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The Silver Blade

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About this listen

 With Sido safely in England and the Terror at it's height, Yann returns to France to smuggle out aristocratic refugees who will otherwise face the guillotine. But when Sido is kidnapped, he must use all his strength and courage to outwit the evil Count Kalliovski, and rescue her for a second time.

Set against a vivid historical background, prize winning author Sally Gardner brings to life the horrors of the French Revolution in this breath-taking adventure, complete with intrepid heroism and a touching love story. Perfect for 9+ readers and fans of The Red Necklace and I, Coriander.

Read by Janet Suzman
(P)2004 Orion Publishing Group.Ltd©2009 Sally Gardner Fiction Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Fantasy French Revolution

Critic reviews

Another fast-moving, action-packed page-turner
An exciting, original read
Breathtaking
Never loses pace from the start until its dramatic end ... a romantic adventure with a very dark side
Gardner just keeps getting stranger and better
It is hard to imagine a contemporary work of children's historical fiction more superbly conceived or more engagingly written. Highly recommended
Shiveringly romantic. dramatic and gripping
Sweeps the reader along with hardly time to draw breath
A high octane thriller ... an accessible historical title and a gripping read
Rich, suspenseful and moving
An enthralling and wholly original novel ... a must-read for a new generation
Constant suspense, beautiful style, strong period feeling and great characters make this one not to miss
All stars
Most relevant
Gardner writes sentimentally and well. This is a book for a racist nanny, horrified by the prospect of riots. The Silver Blade is the sequel of The Red Necklace, another proficiently written book whose weight lies on a coterie of characters that could be divided in two groups: the noble nobles (redundant on purpose) and the messily disgusting revolutionaries. According to the author, the Ancien Regime’s worst sin was banality and, in power, banality has no violent consequences. Should we ask Boris Johnson and his parties during COVID+19? Shockingly for a historical novelist dedicated to the French Revolution, she does not master the French language which makes her finding the materiality of the time in the virtual copying of Georgian accounts of travellers which are, without exception, understandably, horrified by the revolution. What is understandable for them comes across as alt right in Gardner. Her belief that banality does not kill nor is violent is testament of her Anglocentric white racism. She hates blood but cannot understand that its absence through the systematic establishment of exclusionary biopolitical structures of veiled violence were the very making and demise of the Ancien Regime and constitute the core of slavery, neo-slavery and that phenomenon called London. In other words, her understanding of the period is conservative to the point of delusional and her need to infantilise the Romani adds to her structuring of characters as caricatures, bidimensional and shapeless.

Gardners Unconscious Conservatism and lack of historical perspective is shocking

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