Published: May 2025
Pages: 320
Standalone
Summary
Thierry Villar is a well-known–even notorious– tavern poet, familiar with the rogues and shadows of that world, but not at all with courts and power. He is an unlikely person, despite his quickness, to be caught up in the deadly contests of ambitious royals, assassins, and invading armies.
But he is indeed drawn into all these things on a savagely cold night in his beloved city of Orane. And so Thierry must use all the intelligence and charm he can muster as political struggles merge with a decades-long war to bring his country to the brink of destruction.
As he does, he meets his poetic equal in an aristocratic woman and is drawn to more than one unsettling person with a connection to the world beyond this one. He also crosses paths with an extraordinary young woman driven by voices within to try to heal the ailing king–and help his forces in war. A wide and varied set of people from all walks of life take their places in the rich tapestry of this story.
My thoughts
I’ve been mulling over my thoughts of this book for a week now. It’s a difficult one! Let’s start with the positives. The writing is brilliant, really beautiful and evocative. I’ve heard that Guy is a fantastic writer, I’ve never read any of his works before and I will definitely need to add his books to my TBR.
His prose is fantastic, there were lines of dialogue or narrative that cut me to the bone. Especially in this society where those of poorer backgrounds are not deemed to have any value. Soldiers will lose their lives and will never be remembered, people will do good things but it doesn’t matter because they are of low status. This world can be difficult to survive and it is a heavy struggle for most. Opportunities are hard to come by and their treatment is not always good.
“Sometimes we retain the quiet moments that come in the midst of chaos, of ager it. The city, my city in the night. Our lives, written on the dark.”
This is a very simple story, the narrative is not complex and I did find it very interesting. I was drawn to the description but I was under the impression it was more of a murder mystery, similar to The Tainted Cup. That isn’t the case here as we’re not taken along on the journey to solve the murder, the focus on this book is more around the character development and their individual stories.
“It seems to me that most moments in a life can be called interludes: following something, preceding something. Carrying us forward, with our needs and nature and desires, as we move through our time.”
Guy gives most of his characters, even the rather small ones, their own narrative arc. We have small characters that are only a tiny piece of the picture, and we get to know how their choices shape the rest of their lives as well as turn the tide on the main plot. I really enjoyed that. It really highlighted that everyone has their own unique story but not all stories are front and centre. Some are background stories but even they can significantly influence the outcome by just making one small choice.
This is where the ending came in, it is one of the best I’ve read in a while. I found that I felt really attached to these characters so seeing how their lives played out, what came after, and where they ended up. It was emotional and heart-wrenching and it really saved my rating for this book.
“Because if you love something too much, you can be destroyed if you lose it.”
My challenge with this book is not the plot but more of how it was executed. Imagine you’re sitting in a tavern and being told a story. But the storyteller doesn’t want to dwell on all the boring things that came inbetween so he skips to all the pieces of action and key plot points. That was what bugged me with this book. Large chunks of time pass, things are happening but we don’t see a lot of it. We don’t know how they came to certain outcomes, we don’t know what was involved. Time skips and the next piece of action is a lot of telling us what they’ve done instead of showing us.
I saw another review that referenced this book to being half baked and too short and I think that’s pretty spot on in my opinion. This could have been deeper and I wouldn’t have mind something longer if I got that. Similar to that review, it was the ending that really saved this book and made me realise I cared deeply for these characters.
“Men and women live with a heart-deep uncertainty every morning when they wake. It is why they go to war, why they write poems, fall in and out of love, plan thefts on dark nights, or try to forestall them. Why they pray. Or refuse to pray. It is the uncertainty that shapes and defines our lives. The tears of the world, a longing for joy. Or even just safety. Just that.”
There are pieces of this story which didn’t quite make sense to me. One of those situations where a person has (what I assume to be) magic (because we’re never really told if it was magic or not) and they do magical things with no explanation. My biggest pet peeve is magic with no limitations or no comprehension. So I found that frustrating. Maybe we’re not supposed to know and that is to be part of its charm? That piece just didn’t quite work for me.
Medor nodded. “Barratin wouldn’t have cared if they killed you. You aren’t important.”
“My mother loves me,” Thierry protested.
Would I recommend?
Yes – if you enjoy character driven stories where the plot takes more of a backseat. It was written very well, I enjoyed it despite my issues with it, and that ending made it all worth it. My heart hurt.