Viveca Janssen is ready for a new life. Recently graduated from Oberlin College, she moves from her parent’s Ohio home to a new job in San Francisco. On her very first day in this new and exotic (by Ohio standards) city, she is shaken by a strange face appearing outside her window. Hours later, a middle aged “hippie lady” tells Viveca that she is the new “Lady of the Lake” and gives her a sword claimed to be the legendary Excalibur. From that moment, her life is surrounded by Arthurian legends while she tries to support herself as an Account Assistant. Myth intertwines with reality as she must face a threat to her newly adopted city from Morgan Le Fay and her creatures of darkness.
THE MILLENIAL SWORD gives a new twist to the legend of The Lady of the Lake as it unfolds in 21st Century San Francisco. The heroic exploits with Excalibur, especially the fighting, are done by Viveca and she comports herself well against the monsters sent by Le Fay to dispatch her. The story takes an interesting path when Viveca joins her coworker Ron in attending a Renaissance Fair. Le Fay attacks her before she has a chance to change out of her costume and she must pursue her attackers into Golden Gate Park. She rides BART and streetcars to find them but her costume barely raises an eyebrow because, after all, this is San Francisco. After several plot twists, she faces down the forces of darkness with her modern day knight and a shaman who join her on her quest to make her home city safe. The dialog is crisp and the characters behave as expected. The neighborhoods of San Francisco, its parks and people are described almost lovingly, creating a backdrop for the story that seems perfectly natural.
THE MILLENIAL SWORD is an excellent story that does not lose the reader, even when dealing with complex myths or overlapping stories. Perhaps best of all, we have here a major city defended by a champion who is not a dark, brooding knight, but a part time Lady of the Lake writing copy and living quietly with her cat.
Reviewed by Ed Bennett for IndieReader