The King's Blood

This installment in The Dagger and the Coin series is almost as good as the first. I think I only just barely preferred the first because it had a little bit more action. The last 100 or so pages of this book seemed a wee slow for my ultimate liking, but still extremely enjoyable overall.

The characters in Abraham's novels really shine! Take the deeply flawed Geder Palliako for instance. The question being asked is “how does one become a true tyrant?”. Geder has all the ingredients for a delicious bully stew: he himself was bullied in the first book, he comes from a home without parental attention or appreciation, he's chubby, and he mostly enjoys the company of a young boy Prince when he's not reading. None of these alone could produce the tyrannical character fully introduced in The King's Blood, but them altogether along with a priest who can tell if a person is lying, and voila, a terror-based dictatorship forms. I found the “judgement chamber” to be particular terrifying.

Cithrin, Marcus, Clara, and Dawson are other POV characters that also get developed intricately. Cithrin is the Doogie Howser of medieval banking, trying to take over her little bank branch officially even though she isn't even old enough. Marcus is still trying to fill the void left by the death of his wife and daughter with Cithrin playing the part of the daughter. Clara is the supportive and loving wife, whose focus in life is her family, and lastly there's Dawson who can see right through Geder to witness the power of the spider goddess and her priesthood.