Despite being set in the same universe, this is not a Clocktaur Wars book. I think it's best described as a slow-paced romance between a woman and her magic sword.

I loved it at first, because of the conceit of a magic sword story told partially from the perspective of the sword. I continued to enjoy it throughout thanks to the humour in the writing, and to the author's usual ability to produce characters with silly quirks who nevertheless feel realistic... but at the same time I found parts of it slow: the story had to go through a great many places to get to the end, but much of this felt repetitive - reflected in-world by the characters mostly travelling up and down the same bit of road repeatedly! This felt a bit prolonged, and I think some sequences could have been omitted. And that's why only three stars. Probably three and a half if I could.

Plus points for unconventional protagonists, unremarked queerness in-universe, shades-of-grey ethics that aren't heavy-handed, and a wonderful unremarked non-binary secondary character.