Review by Booklist Review
When Alys is spotted during what should have been a quick pickpocketing, she goes to her brother, Darro, for help. He sends her into hiding; when she emerges, his body has been found in the river. She starts living in his room, spending what she assumes is his money and even working his jobs for a mysterious woman and a scarred man, summoned by lighting a strange, black-wicked candle, who claim they are trying to save the city. Sammish, who'd been part of the team on that failed job, has promised to find the third they were working with--and when she does, she discovers a completely different version of the story behind the people Alys has been working for. The city, Kithamar, is itself a character, albeit somewhat in the shadows, its mysterious history embodied in someone who claims to be Kithamar itself. There's plenty of intrigue and politics, mostly seen through the eyes of people in well over their heads, and Abraham's latest is certainly an intriguing introduction to a series, hinting at plenty of larger events to come.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Abraham, coauthor of the Expanse space opera series, returns to epic fantasy in this outstanding series debut, which instantly hooks readers with dual mysteries. Kithamar has prided itself as "a free city, independent and proud and ruled by princes of its own rather than any distant king" for centuries. But the city's at a turning point when Prince Byrn a Sal dies after less than a year in power, the circumstances of his demise inviting speculation that he's been murdered, possibly by his daughter and heir, Elaine. Abraham smartly twines this political intrigue with the consequences of a violent death in the city's underworld; Alys, part of a successful pickpocket gang, ran afoul of a guard on the day of Byrn a Sal's coronation, and was rescued by her older brother, Darro, also a thief. Shortly after this misadventure, Darro's stabbed to death, leading Alys to fear it was a revenge killing by the guard, and thus, her fault. The impressively complex dynamics of Kithamar's society and rival races are delineated without clunky exposition, making for a smooth, immersive first foray into its streets. Readers will eagerly anticipate the sequel. (Feb.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
In the first of a trilogy, a city faces a secret crisis of rulership. The city of Kithamar's new prince, Byrn a Sal, has died within a year of his coronation. Why and how did he die? The answer involves an ambitious thief seeking revenge for her brother's murder, the fellow thief who secretly loves her but despises the path she's on, a foreign priestess searching for her missing son, a noblewoman who serves at the head of a religious cult, and the dangerous, centuries-old secret behind the royal succession. Abraham is best known for being one-half of James S.A. Corey, the writing team responsible for The Expanse, the bestselling space opera book series and the source for the fan-favorite TV show. It's a shame that Abraham doesn't gain equal attention for his excellent, delicately barbed political fantasy series, such as The Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and the Coin. This new work bears the hallmarks of a great Abraham work: intricate and dirty schemes enacted by initially sympathetic characters who make self-serving choices that they will eventually come to regret, but often too late to change course. It takes a long while for the broader outlines of the plot to take shape because of the narrow perspective of each of the characters. The fate of a great city is at stake, but the lower-class characters are mostly concerned with getting enough to eat each day and pursuing personal agendas if there's any time left over. Most of the upper-class ones and their servants are occupied with preserving a magical and social status quo to the exclusion of anything else. The middle class--well, we barely hear from them, so who knows? The secret truth that Prince Byrn a Sal was not the legitimate heir to the throne drives the plot, but we never even find out whether or not he was a good ruler; that doesn't seem to matter to all parties concerned. The blank spots in the reader's understanding can feel frustrating at first but ultimately make the society seem real. A promising, if meandering, start; given the experienced hands we're in, it will undoubtedly pay off by series' end. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
