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This one’s definitely a shift from typical Arthurian retellings. The Sword Triumphant continues Monaco’s gritty, chaotic take on the legend of Parsival, and if you’ve made it this far in the series, you probably already know what you’re in for—bloody battles, weird mystical moments, and a whole lot of internal struggle.

The pacing jumps around a bit—it’s not your smooth, linear quest story. Things can get disjointed or a little surreal at times, and that’s either going to totally work for you or not. It leans more into atmosphere and character than tight plotting, which makes it feel messy in places, but also kind of fascinating.

Parsival himself is still a bit of a wreck—in a good way. He’s not your classic polished hero, which is part of the appeal. There’s a rawness to him, and to the whole story, that sets it apart from the cleaner, more romantic versions of Arthurian legend. It’s darker, more brutal, and honestly kind of weird, but that’s what makes it interesting.

This book isn’t for everyone—it’s dense, sometimes confusing, and Monaco doesn’t really hold your hand through it. But if you like your fantasy with a side of chaos, and you’re into morally grey characters wrestling with fate, death, and meaning, The Sword Triumphant has a lot to offer.

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A fantastic ending to a fantastic series. As always amazing world building and well written characters. Can't wait to see what Gareth Hanrahan gives us next!

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Felt my knees not being as young as they once were often reading "The Sword Triumphant" by Gareth Hanrahan. This concludes the Firstborn Trilogy and it is a damn fine conclusion.

Slaying Lord Bone with the Nine saved the world, for a bit at least. But the world keeps going. 20 years after that Aelfric shattered the magic of the Erlking and broke his hold on humanity. Leaving Spellbreaker behind. 20 years after that "just Alf" is getting by, minding the farm while his sister tries to heal the land and train others with the Earthpower. At least until a vampire with the message "Tell the Lammergeier that Blaise has need of him for one last service. Tell him to bring his sword." And so it must end.

Reasons to read:
-Tired people haunted by past deeds forced to deal with the youths who don't know how it really is
-A POV I was not expecting
-Stories having a habit of getting away from their subject
-Things coming to a close
-Just a fantastic world and machinations

Cons:
-My knees

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The Sword Triumphant by Gareth Hanrahan is an emotionally charged finale to the Lands of the Firstborn trilogy, wrapping up a saga of dark myth, vengeance, and redemption with both brutality and beauty. Decades after his legendary victory, the aging hero Aelfric is summoned for one last quest, forced to confront the legacy of his past deeds. Hanrahan’s worldbuilding remains as inventive as ever, introducing readers to non-traditional characters and fantastical elements that keep the story unpredictable and immersive, while the narrative’s moments of heartbreak, courage, and hope provide a deeply satisfying journey.
Ultimately, *The Sword Triumphant* is a triumphant conclusion that rewards long-time readers with a fitting end to an epic fantasy series, blending dark magic, complex politics, and the weight of heroism in a way that feels both fresh and timeless.

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The author has created a world that is a mixture of traditional fantasy and the macabre. In this final novel of the series our reluctant-aging hero Aelfric receives a message from a vampiric boy elf, Ceremos, that the Wailing Tower in Necrad is now open again and what could be a voice from Alf’s friend Blaise, a powerful wizard and former companion, is seeking his help and needs Alf to bring Spellbreaker, a blood-thirsty sentient sword. Once again, Alf is called to liberate Necrad, a city of darkness, elves, and monsters. But Alf is wary of going on another grand adventure at his age and has gotten rid of the cursed sword. He would rather stay on the farm with his sister, the shapeshifter, and live out the rest of his life. After certain events, Alf, his sister once leader of Necrad, and a group of young adventurers, including an apprenticed shapeshifter and a vampiric elf boy are thrust into a quest to find the legendary sword that Alf would rather stay lost and to return to Necrad, to play the hero again.

For me, while I enjoy many of the interesting and colorful characters, what makes this novel and the series for me is Spellbreaker, the talking blood thirsty, back talking sword. Spellbreaker is a complex character. Here we have a sword that literally needs to feed on blood and carnage to live and thrive. It gives the impression of apathy to world events as long as it can live in glory and revenge. It is a very selective sword with whom it will let wield it. It wants to be a loner, but how can it be that when the sword needs someone to wield it to bring it the blood and mayhem it feeds on? Also, the banter between Alf, the reluctant hero, and Spellbreaker is humorous and emotional at times.

My biggest complaint with the novel is with the ending. The final battle while surprising and bittersweet, could have been so much more. The plot of the ending was surprising, but the author’s decision of not writing large battle sequences with these unique characters and instead having the ending mostly told through retellings of what happened was disappointing. This may have been because the length of the novel is already over five hundred pages, but I wanted more actual fight scenes in the novel.

Overall, this was a good fantasy series with some interesting characters and interesting action sequences, but with the ending I was slightly disappointed in how the author ultimately told his tale. I look forward to more novels by this author, and hopefully this is not the last tale of the Spellbreaker.

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The Sword Triumphant is a masterful and deeply satisfying conclusion to Gareth Hanrahan’s darkly mythic trilogy, delivering the emotional weight, brutal beauty, and epic grandeur the series has promised from the start. Aelfric’s return to the sword and the scars of his past is both heartbreaking and heroic, weaving themes of redemption, legacy, and the cost of defiance into a tale that feels timeless and thunderous. Hanrahan doesn’t just conclude a story; he reforges it, building on the lore and pain of the previous books to craft a finale as sharp and resonant as Spellbreaker itself. This is epic fantasy at its finest: gritty, wise, and unforgettable.

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A very good conclusion to a unique classic fantasy trilogy! Loved all the journeys the characters went on and seeing new faces as well as familiar ones from the previous books! The world building felt super immersive with very descriptive and interesting settings that felt like you could see them!
This trilogy feels very Tolkien but adding so many cool twists and turns to keep the classic feel but have modern day twists and feels!

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Gareth Hanrahan’s gritty dark fantasy trilogy, Lands of the Firstborn ends with The Sword Triumphant — a harrowing tale of the trickery of prophecy, the cyclic pointlessness of mortal violence, and the struggle of even the strongest few against the might of fate itself.


I reviewed the previous entry The Sword Unbound, praising it for its unique reworking of the classic Tolkenian fantasy tropes, without forsaking its epic fantasy roots and diving headfirst into low-magic grimdark territory. However, my criticisms of the second entry outweighed that praise. My complaints centered around the over-reliance on trope inversion at the cost of rewarding storytelling, muddy uneven pacing, and a plot that said a lot without doing much to create a cohesive and progressively enjoyable experience.


A twenty-year time jump sees a tired and jaded ( more so than usual) Alfric “Alf”, the dreaded Lammergeier, adopting the easier life after disposing of the titular sword, SpellBreaker, at the end of The Sword Unbound. Along with his sister, Olva Forster, the Widow Queen, they retire to their village, hoping to leave saving the world to other folk, other heroes.

There is no rest for heroes in this world, the wicked, or the wretched. And we have all three in our favored protagonists, so back into the trenches we go.

A new mortal threat rises in the realm of Summerswell, and the witch-elf Skerrise rules the epicenter of dark magic, Necrad, emerging as a tyrant to rival the now-defeated Lord Bone, proving yet again, that evil is never truly ended, and conflict is the nature of life itself. While the mystical Creator Overbeing, the dreaded Erkling, continues to manipulate the events of the Firstborn and the Secondborn from the shadows. It was surprisingly disappointing that, having three antagonists, including two immortal demigods, The Sword Triumphant still lacked the mounting dread of great dark fantasy.

Hanrahan’s tradition of strong side-character development continues in this entry. The Samwise-insert hapless-loyal-oaf-drawn-into-bigger-things Jon, shrewd Cerlys, wanting to prove herself and earn renown to rival the fabled stories of the Nine, the vampire witch-elf Ceremos, his fate entwined with Alf, for better or worse, and Olva’s shapeshifting protege, Perdia, round out our merry gang. In these side-characters, Hanrahan (un)subtly sets up hints of the emergence of a “Nine”, a group of new heroes to fight future evil, thereby reinforcing his core tenet of the cyclic nature of good and evil.

Sadly, as much as I enjoyed the side-characters, our main protagonists, Alf and Olva, are found sorely wanting. Their current iteration dives so deep into self-loathing introspection and endless sighing that it draws most of their chapters and set-pieces to a trudging crawl. The most aggravating parts of this entire series, and criminally overdone in this finale, was taking away from impactful action sequences, grizzly battles, nefarious magic, and other aspects that draw us dark fantasy fans into a book, by resorting instead to the wool-gathering of either Alf or Olva, as they muse (again and again) over the pointlessness of war. While this bleak outlook is a cornerstone of grimdark, other storytellers prefer to evoke that pointlessness via their action set pieces and their grim atmosphere, rather than having their sullen, wrinkled protagonists whine about it constantly. The sword, SpellBreaker, a character unto itself, the indestructible demon-blade to end gods, grows from having a petulant teen in Unbound to a cranky, arrogant, blowhard adolescent in Triumphant.

While The Sword Triumphant corrects some of the wrongs in Unbound and Defiant, many overarching critiques persisted through the series finale. As with the first two books, Triumphant feels more than a smidge too overwrought, self-important, and something that “insists upon itself”. Hanrahan was quite heavy-handed with his messaging, beating us over the head with his central thesis rather than allowing readers to distill his themes through more subtle messaging.

Heavy-handed prose, subdued plot climaxes, thematic sledgehammering, churned through uneven pacing, and paler versions of our lead POV characters yielded a product with bones to be great but lost itself in its own sauce. Lands of the Firstborn is a prime example of “getting high off your own supply”, losing the nuance that elevates this genre of violence and bloody storytelling. Though The Sword Triumphant was a strong ender, the entire series deserved better.

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This last installment of the series has proved to be the equal to the rest of the series. At the end of the book is what sort of let me down. The story was well written throughout the series, I think. Alf was my favorite character, and the others were enjoyable to read about as well. The action and combat was rather good throughout this book and the series as well. The end of the story was my, only issue with the book this time. Maybe when I do a reread it will be better, and I will feel like I have a better understanding of the story. This book and the entire series will be a must read for lovers of good fantasy. Thanks to the author for writing a great series and netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read a good book. This book I will give a three to four stars.

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A phenomenal ending to an epic series!

Many years after their last battle, Alf and Olva are much older and enjoying their quiet lives. But, nothing lasts forever.

Alf receives a message from Blaise asking for his help and to bring the Sword.
He thought Blaise was dead. Even if it's a trick, he has to go. For the Nine.

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and now it moves to one of my favorites of the year.

I loved being back in this world with these characters. Alf, Olva, Spellbreaker. I also liked a lot of the new additions. Cerlyse, Perdia and Jon.

I loved this book! If you read fantasy, please read this series. It is very underrated in my opinion.

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An extremely solid ending to a classic-feeling fantasy series. This book takes place 20 years after the end of book two and Alf finds himself about to take on one last quest.

I am such a sucker for a reluctant hero and Aelfric is everything good about that trope. His story is incredibly well told and the end of Lands of the Firstborn is a satisfying conclusion to the world created. The magic system, world, and ultimately, the consequences of the character’s actions are very well thought out.

This has solidified me as a Hanrafan? (Can we call ourselves that??) The Sword Triumphant is brutal, nuanced, and filled with a beautiful cast of characters. Plus, there’s an evil talking sword so how could you not love it?!

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This was a perfect ending to a really great trilogy. After the first book I wasn’t sure if I’d continue so soon but I tried reading other things and couldn’t focus because my mind kept coming back to these characters. I love how flawed everyone was and the plotting and secrecy between friends. At its core this is a story of friendship which is my favorite part of Tolkien’s writing and I appreciate this author taking that and telling a new story. It was graphic and visceral in all the right places and asked the question what do we do in times of peace instead of just throwing battle scene after battle scene at the reader. I liked the way we switched between different povs and bounced around in the timeline. It was easy to follow and made it so hard to put the book down. Really glad I read this :)

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I find it hard to put into words how epic this series has been. The depth of the world building, the motivations of the characters and the heroes journey are expertly crafted to carry you through reading and build tension throughout. We return to this world some 20 years after the last novel. Alf and Olva are quite old at this point and Alf just wants a quiet life of anonymity in his hometown. But fate has more in store for this quite old hero. The countryside is in turmoil with bands of troops pillaging and murdering their way through the land and in the midst of it all an old friend turns up at Alf's door with a message from a long dead, or so he thought, friend. The Lammergier is needed once again as is the sword Spellbreaker, which he left imbedded into the Erlkings tree some 20 years past. This story carries us across the human lands, into the dwarven ones and eventually to the ancient city of Necrad itself. It is a brilliant tale and a fantastic read. I could not put it down.

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This was fine. A good ending overall, but it also makes me want to revisit my rating of book two. In honesty, it's forgettable as much as it pains me to say. As I was reading, I enjoyed the story, but as I would put it down, I didn't really care if I picked it back up. I have enjoyed these books very much while reading them, but after I finish, I find it hard to remember them. This one in particular I liked the most until I didn't. I found it becoming very repetitive when not necessary, and things just seemed to happen because they could. The entire book was more on the side of "tell don't show," and I don't usually enjoy books that do that. I could go on and on, but I feel like I would just be making this sound like a bad book when it isn't. Maybe some time, I will revisit the series and love them like they deserve, but for now, this one is a three star, and the series overall is too.

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I loved the first two, but this one was a bit off. The age put me off and I couldn’t stand Olva at times. She was just an unnecessary hindrance. That being said the sword was great as usual and the grand quest was entertaining. The ending seemed a bit unfinished.

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Oh so bittersweet, but worth it!

I just finished The Sword Triumphant and… I'm in turmoil. Gareth Hanrahan has done it again. This trilogy (Lands of the Firstborn) proves just that.
This third book is an amazing and rich conclusion to a series that started strong with The Sword Defiant, followed by The Sword Unbound. Our reluctant hero and friend Aelfric, once upon a time saved the world and killed the big bad - but that was decades ago. He is now called back into this turmoil as one last "hoorah", giving us the satisfactory ending we needed.
The world building by Hanrahan is very immersive, I felt as if I was tagging along and making my own observations as we proceeded. The story has all the strange creatures, dark magic and a (back)talking sword.. with might I say, slight attitude problem.
If you’ve been on this journey since The Sword Defiant, I think you’ll find this finale incredibly satisfying. If you haven’t started this adventure yet, give it a try! I actually re-read the first two and have to update my Goodreads on those two.. but had to let you all know how amazing this journey was!

Hanrahan gave me everything I desire in my literary adventures and I've ordered his other trilogy - starting with Gutter Prayer in the Black Iron Legacy Trilogy as well!

Thank you to Netgalley, Gareth Hanrahan and Orbit Books for this bitter yet sweet conclusion to my adventure!

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A pretty solid sequel. The writing was sharp and full of heart. The author’s voice shines through, making even the quieter moments feel meaningful. A solid and satisfying experience overall.

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I am someone surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. Don’t get me wrong, I love classic fantasy, and it’s always nice to see older characters pulled out of retirement, but with the variety of POV characters and the world building feeling like someone’s TTRPG in book form, I was half expecting a lot of meta humor, some winks and nudges … and instead I got a rather philosophical book about the cycles of violence and the pointlessness of war.

This is the third book in a series though I haven’t read the first two, and I think I had more fun with it because of that. All the callbacks to other characters, mentions of past actions felt like heroes recounting their glory days, and how often those tales aren’t quite the way things really happened — either because the hero forgot or the tale got embroidered to make it more fun to listen to. Going toe to toe with a dragon is fine in a tavern tale or a folk song, but in reality it’s a dragon, something that eats would-be heroes.

For Olva, there’s a lot of emphasis on seeing this new generation make the same mistakes she made when she was their age, unable to stop them or change their minds. For Alf it’s the reality of picking up a weapon again and the obligations of violence and killing. It’s both of them coming face to face with the choices they made years before, and the ones they didn’t. In a way perhaps it would have been better coming to this having read the other two books, to feel the weight of those realizations, of those poignant moments … but that’s not what happened.

The book is well written, well paced, and easy to read. The characters, though, are more archetypal than nuanced, and it’s hard to tell most of them apart. Still, well worth the read if you like thoughtful epic fiction. Thank you so very much to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC!

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Wonderful finale that adds an emotional undercurrent to these characters that are so easy to love. This series stands out among fantasy with the incredible world-building and likeable characters we've come to expect from Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan. I'm sad this series is over and I am looking forward to reading anything else by this wonderful author. I'll be recommending this excellent finale and series to everyone.

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While I wasn't the biggest fan of the first installment of the trilogy, I thought the second book sharpened up the concept and upped the stakes. A bittersweet sense of melacholy and reflection runs through all three books, but I think it's the strongest here in the third and final book in the trilogy. Alf and his sister are too old for the burdens of the world, but shoulder them they must. Without spoiling anything, I think it was a satisfying conclusion to his character arc, and the talking sword Spellbreaker is still one of the coolest characters.

One of my complaints about The Sword Defiant was that it didn't do enough to make itself stand out from the million other sword and sorcery books out there. Enjoying all three and treating them as one really long form story helped that out a lot: the second and third books are way more daring and creative.

It's a trilogy I'll reread again in the future when they're all out, I had a good time with it.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this early copy in exchange for an honest review.

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