Anvil of Ice

First of a fantasy trilogy entitled The Winter of the World, and a fairly impressive hard-cover debut that manages to avoid cliche for the most part. On a glaciated planet, young orphan Alv becomes apprentice to the magicworking Mastersmith. Gifted Alv progresses quickly, suppressing his doubts about the ethics of his master. For his final apprentice piece, Alv contrives a deadly magical sword using knowledge filched from the Mastersmith's forbidden library. The Mastersmith pretends anger but is secretly pleased: the sword's purpose is to coerce others mentally, a power beyond the Mastersmith's own abilities to forge. Later, Alv witnesses the Mastersmith's attempt to destroy the friendly, dwarflike duergar with the sword; he shouts a warning and flees. Then, after various hardships and adventures, a much chastened Alv - now calling himself Elof - learns that the Mastersmith, using the sword, has inspired the brutal warrior-clan Ekwesh to conquer the civilized lands. So Elof applies to the duergar (themselves talented magical smiths), hoping to learn some method of defeating the Mastersmith's evil sword. Eventually, there's a climactic battle in which Elof finds and loses his lady-love, defeats the Mastersmith, is wounded - and survives for parts II and III. Serviceable plotting, bold imaginings, some original touches: talented work, muted by tension-dissipating overdetail and Rohan's generally inert prose. (Kirkus Reviews)