Paladin's Hope

It was as enjoyable as the first two volumes of the Saint of Steel series, but at the same time I had mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, I really like the author's sense of humor, I enjoy following the relationships between characters in their late thirties (i.e. my age), and mixing romance with investigations on gruesome murders works really well apparently? I technically finished Paladin's Hope 10 days ago and haven't started a new fiction book since. I just... don't feel like immersing myself in another one for the moment.

On the other hand, I'm afraid that the series could get a little repetitive at some point. Until now, each of them followed a similar pattern. There are berserker paladins whose god died a few years ago, they feel broken, not worthy of love and/or dangerous for the people around them that are not fellow paladins. Until they meet someone and mutually fall in love, after having spent a very long time thinking about how unworthy they are of the other person's affection and vice versa (and there are also corpses that must be investigated). The paladins' love interests are well-rounded, interesting characters (especially the women of the first 2 volumes), but I wish I could say the same about the paladins. Their god died and it's, like, their whole deal. Stephen knits socks, Istvhan is large and Galen mustn't be touched when he's having a nightmare and... that's pretty much it? Their respective personalities aren't literally the same, but the whole "ugh how could they love me?" sort of evens them out I think.

The very end of Paladin's Hope hints at more development of one important plot point, and having a gnole as one of its main characters brought a breath of fresh air, so fingers crossed for more variety in upcoming volumes.

I saw this mentioned on Twitter with “Do pick it up if you like idiots in love and murder houses” and I don’t regret doing so in the slightest. It was just a lovely read, which I blazed through within 24 hours. The 2 gay male human protagonists are an absolute delight and the non-human secondary character was also great fun. I definitely need to read more in this series (despite the cis-het-ness of those other works), especially the previous tales to pick up on the earlier mentions of these characters.

[a:T Kingfisher|7367300|T. Kingfisher|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1547408383p2/7367300.jpg] is the adult-fiction pseudonym of Hugo-, Locus- and Nebula-winning YA author [a:Ursula Vernon|36276|Ursula Vernon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1271095776p2/36276.jpg], who under this pen name has so far written 6 books in this “Temple of the White Rat” universe — with at least another 3 to come in this Saint of Steel series, of which [b:Paladin’s Hope|59110287|Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel, #3)|T. Kingfisher|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1632860302l/59110287.SY75.jpg|93205483] is the 3rd — and another 10 works for non-YA audiences.

The saint of steel, the god worshipped by Galen, our red-headed paladin protagonist, died some time ago, so he’s extra-broken and prone to waking from nightmares into a berserker rage, which is, y’know, fun and not entirely convenient. Piper, our other human protagonist, is a lich-doctor — ok, strictly speaking he’s a doctor with some necromantic abilities, but Kingfisher uses “lich” for this, rather than him being a nasty undead magician — using his ability to “perceive the moment of death” while working as a coroner, helping investigate suspicious deaths. Our third protagonist Earstripe is a gnole, a hyena-like humanoid, working for the City Watch; between them they set off to investigate the unusually-maimed corpses washing up on the banks of the Elkinslough River, which leads them to a dangerous mystery, before coming back to political dangers when they return to Archenhold. And with plenty of mutual pining between Piper and Galen on the way.

All 3 main characters are great: really likeable in different ways, and I really enjoyed finding out more about the gnoles and their society. I also loved that the characters aren't in their late teens and early 20s like so many fantasy protagonists; indeed T Kingfisher’s works inspired this tweet from Kaitlyn Sedai, which made me smile (and my back twinge in sympathy):

give me more fantasy books with protagonists in their 30s, 40s and 50s. I want the world weary knight who has back spasms and calf cramps. Give me more badass mothers with rich stories. I want to know how they pay their taxes and who checks in on their homes when adventuring.