Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review.
Honestly, there is a character in here that I was obsessed with IMMEDIATELY and had they been present throughout the narrative, this was going to get five stars. However, they were not, so I am only giving it 4.5, because I missed them when they were gone.
Daggerbound is the sequel to 2020’s Swordheart, which was the first T. Kingfisher book I ever read, and still holds a special place in my heart. This whole series is about people who are stuck in swords and are functionally immortal because of it. The first book followed Sarkis*, and this one follows his former underling, The Dervish (and that is the only name we ever get from him, which I kind of love). The Dervish is not like Sarkis, he is angry and traumatized by his experience in the sword, which has essentially figured of intervals of hibernation in the sword, and violent, tortuous slavery, for 500 years. But the Dervish’s new wielder is so by accident, a young scholar named Learned Edmund (previously of T. Kingfisher’s Clocktaur War books, which I still need to read!), who has just left the temple he has been a dedicate of his entire life, because he’s tired of their hypocrisy.
*Presumably Angharad is next. Also, there were a couple notable dangling threads in this book that I hope get picked up either in her book, or the remaining Saint of Steel books (they all take place in the same world, The World of the White Rat, which is my favorite world she writes in).
Edmund is kind and gentle and thoughtful, even if he has a bit of a self-esteem issue, and the Dervish is of course going to fall in love with him. Along the way to bring the Dervish’s sword to the Temple of the White Rat, they meet the gnoll Dogviolet, and the previously aforementioned favorite character, and the only thing I’m going to tell you about them is that their name is Large Frances Building, and I love them. I was actually in this more for the character development than the romance, and the character dynamics between the four that are traveling. They get up to shenanigans, and it is very fun.
I did the audiobook, and Jesse Vilinksy does a great job. Her voice for Frances is my new favorite character voice, outside of DCC.
Probably my only “complaint,” is that I think this book didn’t need the sex scenes, but I am very asexual atm so take that tidbit with some context.
[4.5 stars]
CBR BINGO: Summer (I read this in the summer!)
