“… This reinforces the clear point of view that De Camp promotes in the book, and that is one of multiculturalism and diversity being good things for people to experience and for polities to have. Time and again, having a wide and diverse group, or tribe, or nation is superior, clearly, to monoculture alternatives.”
At its heart, Blood of the Old Kings is a story about Empire, reactions and resistance to it. Our three protagonists are all in their own way taking up the mantle of resistance to that Empire.
Gabe and Ruby’s story is the heart of The Cost of Power: Return, by Joyce Reynolds-Ward. Their story in this iteration, looking at the oeuvre of the author, is to be one of a series of futures/worlds in a multiverse of stories revolving around the Martinieres in general and Gabe and Ruby as well.
This is not a non-fiction book, there definitely is a protagonist and her name is Alys. But in a real way, this novel (and I am going to venture, the entire series) really has the city of Kithamar as its real protagonist and telling Alys’ story is a way to tell part of the story of Kithamar.
In all, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is a lean and mean novella that goes down like liquid fire and leaps through the reader’s mind like dancing across rooftops in Tal Abisi.
… So, once things do kick off, we get a lot of fun action sequences, a main character learning to do better and learning to adapt her city and courtly ways to the wild frontier, to tackle a problem far bigger and dangerous than she imagined, and torn between wanting to stick it out and wanting to decamp for other climes. …
