It’s aimed for younger middle-grade readers, and it doesn’t skillfully tackle any of its messages and themes it just kind of presents them and says, “ this: good, this: bad.” I enjoyed Nancy Yi Fan’s books when I was a kid because I myself wished I was in her shoes - being a published author and New York Times bestseller at such a young age. In conclusion, Sword Quest isn’t that good, but it’s a lot better than its predecessor. Mark Zug, a favorite artist of mine, illustrated Swordbird, and this time Jo-Anne Rioux illustrated Sword Quest. The one great thing these books have going for them, though, are the beautiful pencil illustrations. The characters are all still pretty two-dimensional, however, and whatever inner conflict some of them had was pretty weak. It’s longer and it has a somewhat meatier plot, even if the plot is pretty basic. As I said earlier, this prequel is much stronger than Nancy’s first book. I thought the world-building was a lot better and more fleshed-out than in Swordbird. (I skimmed a lot of it since I’d read it before. It’s predictable, but at least it’s a quick read. I’m being a little sarcastic here.) Our merry band of birds escape from the archaeopteryxes, visit other bird tribes in search of help and the Leasorn gems, get captured again, get rescued, visit some penguins, etcetera, etcetera. The plot is a pretty basic hero and quest-type story: the search for the magical Leasorn gemstones and the One Sword to Rule Them All. The villains this time around are the archaeopteryxes, but there’s another villain, Yin-soul, trying to control and manipulate both our hero, Wind-voice, and our antagonist, Maldeor.

The story is set in a world of birds, where various species rule over their own kingdoms and territories.

It’s a stronger story than Swordbird by far, but still very cliche and juvenile, sorry to say. Nancy Yi Fan was about 14 when she penned Sword Quest, and, in a nutshell, Sword Quest is about, wait for it - bird-Jesus.

Sword Quest is the prequel to Swordbird, and tells the life of the dove Wind-voice before he became the legendary Swordbird. An exciting prequel to the New York Times bestseller Swordbird. The adversaries will both embark on their own epic quest to find the sword that will determine the future of birdkind. Wind-voice the half-dove, formerly enslaved, is now free, and Maldeor, the one-winged archaeopteryx, hungers for supreme power.

Swordbird by Nancy Yi Fan