paced story. The narrative moves along at an absolutely brilliant clip. Uh, it's only 144 pages, so it's a very, very breezy read. Uh, it's also very action-packed, and the action is very visceral, very violent, so it does have that in common with Sword and Sorcery.

[00:03:02]But I found that this is actually a quite quite a different kind of fantasy story. It's actually a lot more traditional in tone. Uh for one thing, uh the morality of this story is a lot simpler. Uh it's very black and white.

[00:03:19]There are very cleancut good guys and bad guys, and those factions never waver at all. So, there's not really any of the morally gray morass that you find in your typical Sword and Sorcery story.

[00:03:31]Uh, which is kind of ironic because, uh, the setting that most of the story takes place in is called the Gray Lands. But it's also quite a bit different in style. I would actually say that this story has more in common with Arthuran legends and heroic mythology than it does with Roberty Howard's Conan or Fritz Liber's Fatford and the Gra Mouser. So, it's not exactly what I expected to get, but nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book, and I think it's kind of a hidden gem of the fantasy genre. I'm kind of upset that more people don't talk about this. The story takes place in the far far future after this cataclysmic event that the characters refer to as the World Fire.

[00:04:16]And though it's never stated explicitly, uh, it's implied, I think, that the world fire must have been this great nuclear war that devastated everything and kind of reset humanity. It sent mankind back into the dark ages. All sense of modern technology, notions of modern science and culture were completely wiped out and replaced with superstition and barbarism. Though it is implied that the world after the world fire is this vast setting with lots of different factions and nations, uh for this story at least, we really only focus on three main territories, if you will. Uh in the north, we have the lands of darkness, which are these hard aid wastelands, home to to tribes of brutal barbarian warriors. They're really unruly and unpredictable. They're kind of like the forces of chaos in this world. Then in the far south we have the complete opposite, the lands of light, which are these very cultured, enlightened people who are slowly trying to dig up the the remains of ancient technology and wisdom and reintroduce them to the world, although the world doesn't really seem ready for that quite yet. And then in the middle is a vast empire known as the Gray Kingdoms or the Grey Lands. This is kind of your typical medieval fantasy setting, more or less.

[00:05:38]Uh the kings and the lords of the grey lands for generations have protected the lands of light from the lands of darkness. They've kind of stood as a barrier between the barbarian hordes of the north. And our main character is an 11 or 12year-old boy named Helmut who is he just so happens to be the bastard son of the king of the grey lands. However, at the beginning of the story, his father has died and his older brother, the legitimate heir to the throne, has become king. I can't remember the brother's name. I want to say it's Gustav or some kind of generic Germanic name, but it doesn't really matter. He He dies within the first couple chapters. Spoilers. One night, Helmet receives a message from his brother, the king, commanding him to meet with the king and their uncle, Duke Alrech, at the Duke's castle. Now, at first, uh, Helmet's bodyguard receives this message, and he's skeptical about this.

[00:06:35]He he smells a trap, but there's no defying the summons of the king, and so the bodyguard takes young Helmet to the Duke's castle, and they are immediately captured because, of course, they are.

[00:06:46]This was a plot that uh the king and the duke worked on together. Uh Helmet's brother wants him out of the way. He sees his younger half brother as a threat to his power and so he wants to get rid of him. But he can't bring himself to kill his younger brother. So he decides just to exile him to send him off down south to the these marshlands where all the other exiles live. and uh their their uncle Alrech tells him, "Well, yeah, that's fine and all, but you need some kind of reassurance that this kid isn't going to rise up someday and overthrow you. So, just to make sure, I'm going to cut off his right hand with a battle axe."

[00:07:27]>> Well, that was unnecessarily brutal.

[00:07:29]>> And that is exactly what happens. We get this very dark scene where evil Uncle Alrech has his men hold down little helmet while he chops off his hand with a battle axe. It is absolutely brutal.

[00:07:43]After that, they put him on a boat. This poor kid is bleeding out. They put him on a boat and send him off down the river towards the marshlands where luckily he is found and saved by uh this kind of hermit sorcerer named Sandavar.

[00:07:58]Sandavar was exiled by Helmet's father years ago for sorcery cuz uh magic is actually not allowed in the gray kingdoms. And so he's sent to the marshlands as an exile. But he finds he finds Helmet and decides to take him in and nurse him back to health. Soon afterward, Helmet hears news that sure enough, his evil uncle Alrech has murdered the king and now taken the throne of the Grey Kingdoms for himself.

[00:08:25]And not only that, he has moved in this faction of they're almost like they're they're called halfwolves, but they're basically they're basically werewolves without the transformation. They're just half man, halfwolf all the time. They're these real fierce beastly warriors. And uh he's kind of exchanged the army of humans that the great kingdom used to employ for an army of halfwolves. And they're just ab causing absolute havoc in the gray kingdoms. They're running everything into the ground. And it seems that uh evil Uncle Alrech is also making deals with the barbarians in the north to take over the world and eventually absorb the lands of light as well and wipe out what little hope there is of humanity returning to an enlightened age. And Sandavar, wise wizard mentor that he is, can't have that happening in this world. And so he decides that he's going to train young Helmet to become a brave hero who can take back his father's crown and save the world.

[00:09:26]However, as we just mentioned, Helmet is a little kid. He's only 11 or 12 years old. He's not exactly the hero type, and he has a missing hand besides. So, Sandavar cooks up this plan that at first sounds really messed up. Uh he tells Helmet that he can perform a magic ritual that will send him into this alternate dimension, this sort of afterlife underworld where the spirits of dead warriors from ages past congregate and wage war upon each other for eternity. While he's there in this spirit realm, Helmet can learn from these heroes of old. He can learn how to become a warrior. he can gain strength and skills and knowledge and become the the hero that his people need. Uh and not only that, 10 minutes in our world is 10 years in the spirit realm. And so if he just stays there for 10 minutes, he will grow up as a as a grown man with all the strength and power that he's learned from 10 years of warfare training with these old warrior spirits.

[00:10:36]Uh, and so basically he won't need to spend several years in our world growing up and learning how to do things the hard way. However, the downside is that if he goes through with this plan, if he goes through with this otherworldly warfare training, something in Helmet will be broken. Some part of his heart that allows him to feel happiness and joy and love and laughter will be lost to him forever. So, he will have the means to take his kingdom back, but he will lose his humanity in the process.

[00:11:08]But nevertheless, little Helmet thinks about this for all of five minutes before deciding, "Yep, do it, Sandavar.

[00:11:14]Send me into this hell dimension, and I'll I'll become the hero my people need." So, sure enough, Sandavar casts his spell. Uh, little helmet disappears in a puff of smoke, and then 10 minutes later, he reappears as this big buff goldenhaired warrior. uh still with a missing hand, but with all the skills and knowhow to wage war against his evil uncle Alrech and take back his kingdom.

[00:11:39]So yeah, that's the basic setup for this novel. Like I said, it's very traditional good versus evil, beat the big bad guy and save the world kind of fantasy, and I like that. I I don't have a problem with those kind of stories.

[00:11:52]The problems that I do have with this book are in the details. For one thing, the dialogue. Now, I appreciate when a fantasy setting, a medieval fantasy setting has characters speaking in an appropriately archaic fashion. Yeah, I know a lot of other people don't like that, but I do. I really like when characters uh they sound like they came from that era. Uh, there's nothing that gets on my nerves in a fantasy story more than when characters in a medieval setting speak with modern English complete with slang and modern terminology. I I hate that. I absolutely hate that. Where's the ruby? What do you mean you don't have the ruby? I thought you had the ruby. I don't have the ruby.

[00:12:41]What a waste of time. I'll for nothing.

[00:12:44]>> I was fighting the dragon. Oh, what was I doing? What's this dragon piss? the Ruby.

[00:12:49]Don't take your eyes off the Ruby.

[00:12:52]>> Don't take your eyes off the Ruby.

[00:12:55]>> Uh, now the dialogue in this book is very basic. It's very easy to read. It's nothing offensive. Uh, but it's very basic. But then there are moments where Richard me or Ben Hos I should say has his characters go on these big boisterous Shakespearean diet tribes complete with old-fashioned King James English and they kind of come out of nowhere. Now the thing is I think I would like them a lot more if that was just the way all the characters in this book spoke all the time. as it is, they just kind of come out of nowhere. And uh if I had to guess, I would say that the writer tried to to make these moments feel a little more important and have a lot more drama and gravitas to them with that showy flowery uh flowery language.

[00:13:50]But to me, it just seemed like he was trying a little too hard. Also, there is a swath of chapters in the middle of this book where things get a little too formulaic. Uh after Helmet comes back to our world from the hell dimension, he's all grown up. He's he's ready to fight these battles and save the world. Uh he has to go on a series of quests to acquire the things he needs to take on his evil uncle Alrech's army. And so we follow him and Sandavar going from place to place, finding what he needs, getting a horse and war dogs and armor and weapons and a magic morning star to replace his severed right hand. And we're given all of this in excruciating detail. We need to know exactly where he got all these weapons and armor. We need to know the names of the people who sold him these weapons and armor and horses.

[00:14:45]It gets kind of annoying. It's very repetitive and it's a perfect example of the and then this happened kind of storytelling. And I I can forgive that kind of storytelling method when the events are fantastical or weird. But in this case, he's just buying a horse.

[00:15:06]He's just buying weapons. It it's nothing spectacular. And as a result, those chapters got really on my nerves and they take up a good portion of the second act of this book, unfortunately.

[00:15:18]And without giving anything away, I I will say that the ending for this book kind of let me down. Uh, from the moment where the wizard Sandavar tells young Helmet, "If you undertake this otherworldly training, you will lose your humanity. You'll never again be able to feel love or joy or happiness."

[00:15:38]It seemed it really seemed like Helmet's character arc was going in a very specific direction. This is a very mythological kind of story. And so it seemed like the author was adding this element of heroic hubris to the story.

[00:15:55]And so it seemed to me that our protagonist would arrive at a very bittersweet kind of ending. I had no doubt that the the forces of good would triumph over the forces of evil in the end, but I suspected that Helmet himself u would not be better off at the end of the story than he was at the beginning.

[00:16:15]And I was looking forward to that kind of bittersweet ending. But unfortunately, that's not the ending that the author had in mind. what he had in mind was a much more typical Sakcharine kind of ending to the point where I read the last couple pages of this book and just went a that's cute.

[00:16:36]I can't say it ruined my overall enjoyment of the novel, but yeah, I thought I thought the ending would have a bit more bite to it, but I can forgive all of that for the book's merit. There is some really really cool stuff in this novel. Obviously, it's not highbrow literature or anything, but it is a very, very solid fantasy adventure. I'm honestly really surprised that not a lot of people talk about this, or it doesn't at least have some kind of cult following. Uh, the thing is, while I was reading this book, I was thinking to myself, you know who would really, really love this? Teenage Tim. Like seriously, if you gave me this book when I was 13 years old after I had finished The Lord of the Rings for the first time and was busy trying to find my next big fantasy read, if you had given me The Sword of Morning Star, I would have devoured this thing and I would have enjoyed every single second of it. When this book gets good, it gets really, really good and it turns into some of the best high octane adrenaline junky action and adventure.

[00:17:38]Like seriously, it seems like a lot of the decisions in this book were made by the author thinking to himself, hm, if I were a really hyperactive middle school student hopped up on Mountain Dew and Pixie Sticks, what would I put in the story? And then he puts it in the story.

[00:17:57]There are so many fast-paced, bloody battles where Helmet is slashing here and there, severing arms and legs off of enemies and caving in people's heads with his giant mace hand. There are wizards and witches and castle sieges and talking animals and swamp monsters.

[00:18:15]And lest you forget, the entire army of his evil uncle Alrech is made up of these halfwolves, these gnarly mangy wolf men who just tear everything apart wherever they go. And the author goes to great pains to explain that just the sight of these things on the battlefield strikes terror in the heart of the human warriors. It is SO METAL. I HATE to say it, but >> not to be contradictory, but it's very metal.

[00:18:46]>> Did this novel absolutely blow me away?

[00:18:49]Absolutely. It did not. But it was really, really fun. And at the end of the day, that's all it had to be. That's all it needed to be. Just a really entertaining bit of fast-paced escapism.

[00:19:01]If you find this at the used bookstore for a few dollars, pick it up. 100% pick it up. At the very least, there are much worse books that you can spend your money on. And if like me, if you've had this book just sitting on your bookshelf for a long time without having touched it, give it a read sometime soon. I I don't think you'll be disappointed. But that's all just my opinion. Let me know in the comments below. Have you ever read The Sword of Morning Star by Richard Meade? Let me know what you think about it. And let me know what your favorite underrated fantasy novel is. Until next time, as always, farewell and keep reading.

[00:19:40]fire.

[00:19:57]That is the most metal thing I ever heard in my whole life. High F.