Monday, January 25, 2016

A Discourse in Steel

A Discourse in Steel, by Paul S. Kemp

 Sequel to The Hammer and the Blade, A Discourse in Steel tops it! Picking up not too long after events in THaTB, we have Egil ad Nix trying to go legit and quit their not completely legal ways. But it can go hard when you're looking out for the ladies you saved last time around and they run afoul of the Thieves Guild and become marked for death. I don't want to give away too much but its an original set up and at the same time has some that universal roguish/reluctant hero charm.

The action is top notch and I love Kemp's gift of language, his characterizations AND he has some of the best prose going. It is perfect for mood and atmosphere in the sword and sorcery genre.

ADiS also ups the world-building and we see a lot more of the expanse and historical events far beyond our protagonists. It all wraps up in a surprising but satisfying conclusion and I can't recommend it enough!

Everyone that enjoys S&S = Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Conan the Barbarian etc will go on a helluva ride with this one.

I'm looking forward to reading Kemp's Lords of the Sith and the
forthcoming Egil and Nix book, A Conversation in Blood. I'm sharing all the covers here because they are all good.

Oh yeah, I do enough driving around that I got thru about half the book thanks to the audio book narrated by Nick O'Dell who does a fantastic job of reading/performing the varied voices.

2 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Haven't read any Kemp. Great covers

nephite blood spartan heart said...

They're great S&S and I'm looking forward to his tale of Darth Vader in Lords of the Sith.