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sophia_sol) wrote2020-05-11 11:52 am
sophia_sol) wrote2020-05-11 11:52 am
Paladin's Grace, by T. Kingfisher
Not a perfect book but pretty much just what I wanted/needed to be reading right now. (thank you to michelel72 for reccing this book to me like a month and a half ago!) Kingfisher is reliably compelling and entertaining and good-hearted, and writes the kind of book I can just disappear into instead of being constantly distracted from reading by my other thoughts.
This is a romance novel and also a murder mystery in multiple directions and also one of the lead characters is a paladin whose god died. It's got a lot going on! But Grace and Stephen are both people who have been through really awful traumatizing things and have survived and manage to go on to find happiness even if their past never really leaves them, and it's lovely. Also my favourite nonbinary lawyer-priest Zale shows up again in this one and I love them a lot. Kind of makes up for the enormous amount of earnest guilt all the paladins have going on which I had to wade through. (Paladins are not exactly my character type.) I got rewarded with Zale's presence!
And I really loved Grace's profession as a perfumer, and how throughout the book she is always, always noticing what things and people smell like. And how competent and dedicated she is at her craft. I also loved the strong bonds between the 7 paladins and how much they clearly cared about each other, and also the friendship between Marguerite and Grace. I want to know more about Marguerite's story and everything she clearly has going on!
Also I find it really interesting how very, like, specifically Kingfisher's romance leads are interested in each other's bodies, it's not like "oh they're so hot" or whatever, the narrative makes it very clear exactly what they each find compelling about each other's bodies--and as someone who has literally never found anyone sexy ever I find it really interesting. I appreciate Kingfisher spelling it out for me instead of just assuming I understand sexual attraction. And somehow she does it in a way where I'm like, ok, sure, that's weird but I believe you, whereas in some romance novels when characters are busy being physically attracted to each other I'm just like YOU'RE ALL ALIENS AND NOT THE INTERESTING KIND. I think it's because Kingfisher's writing is just so no-nonsense about everything all the time. And also, on balance, her focus in this tends to be more on how the viewpoint character feels upon seeing or interacting with the other character's body, rather than on the objective attractiveness of the part in question.
(Also Kingfisher makes her leads believably interested in each other as people, not just sex objects, which I really appreciate and which definitely helps too.)
Anyway the ending of this book wraps up many things nicely but there is one specific plot thread which is very definitely left unsolved and aaaaaa I just want to knowwwwwwww!!! What's going on with the creepy unknown person making living clay heads and attaching them to corpses!!!!!!!!!
michelel72 for reccing this book to me like a month and a half ago!) Kingfisher is reliably compelling and entertaining and good-hearted, and writes the kind of book I can just disappear into instead of being constantly distracted from reading by my other thoughts.This is a romance novel and also a murder mystery in multiple directions and also one of the lead characters is a paladin whose god died. It's got a lot going on! But Grace and Stephen are both people who have been through really awful traumatizing things and have survived and manage to go on to find happiness even if their past never really leaves them, and it's lovely. Also my favourite nonbinary lawyer-priest Zale shows up again in this one and I love them a lot. Kind of makes up for the enormous amount of earnest guilt all the paladins have going on which I had to wade through. (Paladins are not exactly my character type.) I got rewarded with Zale's presence!
And I really loved Grace's profession as a perfumer, and how throughout the book she is always, always noticing what things and people smell like. And how competent and dedicated she is at her craft. I also loved the strong bonds between the 7 paladins and how much they clearly cared about each other, and also the friendship between Marguerite and Grace. I want to know more about Marguerite's story and everything she clearly has going on!
Also I find it really interesting how very, like, specifically Kingfisher's romance leads are interested in each other's bodies, it's not like "oh they're so hot" or whatever, the narrative makes it very clear exactly what they each find compelling about each other's bodies--and as someone who has literally never found anyone sexy ever I find it really interesting. I appreciate Kingfisher spelling it out for me instead of just assuming I understand sexual attraction. And somehow she does it in a way where I'm like, ok, sure, that's weird but I believe you, whereas in some romance novels when characters are busy being physically attracted to each other I'm just like YOU'RE ALL ALIENS AND NOT THE INTERESTING KIND. I think it's because Kingfisher's writing is just so no-nonsense about everything all the time. And also, on balance, her focus in this tends to be more on how the viewpoint character feels upon seeing or interacting with the other character's body, rather than on the objective attractiveness of the part in question.
(Also Kingfisher makes her leads believably interested in each other as people, not just sex objects, which I really appreciate and which definitely helps too.)
Anyway the ending of this book wraps up many things nicely but there is one specific plot thread which is very definitely left unsolved and aaaaaa I just want to knowwwwwwww!!! What's going on with the creepy unknown person making living clay heads and attaching them to corpses!!!!!!!!!
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HEE! ♥
(I haven't read any Kingfisher/Vernon, and I keep hearing good things about them. Do you have a rec for where would be a good place to start, if you don't mind a) my asking, and b) my completely failing to follow through and actually read the thing any time soon, because I am a flake. :-)
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If you're looking for something more on the romance side of things I'd say go with Swordheart. It's funny, it's charming, I really enjoy the dynamic between the lead characters, the lawyer-priest Zale I mention above has a much larger role in this book, there's a road trip that lets you enjoy Vernon's exuberant worldbuilding, it's great.
If you want platonic adventure, and you're okay with graphic novels, then I'd definitely recommend Digger, which you can read online for free here. It won a Hugo! It's about a wombat who finds herself lost and in an unfamiliar land. It's absolutely incredible.
If you want a fairy tale retelling, my personal favourite of her books is The Raven and the Reindeer, but I recognize that this is a little more niche. It's a retelling of the Hans Christian Anderson story The Snow Queen, and if you didn't grow up reading that story then this retelling might not speak to you as well. But I did and this is an EXACTLY PERFECT reimagining of the tale, keeping all the best things about it and fixing the things that needed fixing. Uh. Warning for animal harm though, if that's a thing that might bother you. It's really well handled and great in context but like. It's a bit visceral.
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Sold! That sounds really great. :-)
Thanks so much. <3 <3 <3
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And now I want Marguerite's story! (Don't think we'll get it, but it's so tantalizing!)
As for the unresolved plot ... yeah, I wasn't really expecting a cliffhanger. I didn't mind it a ton because they at least resolved the more immediate plot, but ... oh nooooo, it's creepy and unfinished!!!
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I DEFINITELY want Marguerite's story and definitely agree that it doesn't seem likely we'll ever get it, but you never know! At least her story doesn't feel incomplete, the emotional arc was completed with Grace having the confirmation that Marguerite really was definitely her friend and on her side. It's just that we the readers want to know more instead of it being needed for the story.
I really hope that whatever next book Kingfisher writes in this universe SOLVES the creepy unfinished plot for us because YEAH.
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That untied plot thread sounds like a sequel setup to me...
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The untied plot thread definitely sounds like a sequel set-up, but I guess what threw me is that this author doesn't usually tend to do that? Except in the Clocktaur Wars duology and that was specifically marketed as a duology. I usually expect more closure than this from Vernon-as-Kingfisher!
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