Started:
Finished:
Spoilers: Mild (labelled)
Big thank you to Netgalley and Solaris for sending me an eARC ahead of the book's release date. All opinions are my own.
Characters
5 POVs
So here were have a crew of con artists. We've got Valen, cardsharp, failed magician and essentially the group's mastermind. We also have his wife, Margo, an expert forger. Jac, ex-pirate, brawler and distraction. And then Ten, diviner, lesser cardsharp, and just a general does-whatever-she's-told.
Jac had some cracking lines.
"We'll take payment in coin or wine, as the only difference between the two is time."
Love that the main character Valen is married. So often it feels like being in a thieving crew is the occupation of single men, so to find a mastermind who's married to a crew member, and devoted to her is so refreshing. I've only ever seen it done once before (Facefaker's Game) and loved it then too. Nothing says loyalty to the crew like being married to one of them. And I also loved how, at times, he and Marguerite acted like a normal married couple in such simple ways. Sharing a bottle of wine, visiting the in-laws. It was so simple yet felt so special to them.
All that being said, and as sweet as I found them, their relationship was very much 'told' to us, rather than 'shown'. Were we not told at all that they were married, I probably would never have known, maybe even considered them siblings. They were clearly very close, but there's not a lot of intimacy between them. They don't kiss, I don't even think they hug. I'm not saying I need romance in every book, but considering they were married, they lacked chemistry a little. Margo never really seemed to worry about Valen's safety when he played all these risky games. There's no sense of urgency or great concern between them. But all the same, I loved seeing a married couple within a con/heist crew.
I don't know how to feel about Ten. On one hand, she's very cool and competent, but on the other, she comes across as very disloyal. Considering Valen is one of her oldest, closest friends, she's always so quick to shit on him and doubt him, or flat out betray him. I'm so disappointed in her.
I don't like that vibe in a thieving crew. I prefer a more Gentlemen Bastards vibe where the crew is so unwaveringly loyal to their leader, and 100% trust him and each other. Who would die for each other if need be. And though Ten shows some of these qualities, she's also quick to hate on Valen when he finds other, more clever ways out of a scrape that doesn't involve her getting hurt. You'd think she'd be greatly he uses that big brain of his, but she just resents him for it.
Ten goes on about feeling betrayed by her friends, how they don't listen to her, don't appreciate her, etc. And I know she feels this, but I didn't feel it. And if I can't feel what the character is feeling in that moment then it hasn't been developed enough beforehand. I know the instances Ten is implying, but in those moments, none of it felt that bad to me, so then I'm left disliking Ten for blowing things out of proportion. It's a shame because in the beginning I really liked her, but by the end, she's such a whinge-bag.
In truth, I'm not sure what she actually brings to the team. She's not much of a fighter, she rarely gets involved with the games or card-sharping, she doesn't do any thieving, she just seems to hang around on street corners waiting for something to happen and then gets pissy with Valen when he makes something happen. I know Ten is a diviner, but so is Valen, so in reality, her skill isn't really required in this crew.
Another, very minor, issue I had was I found the character names a bit too grandiose, even random side characters. I struggled to pronounce about 90% of names and it got a bit tiring. It really says something when I have an easier time pronouncing French-sounding names than the general fantasy names. (French is not my strong suit). There was too much of a flourish to every single name, just felt over the top.
Plot
The premise of this book is so enticing. Set on the independent island nation of Valtiffe, there exists a political point of contention for the natives. The Tipping Point, in which two opposing empires are playing a long game in a bid to swallow up Valtiffe as part of their own empire. To own land on the island presents the opportunity to vote. As more nobles from each side of the political war buy up land, eventually there will be more from one side than the other, after which they can vote to join with either the empire or the queendom. Either of which could have quite dire consequences to the natives of Valtiffe.
Yet despite how cool and political this sounds, the plot does get a little bit lost within its own complexities. Perhaps there just wasn't enough foreshadowing to build up a satisfying conclusion. Anticipation is born from the hints dropped, and I don't think there were enough hints throughout to build all that much anticipation for the. For instance, the prize for winning the Ambassador's Game is a favour from the Ambassador herself. If this had been hinted at sooner and more regularly, I would have built up a lot more excitement for the game, anticipating what could happen next. I think if the book had a lot more foreshadowing, this would have been far more edge-of-the-seat reading.
Based on a few things that I thought was foreshadowing but turned out not to be, I thought this would happen.
*MILD SPOILER*
As Arbelan kept threatening to cut off Valen's fingers if he messed up, and because Valen had been trying and failing to perfect his luck magic (a way to cheat at cards without the need to handle the deck and do any sleight of hand, I immediately put these two clues together in my head, and became so sure that yes, Valen would mess up, yes, Arbelan would take a couple of his fingers, and yes, this would devastate Valen, but in his new inability to cheat at cards the traditional way, he'd be pushed outside his comfort zone and would have no choice but to make his luck magic work once and for all. In my head, this was going to be some legendary character growth. The anticipation was glorious. I figured wow, if this is what's going to happen, then that's dark but bold and very fucking cool.
*END SPOILERS*
and then I was a little disappointed when it didn't happen.
Though I did have a question throughout. Why was Dusmenil even gambling with such an important secret in the first place? What possessed the man? I'm not sure it was ever explained why he risked something so valuable and dangerous over a game of cards.
Also, I thought at first Ten was doing a double-doublecross on Valen's instruction, but turned out she was just double-crossing, which was a little deflating. I love those cons where the opposing side thinks they have the upper hand, but turns out it's all part of the plan to make them think they have the upper hand.
I did like the ending though, that final chapter that leaves it open for a sequel on a hopeful note.
Setting
The world-building here is very strong. I loved the French-inspired world, other than the fact I've always had a terrible time with French pronunciation. I had to look up how to say various phonetics to get an understanding of how to say a bunch of made-up names (yeah I know, pedantic, right?). Funny, I'm fine with pronouncing the phonetics of Italian, Polish, and Chinese, but give me something as simple as French (simple because the English language is already basically half French) and suddenly I'm like oH nO, I cAn'T sAy iT. *sigh* I really need to learn French one of these days.
Anyway, The world was highly driven by the political machinations of various ruling parties. There's an important social structure to the world with a clear divide between the nobles and the common folk, but interestingly, at the casino tables, everyone is equal. Gambling is a massive part of this society and one's ability at certain games determines the level of respect they get. It was all very lavish and glamorous and cool. I liked it a lot. It gave me vibes of the salons of Versaille back in the day when the nobles just used to sit around the king's court gambling, gossiping, and conspiring.
I'm really going to need to buy a print version just to take a proper look at the map. Although the eBook had one, it's awkward to refer back to it and impossible to do so in the middle of a chapter without losing my place. There were so many places mentioned that I struggled to keep track of where's where. But I do love how expansive and lived-in this world feels, and I'd love to get a better look at the map to really study it.
Writing Style
The writing in this book suits the themes and setting it's going for. There's a certain flourish to it that at once feel both ostentatious yet utterly natural to the world-building. In other words, the style feels very fitting to the general vibes of the book.
I enjoyed the writing, though I did feel the author deliberately chose long, elaborate words where perhaps simple ones might have sufficed. I don't consider myself an idiot and like to think I have a pretty reasonable vocabulary, but the number of times I had to Google words I didn't know only to discover they had such basic meanings got a tad boring. This isn't to say I think fiction should be dumbed down to nothing like mulch to feed the masses. Not at all. But sometimes it just felt like the author was trying to sound clever.
For instance 'internecine' instead of 'violent'.
'habiliments' instead of 'clothing'.
'Inculcate' instead of 'ingrain'.
They're nice words and all, and if they'd been used in dialogue I'd take zero issue. If there's a character that always speaks fancy, say no more. But mostly all they were used in the narrative and just seemed to over-complicate something simple.
Final Impression
So I didn't quite like it as much as I'd hoped, I did find a lot of issues with it that personally didn't gel with me, but ultimately I enjoyed it and had a good time with it. I really think the character could grow on me and I'm very interested to learn if there will be a sequel. If there is, I'd certainly give it a read.
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