Paladin's Grace (1) (The Saint of Steel)

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Shane is a berserker like his brothers in arms and doesn’t think he deserves love or companion in his life because of his nightmares, but he is a Paladin full of honor and sense of duty, and it’s just so easy to like him. Piper on the other hand is kind of a medical examiner who might prefer working on dead humans instead of dealing with living ones and their emotions, but he is also equally all about helping people and believes in equality and Justice. It’s obvious right from the get go that they are perfect for each other and the author creates some very dangerous and close proximal situations which help them see the other for who they are and develop feelings. That’s pretty amazing. It’s also epically, epically bad when the Saint dies, because suddenly, the beserker state is not god-directed anymore. So, I really enjoy TKingfisher's writing first of all. Her characters and creatures and magic all feel very real and matter of fact. there are small to it's of information like the smell of a place that are given to you that make it feel just a bit more lived in. Un libro que me llamó la atención nada más verlo. Resulta que a esta autora la quería leer por dos novelas suyas recientes, sin embargo, en una de estas que me puse a ver su repertorio vi esta saga y me dije: esta será mi primera impresión de la autora y tengo que decir que ha sido una maravilla.

This book is a blend of fantasy and romance. It's set in a world where each god has dedicated servants and Stephen is a paladin who belongs to a god that dies. Long story short many of the paladins go bezerk and kill innocent people, many more kill themselves, and just six are left including Stephen, so they have a bit of a reputation. Grace is a perfume maker in the city and gets rescued by Stephen from some followers of the Hanged Mother who are rather nasty folk. What ensues is a will they won't they where they both feel literally the same way about each other and constantly think about how much they want to see each other without their clothes on but they're both completely convinced that the other person isn't at all interested. It gets really frustrating to read.Let’s start with Grace as she is the main character. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very close thing between her and Stephen, but she IS the main character. She is an obsessive perfumer that has buried herself in work for the majority of her life, using it to escape bad relationships of all kinds, whether they be abusive teachers or abusive husbands. After escaping these, she’s made a name for herself as being pretty good at what she does. Sole Survivors: Only seven of the Saint of Steel's paladins survived His death: Stephen, Istvhan, Galen, Shane, Marcus, Judith, and Wren. It's never mentioned outright how many paladins the Saint had in the first place, but twelve of them were spared to meet with the locals near the town of Hallowbind, so it's implied that there were quite a few. The dead didn’t say thinks like “Are you sure he’s dead?”when the man’s head was half off or, “Dear god, what happened?” when it was bloody obvious that someone had shoved a sword through him. The dead just laid there and got on with being dead. » Where Miss Angelica goes, I go,” he said, in a voice so deep Grace could almost hear it through her boots. Joel Richards fits Stephen's voice so well. Stephen is in his forties and Joel was able to make him feel like someone who has been through a lot and thinks everything through before doing anything. He was able to capture Grace's vulnerabilities as well and make the band of Paladins at the Temple of the White Rat really shine. He did a fantastic performance that made the story even better for me.

Gladiator Games: This is why Clara's sisters were kidnapped. A powerful pirate lord wants werebears to show up his opponent's zombies in the ring. We get many great chances to see the paladins interacting with and supporting each other in healthy ways. There were plenty of scenes that let us have time with familiar faces, and others that got me very interested in the characters with upcoming books (gonna need that second-chance romance for Marcus, and can't wait to see who finally flusters perpetually serious Shane). As expected, there's also tons of delicious paladin guilt, served alongside a delightfully prone to blushing hero Piper. I have never thought about how horrific it would be to live in such a world…a world where your god does not require your blind faith because they are real and there and present…and then have your god die. There is just so much happening in this story, both on the epic fantasy and the fantasy romance sides of the equation. Plus – big huge gigantic plus – the author’s very dry and frequently hung from the gallows humor made me laugh out loud so many times, even as it both developed the characters and pushed the story forward. This is my favorite type of humor, the kind that arises out of character and situation and is never built on cruelty, tearing up or punching down.This world is a masterful creation, from lawyer priests to helpful badger people, it's both a wonderful place to live and a terrifying one where magic is often sinister and horrifying (very much so in this case). We're several books into the world now, although this one is not directly connected to any of the others (one character from Swordheart has a minor role). This book, however, has less of a mystery. There is a murderer, and once again the story starts out with decapitated corpses that need to be investigated. But the mystery doesn't last as long and isn't as satisfying. Then, without going into spoilers, the story turned into a medieval version of the "Cube" film franchise. I normally talk about alternate covers or the awesome fantasy art and how evocative it is or is not. Paladin’s Grace only has a single cover and it’s not fantasy art. It’s fine. It’s neutral, to me. It doesn’t turn me away from the book but it also doesn’t attract me to it. Funny, frightening, and full of heart; I loved it' Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

As this is definitely a romance book, it’s really the “will they, won’t they” between Stephen and Grace that pushes everything forwards, and all of the surrounding matter is just for flavour and the occasional distraction from pining. Having read three Kingfisher novels in short succession, I'm in prime position to get weary. But despite seeing similarities between the books, I just can't find it in me to be upset about it - they feel like familiarities, if that makes sense? This author is one you can trust to take characters and do right by them; to make them ordinary people in a fantastical world and to make the reader root for their success. I love the element of horror that crops up in this series too, and there's a particularly creepy example in this book - it keeps things from getting too safe. He helps by pretending he is screwing her against the wall. It’s very awkward. She makes very bad moaning noises, and his armour chafes very painfully. But it makes the Motherhood people go away, so…success!!!

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Señora, Kingfisher, me rindo. Me rindo ante usted y su forma de escribir historias tan bonitas y llevaderas con personajes carismáticos. Ahora bien ¿Qué peca de falta de información del mundo y necesito más respuestas? Sí. ¿Qué los personajes les faltan un poco de desarrollo sobre todo en su relación frente a otros personajes? También, pero, siempre hay un, pero desde que supe quien era el protagonista de esta historia no dudé ni un segundo en empezarlo. Amé ese personaje desde su pequeña aparición en el primer libro y ha sido una gozarla leerlo. Plot: This book mainly follows Stephen and Grace as they become entangled in two main problems: 1. there is a serial killer on the loose, and his modus operandi is leaving behind severed heads, sans bodies; 2. there is a mysterious assassination plot aimed at the Crown Prince of a neighboring kingdom. To be honest, I found the serial killer plot underwhelming. It only seemed to be present to give Stephen an excuse to escort Grace places, and even when we found out who the killer was, I didn’t feel the rush of excitement or a sense of closure. I think perhaps this was because the serial killer plot wasn’t one that readers could try to piece together with the characters - at most, there was a single clue, and then it was solved (but readers can’t even predict the twist, so I didn’t feel any sense of suspense). Maybe a hero is just what we call someone who doesn’t have the sense to stop before they destroy themselves.

Jerkass Has a Point: In Paladin's Grace the Motherhood priests do their best to prosecute Grace as a poisoner and unrepentant murderer. The case against her was dubious, but painting her as a lone madwoman and organizing her swift execution was the surest way to avoid war with a powerful neighboring kingdom whose crown prince had (supposedly) just been poisoned to death. The Bishop of the White Rat begrudgingly admits they were trying to do something approximating the right thing given the circumstances (a single unjust execution is a small price compared to the horrors of war), but still thinks they were being assholes about it and should have been more concerned with finding the actual guilty party. To their credit, the priest who was leading the prosecution got demoted for overstepping his authority when things went off the rails during the trial.Instead of getting down, she’s out there cheerfully getting on with things. This is one of my favorite things about Kingfisher’s romances: she has a lot of badass characters who just roll their sleeves up and get on with it, whatever “it” may be. In Grace’s case, “it” is her work as a master perfumer for the city’s elite. Big Damn Heroes: Just when it looks like it's about to come to a showdown between the Saint of Steel's paladins and the priests of the Hanged Mother in Paladin's Grace, the Prince shows up, perfectly alive, to inform them that Grace did not kill him (thanks to Marguerite, who broke into his quarters to give him a browbeating about putting Grace in danger). It was his supposed loyal servant. Cyanide Pill: The young would-be assassin early on in Paladin's Grace takes poison when Grace, Stephen, and Marguerite find him. However, in a subversion, he had already been poisoned by his superiors, presumably because they weren't sure he was brave enough to actually go through with it on his own. I still recommend this book but perhaps not as a first T. Kingfisher novel seeing as there are unfinished elements and questions remaining. But please, more Temple of the White Rat and paladins of the Saint of Steel. B Refuge in Audacity: Grace's friend Marguerite cheerfully admits to everyone that she's a spy for Anuket City. This works amazingly well at keeping her out of trouble. Turns out that she is a spy, but she doesn't work for Anuket City and her name's not Marguerite.