2018 fantasy, second of a pair. The motley band send to deal with the
"clocktaur" invaders has got as far as the city they come from. But
some of them have history there…
These two books form one long story, and I can't see why one
wouldn't start with the first one. If you enjoyed that, keep reading.
But the split does emphasise how the tone shifts as the story goes
along: the yearning potential romance turns into an actual romance,
and we learn a lot more about everyone's backgrounds.
Because while this is a story about doing stuff, very much in the
procedural style, it's also (as one would expect from this author)
about people doing stuff. Yes, perhaps the paladin who made one
mistake and has had to learn to live with it is something of a
familiar character, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in
learning how this one is sorting out his life.
And there are the snarky comments as before.
"Good riddance," muttered Brenner. "Never getting on one of those
beasts again."
"How do you propose to leave the city, then?" asked Caliban, amused.
"Assuming we do?"
"On a sedan chair carried by voluptuous maidens."
"Voluptuous maidens with very strong backs," said Slate.
"Best kind, darlin'."
Learned Edmund made a small sound of moral pain.
One oddity of pacing leaves the main procedural plot done while the
emotional arc is still unfinished—which is interesting in itself, but
if one weren't interested in the romance it could become frustrating
(and even I felt a certain amount of "you need to have an actual
conversation about this").
And round the side there are the gnoles [sic], a humanoid underclass
who not only are not as stupid as they look (that's easy) but have
specific reasons why humans think of them as stupid anyway. It's
well-handled fantasy racism, and while it doesn't surprise me from
Kingfisher it's lovely to see it here.
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