#Magical weapons code
#Magical weapons series

Thus it has limited martial uses, and is most often used to influence others. Magic is very fragile unsheathed blades and other iron or steel objects degrade its power significantly. Magic is a rare and fragile art in the Swords universe, requiring a lifetime of dedication. However, if it is found, control can be exerted over the demon it belongs to. This object does not bear any relation to the demon's physical presence. All demons have a 'source of life', which is usually hidden within a fairly innocuous object like a mirror, charm, bottle, or weapon (compare to djinn). Their presence can sicken and injure those who have not magically prepared themselves to resist them.

They can take on various forms and appearances, but their natural form is a free-floating, possibly radioactive cloud. The demons of Saberhagen's Swords universe are the remnants of atomic or other high-power weapons detonations, rendered anthropomorphic by the Change. The gods, having become bored with mankind, created Twelve Swords of Power, and scattered them throughout the world, as a grand game of survival of the fittest to be played out on earth. They are elements of human hope and imagination that were made real approximately one thousand years after the destruction of ARDNEH, when a group of humans donned Mark VII suits created by ARDNEH and a djinn as a possible defense against demons. The gods of the Swords universe are based on various mythological deities, with most coming from the Greco-Roman and Hindu pantheons. By the time the events recorded in The Books of the Swords occur, ARDNEH has passed into legend, worshiped as a benevolent god.

ARDNEH was destroyed millennia before the events of the series, as chronicled in Saberhagen's Empire of the East series. ARDNEH then continued to stabilize and sustain humanity through the ensuing Dark Ages. Unintentionally combined with a similar system on the other side of the world, this change negated the effects of atomic weaponry and most other forms of high technology, and introduced other side effects, such as the creation of magic, gods, and demons. An intelligent supercomputer, ARDNEH (which was formerly part of an American nuclear response system), initiated a physical change to the structure of the world. The role of post-apocalyptic technology in creating a magical mythological society echoes Saberhagen's Berserker series. Approximately 50,000 years before the story, sometime during the third millennium, mankind was almost driven to extinction by a global apocalypse brought on by a nuclear World War prior to the events in Empire of the East.

#Magical weapons series

The Book of Swords series blends science fiction and fantasy, combining fantastical settings with the kind of logic-puzzle plots common to science fiction.

#Magical weapons code

Although some preliminary code and art was developed, the project was deemed technologically infeasible. Saberhagen wrote the first books in the series in the 1980s with the intention of developing them into a video game. The first three works in the Empire of the East series predate the Book of Swords series ( The Broken Lands (1968), The Black Mountains (1971), and Changeling Earth (1973), also titled Ardneh's World), with the fourth Empire of the East book, Ardneh's Sword (2006), returning to the universe long after the Book of Swords series was complete. The Book of Swords series is also linked to the Empire of the East series, which is set in the same universe and presents the backstory to the series.

An Armory of Swords (1995), an anthology of eight stories in the Swords universe by eight authors, including 'Blind Man's Blade' by Saberhagen.

Omnibus: The Lost Swords: The Second Triad (1990) Omnibus: The Lost Swords: The First Triad (1988) Omnibus: The Complete Book of Swords (1985)