A Matter of Execution

A goblin captain and his crew must infiltrate a powerful sorceress' ball to recover an ancient artifact.

After escaping an (unfounded anyways!) execution, Captain William Blair strikes a deal to return to the city of the (not even his) crime, in order to recover a precious artifact left behind.

Armed with his wit and accompanied by a diverse cast; among them a shrew socialite, a bookish, light-fingered teen, a middle-aged engineer, and a former soldier of a now fallen empire, Captain Blair and his crew clean up nicely to steal from under the nose of the most powerful sorceress in the city.

Things get progressively more complicated for this misfit crew of varied intelligence and skills; the artifact is not what it seems, the sorcerer is not one but three, and the company is blandly appalling.

Funny and hinting at a larger world, this novella is a great introduction to the Atwater duo's latest venture, Tales of the Iron Rose.

Perhaps too funny for me, the constant banter brought with it a lightness that sometimes shattered the wonder of the world and made this seem targeted at younger audiences. The character construction is very abrupt and in-your-face, quickly establishing tropes and traits. I would have enjoyed discovering those a bit more subtly.

Still, it was fun. All the swashbuckling is performed on land but it'll still delight fans of ragtag, morally-arguable crews, each with their own flair and background.

It also faintly discusses what happens to the losing side of a war and to those who remain when their empire falls.