Saint's Blood by Sebastien de Castell

How do you kill a Saint? Falcio, Brasti and Kest are about to find out, as someone is doing just that, and they’ve started with a friend who no one believed could be killed.

Third in the acclaimed Greatcoats series of swashbuckling adventures that have gathered praise from fantasy publications, readers, and bestselling authors.

The Dukes were already looking for ways to weasel out of their promise to put Aline on her father’s throne – but with Saints turning up dead, and Church Inquistitors pushing for control – rumours are spreading that the Gods themselves oppose her ascension.

The only way Falcio can stop the country turning into a vicious theocracy is to find and stop the Saint-killer – but his only clue is the iron mask encasing the head of the Saint of Mercy, which prevents her from speaking. And even if he can find the murderer, he will still have to face them in battle – and this may be a duel that no swordsman, no matter how skilled, can win.

Fantasy Three Musketeers vs religion. The Greatcoats have so far provided great entertainment, with the camaraderie between the leads Falcio, Kest and Brasti forming the backbone of the story. The setting of a country riven with petty rivalries, between callous Dukes uncaring for the common man provides a suitably dark setting with echoes of the revolutionary French setting of Dumas' original. At the start of this 3rd entry the Greatcoats are actually in a relatively strong position. They had managed to get the King's heir Aline and her Realms Protector into an actual position of influence, with Dukes actually paying at least some nominal attention. This time the enemy comes from a different direction, in the form of religion.

The mythology building in de Castell's world is mightily impressive, so the religion here is built on impressive foundations. The various Saints exist as living paragons of specific virtues, with 6 gods forming the Pantheon. In Saint's Blood we see this order upended. Someone is killing the Saints (+more). The mutability of religion vs the immutability of law then becomes the central theme of this book. This of course follows useful parallels in real life - religions have evolved over the years, but the main laws, even promoted by religions, have a certain similarity across time and culture. Yes, there is a certain anti-religiousness to the story, but the main thing here is preaching against blind faith and extremism, which again I find very relevant. This is present in the inquisition - they are presented as followers of the faith and religious law, and come out quite strongly against the new religion being presented here. It is kind of funny when the inquisition is the moderate religious influence in a story!

Anyway, this was a thoroughly enjoyable entry into a great series. Looking forward to reading the conclusion!

GIVE MY MEN A BREAK !!!!

CAWPILE SCORE
C-8
A-8
W-7
P-7
I-9
L-8
E-9
TOTAL-8/10

CAWPILECharactersFalcio—starts to let go of his wife. Aline—Moves forward in face of fear. Grows into her power and commandThe Blacksmith – an unrecognized. Immense smarts. Similar to the tailorQuentis—an inquisitor become greatcoats. Finally a good character that stays on the side of GoodValianaDuke Jillard and his changesObladius—evil priest. Not sure how he survived his first encounter with FalcioKest—doesn't have to be the best anymore. Growing, his feelings for Falcio, using a shield to protect and attack.AtmosphereI always feel like I'm really in this world. The desperation of the characters their emotions. The helplessness while fighting the god.WritingGreat prose as always. Small issue with pacing in beginning but quickly resolvedPlotThe church is being used by the Blacksmith to create a new god. To Rule over the Country.InvestmentLiterally couldn't put this book down after 50%LogicThe Law binds the gods. The Actions the characters take is true to their character. Even the peasants and nobiliyEnjoymentI really enjoyed this book and the discussion about magic and the saints and gods.MiscGod of ValourDuke Jillard and Tommar at the endThe Old Aline. Visions between Aline and the King.Masking valianaNew Queen's Names

I will be talking about it on Libromancy https://libromancy.podbean.com/

At this point in Tristia everyone has it badly. We managed to reach the point that someone started murdering saints and of course Falcio, Kest and Brasti need to be the ones saving the world yet again. Seems like they are the local experts. Sure, Aline is still not proper queen, but they keep trying to make it happen. As soon as they can avoid the most recent “OMG, we are all going to die, someone do something, please” type of an issue. So... they have to figure out who is killing saints, why and how. A lot of questions.

Aaaaand this book is awesome yet again. We managed to reach the point where Sebastien De Castell could write phone books and yogurt labels and I would probably read them as well.
His Goodreads bio is the most hilarious thing ever, but I still don't know how much of his brilliance is the result of being cultivated with all kinds of fancy Yale courses about artsy writing or he just emerged from his mother's womb as a brilliant guy.
I will pretend it is nature's miracle and you can't stop me. Part of it is his humour. This dude makes me giggle and that is exactly what I like, the kind of jokes buddies on an adventure could realistically crack when they have seen it all.

Another thing you can feel is him having fun with this. Not trying to squeeze his brain dry to be some sort of a snobbish piece of pretentious stuff. Nah. He is having fun while you are having fun. I think a lot of people would profit from learning to appreciate that kind of a stuff. Books with actual heart in them.

Previously I complained about Ethalia and Falcio being magically in love and it just feeling a bit unbelievable. It... actually got acknowledged. The man is hilarious, talented and self-aware. YISS. This happens at the very end, though, so not much development on that front yet, but hey, next year the last book in the series is coming (I'm emotionally not prepared for that, we should all hold each other) and I have really high hopes for it.

I think I also complained about wanting to see more Greatcoats. Or I just thought that, dunno. Now here. Here we have some and I am incredibly happy about it. Some old, some new, all delightful in their quirky, misfit ways. Again, these are people I could totally imagine functioning as their little group of oddball peacekeepers and magistrates, doing their thing. At some point they take their oaths, which are of course never the same, all encompassing the story and motivations of the specific Greatcoat. My ooooonly little complaint is not all of them being written down. Why did we leave out Allister??

In this book there was considerably less Aline and Valiana and much more Ethalia, which was interesting and honestly, I wasn't too annoyed by her. I don't like love stories, I don't like fantasy books with the love interests being around too much and when a lot of the story actively involves both members of the couple. I just don't.
This time it wasn't too much, though, so again, a win. Falcio didn't act like a completely different, moronic lovey-dovey teenager because Ethalia was around. Sure, he cared about her, but it wasn't sickly or overwhelming.

So basically this was awesome. I fangirled about it, I loved it so much. Embarrassing, probably, but I can't help it when Sebastien De Castell writes what I want to read. I'm sure there are people who dislike this series and this specific book, but to me it feels like something specifically made to please me, even if it sound egoistic.

I'm reading the last book when it comes and anything else yet to come by the author. Aaaand now I am going to mark him as one of my favourites, because this series is my favourite new discovery so far this year. After three whole books I am confident when I say that.

Good night and don't bother praying to the saints. The saint is dead. O.o