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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Rob Samborn’s The Swordsman of Venice is set in 1589, when Angelo Mascari, a gifted Venetian swordsman from humble origins, flees the city after the Ancient Order of the Seventh Sun destroys the woman he loves. Isabella Scalfini, a nobleman’s daughter, has been used in a ritual that leaves Angelo hunted by the same hidden order serving Venice’s ruling men. A dying ally sends him toward Sebastiano Cadamosto, a sailor connected to passage across the Atlantic, where New Spain may hold the only route back to Isabella’s salvation. Angelo must cross hostile roads, survive men who know his face, and learn whether a swordsman born in Venice can fight an enemy whose reach runs from palace chamber to jungle trail, in a story where love becomes the reason he keeps moving.
Rob Samborn’s The Swordsman of Venice is immersive historical fiction rooted in the occult, and Samborn lights it all up with solid period detail. I was right there in the Genoa fencing pit, where Angelo faces Draco before a roaring underground crowd and proves his skill through patience as much as speed. Santa Marta is just as exciting but in a very different way. Angelo’s life in New Spain gives us Loredana, the woman who becomes his wife, and Franco and Juanita, the children who make his fight to survive greater than ever. As expected in a story with a swordsman, the sword work is exceptional and levied through experience as much as nerve. There are some outliers, like Vito Uccello, who I found among the most fascinating characters because Samborn takes a sworn Protector of the Order and gives him enough regret to make his choices hurt. This is neither a short nor a light read, but it is a great one and is worth every moment spent in its pages.
