Reviews

The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories by Lord Dunsany

mithren's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Edit 27/08/2023: I initially gave this book 4.5 stars but it has been one month to date and I am still thinking of it, which practically never happens, so I am rounding the rating up to 5 stars.

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Most of the stories are very good with some few 5 stars that stand out specially. Even for the ones I didn't like very much, Lord Dunsany's prose is still fantastic.



5 stars:

• The Sword of Welleran
• The Highwayman
• The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth

4 stars:

• The Fall of Babbulkund
• The Kith of the Elf Folk
• The Whirlpool

3.5 stars:

• In the Twilight
• The Ghosts
• The Hurricane
• The Lord of Cities

3 stars:

• On the Dry Land

2 stars:

• The Doom of La Traviata

scarfin_and_barfin's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.0

godard's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

paulgtr234's review against another edition

4.0

Some weird and fascinating stories. The language and structures of these stories is archaic and it takes a little work to follow where the author is going. The effort is worth the trip in most cases. Lord Dunsany has a wild imagination and takes the reader for quite a ride.

arthurbdd's review against another edition

5.0

After two early collections in which he was still honing his craft, Dunsany reached the height of his powers with this magnificent collection. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2022/01/08/the-ornate-brevity-of-lord-dunsany/

mallorn's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective

3.75

jake_'s review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

3.5

ketreads's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

The more I read of Lord Dunsany's work, the more I come to love his poetic and fantastical worlds he's able to build in so few pages.
At the start I often found his overly long and some times unfocused sentences a bit daunting, but after awhile his prose gets easier and easier to love. I now love the way he describes the feelings of often inanimate objects, places, or things. You're made to truly care about these characters and their feeling even after just meeting them.
So much imagination goes into each story, they feel so much like just a snippet of a larger whole. 
Such lovely and whimsical stories I'd be happy to read again!

kralizec's review against another edition

inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

bitchesonmycock69's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0