Hey, friends!
One thing I'm very, very excited about with A DREAM OF SWORDS (in its last week on Kickstarter!) is that one of my favorite contemporary authors, Sebastien de Castell, has written its introduction, an essay about the outsized impact that swords have on the popular imagination.
If you haven't read his GREATCOATS series, I really love it. It's a great high adventure swashbuckling fantasy, and it's got some stellar audiobook narrations by Joe Jameson. There's a very good chance that your library has them, and if not, they're on Audible or you can find links to the retailer of your choice through his website. There's heavy, gritty subject matter, and sometimes ain't for the squeamish, but unlike some darker fantasy stuff there's an undercurrent of hope and idealism that permeates the whole thing. I'm a sucker for idealism in fiction and I can think of few folks in modern times that have done it better than has Sebastien (another top contender is Avatar: The Last Airbender).
(the above is my attempt to capture the lead of the book, Falcio, and his two best friends/brothers-in-arms).
I wrote at length about the books here, if you're inclined to read.
