Knight's Shadow

I have got to say that the second book of The Greatcoats had me going wow and whoa at various points throughout Falcio's second adventure. De Castell has ramped up the action to eleventy stupid and it is more like a summer blockbuster.
This is a bigger book in every way, it's got more pages, more Falcio, more plots and is more expansive in everyway.
The second book starts shortly after the first book, with Falcio dealing with the effects of the Neatha poisoning that he suffered at the end of Traitors Blade. Whilst Falcio is experiencing the after effects of the Neatha poisoning, we learn more about the Greatcoats and Falcio's relationship with the King through a series of hallucinations that he experiences. As a reader, you are not entirely sure whether these are true recollections or whether they are how Falcio saw his relationship with the king as throughout the book there are different viewpoints of the kings actions and some of them are opposing to Falcio's view of his beloved king. What is certainly evident is the king was not a perfect godlike figure and that there were some aspects of his plans that were definitely shady.
I think one of the best bits of this book is the relationship between the three main characters, Kest certainly gets fleshed out a lot more in this book and Brasti provides the comic relief, except when he doesn' t.
However, this is a darker book than the first and at times is quite grueling. Not only from Falcio's own battle with his mortality and Kest coming to grips with what it actually means to be the Saint of Swords, but Brasti's own struggles with the cause that they have undertaken and the effect that it has on the lower classes of the world.
There are some parts of it that made me wince as they were extremely grueling, and when you get to it you will see what I mean.
It's very rare that a second book is better than the first, but this was. Now onto the third installment.