Simon is a kitchen scullion in castle Hayholt, where he spends most of his time trying to avoid doing any real work. Of course his foster mother, Rachel, doesn't approve, so he is delighted when he has the opportunity to become the apprentice of Doctor Morgenes, the castle's healer and wizard. Unfortunately for Simon, that just means more drudgery, sweeping the doctor's floor instead of the kitchen, and learning to read and write. It does, however, put Simon into a position to be involved in a series of events that will change the kingdom of Osten Ard forever. After the death of King John, his son Elias takes the throne and quickly falls under the spell of his advisor, Pyrates, who advises him to seek arcane power from questionable sources. Then, the new King's brother, Josua, mysteriously disappears, and that's when Simon discovers him imprisoned in the castle. Simon reports this to Morgenes, and the seeds of a rebellion are born.

Morgenes takes action to rescue Josua, and the two brothers now find themselves on opposing sides of a conflict. King Elias has embraced some dark magics, so Josua's supporters, which include Simon, turn to prophecy and decide they must unite the three swords known as Memory, Sorrow, and thorn in order to take back their kingdom. This is a many layered story involving multiple races and various types of magic in a classic war of good vs evil. George R. R. Martin has cited this series as one of his inspirations for his Song of Ice and Fire series, but there are only a few similarities.

Of course there is more to Simon than meets the eye, which means the tropes do really begin to pile up here. There's a young male chosen one, a new king that falls under the spell of an evil advisor, and a land where magical beings have been forced out by the proliferating human presence, just to name a few. But since this is a story from 1988, I'm willing to give it a pass for a lot of that, as long as the story still holds up today. Does it? Hard to say after just one book, but I can safely state that halfway through this book I felt like it was going nowhere and not worth my time. Then Simon finally left the castle and the world and story really opened up. It was at that point that I could see the depth of what was on offer, and it left me looking forward to book two.

The audio version is narrated by Andrew Wilcott and he delivers a solid performance.