Finally, after many years of hoping, ol KJA has returned to the world he set up in The Dragon Buisness (read my review of that novel *HERE*).
Everybody is back, Squire Cullin, Sir Dalbry, former Princess Affonyl, and even down and dirty Reeger.
But after so many years, has the return journey been worth the wait?
Let’s find out together, gang.
This is your almost always necessary official
***SPOILER ALERT***, gang.
Real quick, here at the top I just wanna point something out.
I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but the cartoony covers that this and the first one received from the kickstarter earlier this year are wonderful, whimsical, eye catching, and ebullient.
I adore these covers and it makes me wonder how Shamble and co. would look in this style.
Once again King Cullin pulls his son Maurice away from his pampered life of finery for another tale from the King’s past.
After killing a giant fish in a lake and scamming a Queen with a Kraken tusk, our crew of sorta heroes heads to a new Kingdom and devises a scheme to play into the King’s love of terrible art.
Affonyl uses her artistic ability and vision to prop a giant slab of rock up with an old mast caber but, on the night of the unveiling, a horde of orcs, led by a mad mage with a grudge, bursts onto the castle grounds and take all of the nobility and the other gathered snobs hostage, as well as Sir Dalbry posing as an art critic.
Leaving Dalbry’s troupe of scammers to stage a haunting and take the castle back.
This book feels like sliding into a comfortable pair of pants that you found after a few years.
They slide on with no problems, you even get the zipper up and the button done, and you found 3 whole dollars in the pocket, so all in all it’s just a great reunion.
But it’s not “ho-hum, more of the same, let’s pull another con because we have to.” type shit.
We get a broader view of the world as well as the personalities and skill sets of these characters, particularly Cullin and Affonyl.
More so once Dalbry gets taken off the board with the nobles for a while those two really get to shine.
Exploring Affonyl’s artistic side, in addition to the alchemical side we saw last time, makes her one of the most well rounded characters in the book.
And seeing the world through young Cullin’s eyes, as he’s still finding his way, makes him a damn good window for the audience.
I loved learning more about how this world operates.
Unlike some fantasy series/settings, I think wisely, this feels like our real world in the past plus.
Meaning our world plus orcs or plus dragons and monsters, it feels like if D&D were a real part of our history and I like that about it.
While I dig KJA’sown Wake The Dragon series, D&D, and plenty of other fantasy series/franchises, I think I like this style of fantasy more because there’s no far flung land to learn an entirely new history of.
It’s familiar and that familiarity makes the buy in easier and let’s you focus on things other than trying to understand the new rules of the new world you now find yourself in.
Whether that’s intentional or a happy accident I don’t know, but I like it just the same.
Once again, I love the framing device of King Cullin telling these tales to his less than kingly son, Maurice.
I still wish we got to check in a bit more with them, it’s a great break from the action and it helps color the “modern” world.
I feel like this would be something to lean into a bit and show Maurice growing more engaged over the series and in five to ten books have him go out and try to pull a con of his own and come back and tell his old man about it.
Like I said in my Dragon Buisness review, I see so much potential in this series and all of the possible roads ahead.
The only real complaint I can come up with is how short this book is.
Weighing in at just 230 pages, this is 58 pages shorter than the first was.
Again, I’m digging for a problem here, because I understand the story has to be as long as it wants to be, but maybe another visit or two with our father/son team would have given it a bit more heft and scratched my itch for more check-ins.
Gang, if you take an even cursory glance of the many reviews on this site you know I’m gonna be a fan of KJA’s work, it goes all the way back to when I first read The Last Days Of Krypton when I was like 16 years old.
But in the 16 years since his work has always consistently delivered a dependable level of quality, and this book is no different.
He knows how to, seemingly, effortlessly weave a satisfying, fun, and engrossing tale, book after book, short story after short story.
He’s roughly 35 years into his career and I’ve yet to read a single novel and think “whoa, you really screwed the pooch on this one, dude. It might be time to pack it in!” and I can’t say the same for every novelist I’ve ever read.
If you want a story that gives you a hell of a journey and leaves you at a destination feeling like you’ve spent your time well then this and any of his other books I’ve talked about on this site are well worth a look.
Grab a copy, sit back, and let a master spin you a tale.
I hope this is just the beginning for this series.
Special thanks to @ACFerrell1976 for her continued editorial assistance.
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And finally, given the state of the world, do what you can to leave it a little bit better than you found it.
As difficult as that may be currently, it can have an impact far greater than you know.
Until next time, stay safe out there, gang.
