Martil the titular Wounded Guardian – is a retired war captain whose final act in defence of his homeland earned him the the name ?Butcher of Bellic?. Emotionally damaged he leaves his homeland where he is soon tricked into taking a small child, Karia, to her uncle. This leads him on the path to finding a magical sword belonging to the rulers of Norstalos.
Norstalos?s queen is trying to keep her crown from Duke Gello who wants it.
Martil is drawn into this fight while caring for a child and struggling to come to terms with his past.

While the overall story sounds immediately familiar and derivative, the total is equal to than more than the sum of the parts and for a book that follows the standard formula it does an entertaining job of it. In short if you are looking to chill out and read a book firmly rooted in the genre and enjoy it this would be a good choice.

There are some nice funny moments, a good dollop of action, a little romance and most interestingly some understandably flawed heroes. The villain's are somewhat one dimensional and stereotypical but this is partly because the POV hardly shifts to them with almost all of the book being from Martil and Karia's perspective.

The book is the first in a 3 part series - The Dragon Sword Histories – and perhaps the best recommendation for the book I can give is to say that after finishing 'The Wounded Guardian' I headed directly to the bookshop to get Book 2 - 'The Risen Queen'.

Publisher's Page
http://www.harpercollins.com.au/books/Wounded-Guardian-Duncan-Lay/?isbn=9780732287689

Amazon (Kindle Edition)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wounded-Guardian-ebook/dp/B0035IIATC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A24IB90LPZJ0BS&s=digital-text&qid=1280310443&sr=8-1

Other eBook formats available