Stonecutter's Story

The Third Book of Lost Swords

By: Fred Saberhagen

Narrated by: Cynthia Barrett

The gods forged the Twelve Swords of Power; now the gods have been destroyed by their own handiwork. The Swords are loose in the world, falling into the hands of human beings, changing human lives for good and ill.

Young Kasimir was the custodian of Stonecutter, the sword which can hew mountains and split diamonds with equal ease - until he discovers Stonecutter has been stolen. His first ally in the search to recover the powerful blade is Magistrate Wen Chang, who is reputed to have mysterious mind-reading powers.

Was Stonecutter responsible for the three murders they discover evidence of along the way? Or for the mysterious missing man?

And will Kasimir be able to recover Stonecutter before it does irrevocable damage?

©1988 Fred Saberhagen (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

still enjoyable

this was my least favorite swords book as a kid, but I enjoyed it much more this time. the mystery is a good change of pace, and a better use of the narrator's voice. she puts me to sleep on other Swords books.

Good story. awful reader

I listened to the original Book of Swords trilogy and really liked it. The author was great, and he did a good job with the book, the concept and the names. It is too bad that neither the reader or the producer of the Lost Swords series could not take the time to listen to those before they approached this project. The reader, Cynthia Barrett, was AWFUL. She was overly dramatic when she did not need to be, her cadence and rhythms were disconcerting. And now she has a character with a Chinese sounding name speaking as if he was the Swedish chef from the Muppets. You know what I mean. I cannot listen to that character without seeing him in a white hat complaining about having steering wheel soup again.

I wish that I had listened to this before I bought the rest of the books, because I would not have. I have a hard time getting past her voice and style to enjoy the book.

This is more along the lines of Sherlock Holmes..

Would you try another book from Fred Saberhagen and/or Cynthia Barrett?

I remember reading the first 3 books 20 + years ago... They didn't age well.

Would you be willing to try another book from Fred Saberhagen? Why or why not?

I will probably listen to some of the other books in this series, but not in any hurry to do so.

Fantastic book!

Loved the story and characters! Very interesting book to listen to! Fred has never let me down with good writing. Cynthia does a good job with characters and voice changes. She delivers the story well albeit a bit slow for my taste, I ran the book at 1.25 speed.

Not as good as it used to be.

What did you like best about Stonecutter's Story? What did you like least?

I read the entire series as a teenager and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, but since then I have read a few hundred other books, and this series no longer holds up.

Would you be willing to try another book from Fred Saberhagen? Why or why not?

Probably not, I may try some of his more recent works though.

Did Cynthia Barrett do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Decently well yes, not the best storyteller, but not terrible either.

Did Stonecutter's Story inspire you to do anything?

Read something a little better.

Sherlock Holmes knockoff.

the side kick is a doctor. the worse of all the books so far.