The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham

The King’s Blood is the second book in Daniel Abraham’s planned five book series The Dagger and the Coin, the follow up to last year’s opener The Dragon’s Path.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Dragon’s Path (it even ended up on my top 5 books of 2011) and eagerly awaited the release of The King’s Blood. Fortunately because I read The Dragon’s Path relatively late in the year the wait for The King’s Blood was rather short. Does it live up to the promise shown in The Dragon’s Path? Oh hell yes!

It follows the same 5 PoV characters as were introduced in The Dragon’s Path: ambitious young banker Cithrin Bel Sarcour, cynical, world weary mercenary captain Marcus Wester, the scholar turned political powerbroker Geder Palliako, the king maker Dawson Kalliam  and Dawson’s intelligent wife Clara. There are also a couple of chapters from the priest masquerading as the leader of a group of travelling players; Master Kit.

For a book of this size and something that has the scope of a genuine fantasy epic there’s not a lot of action or world building, although he has created 12 non human races, but I don’t feel it’s all that necessary. Characterisation is Abraham’s strength, and that’s obvious in the cast at play here. They feel and act real. Their actions make sense, they speak in ways befitting their station in life and you come to care for them. My two favourites are Cithrin and Marcus. The interaction between Marcus and his Tragul second in command; Yardem, was a real highlight for me. Those bantering exchanges were a joy to read. I tend to like Geder as well, but for entirely different reasons, the man is a monster, but he’s so delightfully complex that it’s fascinating to watch his character unfold. He’s also responsible for what I felt was one of the book’s real shocking moments. I think I like Cithrin because of what she does and how she does it. So often in a fantasy world authors forget the reality of any functioning society, and that’s commerce, being a banker by upbringing and having to operate nefariously because of her age, Cithrin is right in the middle of that. I can only think of two other books that have covered this part of an invented world so well. One is Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora and to a lesser extent it’s followup Red Seas Under Red Skies, and Raymond E. Feist’s Rise of a Merchant Prince, which for mine is the best of his Midkemia books outside of Magician.

The story of The King’s Blood picks up largely where The Dragon’s Path left off. Cithrin’s deception has been uncovered and she chafes under the restrictions of the officious clerk the bank has put in charge of her.  Marcus commands his company and as he always has, puts it’s services completely at Cithrin’s disposal. Geder has been appointed Prince Aster’s guardian and has power he is not at all equipped to handle, not to mention being completely under the influence of the mysterious priests he’s brought back to Camnipol with him after his journey of discovery in The Dragon’s Path. Dawson is still planning how to increase Antea’s power and influence and position his family better. Clara tries to hold her family together, while making deals and assisting her husband in every way possible.

One small criticism I have is the same as the first book, full use does not seem be made of the non human races. They look different, but they have the same language and largely the same cultures, which seems odd to me. There are indications that the differences will become more pronounced as the series progresses, though.

The 5 PoV's are largely separate for good chunk of the book until later in it when most of the major players come together and begin to impact on each other’s lives. Abraham’s style is gentle, but compulsively readable and he’s put together a cast of characters you want to read about. The Dagger and the Coin is rather classic epic fantasy, and with these opening two books it’s becoming one of my favourites. Abraham doesn’t do the big cliffhanger at the end of the books as such, but that doesn’t make me any less impatient for book 3; The Spider’s War. 

The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

Although Daniel Abraham has also been responsible for the highly regarded Long Price series, a number of Urban Fantasy's under the pen name of MLN Hanover, and the science fiction collaboration Leviathan Wakes with Ty Franck under the name James S.A Corey, The Dragon's Path, the first of his The Dagger and the Coin epic fantasy (I believe it's currently meant to be 5 books) was my first encounter with the author. I have to say I'm impressed.

The Dragon's Path is set in a European inspired landscape where a collection of small countries are about to erupt into a messy war. The back cover blurb proclaims: Summer is the season of war in the Free Cities. The setting has been described as medieval, but I saw it as closer to the Renaissance and the characters made me think of names like Medici and Machiavelli. The book is arranged as a series of stories from single, mostly separate POV's, somewhat in the style of Abraham's friend and mentor George R.R Martin, although the scope of The Dagger and the Coin is from this opening volume, not as grand and sweeping as A Song of Ice and Fire. Each of the POV characters has a significant part to play in shaping the destiny of the Free Cities.

Marcus Wester is a hard bitten mercenary with a legendary name and a past he'd rather forget, he also wants to get out while the getting is still good.

Cithrin Bel Sarcour, a bank raised orphan, has been entrusted with the bank's funds as her mentor can see the storm arriving. Cithrin is about to enter world for which life has not prepared her.

Geder Palliako knows everything he's learned from books, he believes that life is contained between the pages of those volumes. He desperately craves acceptance and respect, he's prepared to earn it the hard way for everyone else.

Pulling all the strings is the Machiavellian Dawson Kalliam. By the book's end readers are probably none the wiser as to what Dawson's true plans are, but we know he's someone you want to watch your back around. His wife Clara shows every sign that she is every bit as devious as her husband and possibly twice as dangerous.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Dragon's Path, so much so that it has become one of my top 5 for 2011. Daniel Abraham has created an interesting and multi layered world. One small quibble were the 13 races he used to people it. They're not all human, humans are generally referred to as First Blood, although there are brief descriptions of the different races, some have large ears, there's one whose eyes burn, one has tusks and another is almost insectoid, readers aren't really given a sense that anything aside from physical appearance marks them as different. They think and act the same as any human, so it makes me wonder if there was any need to really make them different at all. in this instance Abraham could have possibly taken a leaf
out of Mark Charan Newton's book and looked at the way he portrayed the rumels and the garudas in his Legends of the Red Sun series. They interacted and lived with humans, but not only did they look different, they acted accordingly. Daniel Abraham may build on this in future books.

I did love the characters though, especially Cithrin and Marcus. Marcus didn't change a lot throughout the book and his character is one I've seen before, but he had a dry sense of humour and his almost fatherly concern for the naive orphan was touching. Cithrin herself is a delight and she came a long way. She began as a shy, uncertain child thrown into a situation for which she was ill prepared, but once she was off the road and dealing with the world of high finance she blossomed and showed her true worth. Cithrin's wheelings and dealings were some of the highlights for me. Geder is another interesting character who has polarised readers. He starts off as rather pathetic and pitiable, but becomes truly reviled by book's end. I don't think he's actually bad, batshit crazy yes. Unfortunately Dawson's surface and that of his wife Clara were only scratched, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of her.

I highly recommend The Dragon's Path and the sequel; The King's Blood, due out in May of 2012, is one of my most hotly anticipated 2012 releases.