SBC Book Club : Paladin's Hope
Title: Paladin's Hope Author: T. Kingfisher Genre: Fantasy/Romantasy
Goodreads Summary :
Piper is a lich-doctor, a physician who works among the dead, determining causes of death for the city guard's investigations. It's a peaceful, if solitary professionā¦until the day when he's called to the river to examine the latest in a series of mysterious bodies, mangled by some unknown force. Galen is a paladin of a dead god, lost to holiness and no longer entirely sane. He has long since given up on any hope of love. But when the two men and a brave gnole constable are drawn into the web of the mysterious killer, it's Galen's job to protect Piper from the traps that await them. He's just not sure if he can protect Piper from the most dangerous threat of allā¦
Review :
It's round three of the Saints of Steel series! And this one was... interesting. We have a very lovely gay romance that squishes the horror movie Saw into the middle, which... is weird. This book is a little weird. but T. Kingfisher, who also writes plenty of horror, is also a little weird, and it does track.
I liked this one, enjoyed this one, there were parts of this one that truly had my heart. But I don't know if I can say I loved this one like I did with the first in the series.
The main couple, Piper (the lich-doctor) and Galen (the paladin) are amazing characters. I think one of the elements of the book that really worked for me is this romance, and how their differing personalities kind of work with each other. And it's another one of those awkward romances, where they're trying to figure things out amidst insanity. I do think the ending sequence went on a little too long, and it felt, idk, unnecessarily complicated for the sake of tacking on an additional seventy pages. But I liked both of them, and enjoyed their romance and banter.
Btw - I love T. Kingfisher's sense of humor. She, again, out does herself with some truly wonderful and memorable lines in this book.
The background story starts out with trying to figure out why murders are happening and puts them in a giant maze, death trap. And I think that's the oddest part of the novel for me. While I usually do like when romances happen within a bigger scope of a story, this one felt a little disjointed. For one, I had a hard time picturing said death trap prison -- in that I'm sure Kingfisher could fully see this thing in her head, I just struggled with it. For two, I don't know that the plot as interesting as the characters. And for three, the pacing felt wonky, and the beats of the story didn't fully flow with the beats of the romance story and, really, disjointed is the best way to describe it.
Still -- the ending packs a punch, and I'm super curious to see if Kingfisher is really going to dig into some lore, because I feel like a little more worldbuilding would help with this series.
But it's a testament to how wonderful the characters are that really sells this series. It's a good book and a good read, and I'm still really enjoying myself with these.
Rating : 4 Stars















