*Insert wild flailing here*

Petre Mercy’s had a rough time since he rode home on a cyborg horse. He’s lost a hand that’s been replaced with a mess of steel and piano string, broke his thyroid-powered sword, and helped ignite a civil war that’s engulfed the countryside.

His sister, The Queen, has ordered him to root out any traitors in Mercy House. But Petre can hardly ferret out the truth from his siblings, let alone a vast network of spies with counterplots. And every day more turncoats move against him.

If he has any hope of putting down this uprising, he’ll have to work with a sister he’s still learning to trust. But his enemies are one step ahead of him at all times. And they’re hiding in the last place he’d think to look.

When the author offered me a chance to read an ARC of “The Diplomacy of the Knife”, I didn’t have to think twice. “The Fall Is All There Is” (click the link for my review) is one of the coolest, most original books I’ve ever read, and I have been eagerly awaiting the second book.

It had been a while since I read “Fall” and the first chapter had me a little confused until I fell back into this incredible, weird world Caplan has invented. And then…

And THEN.

This book sucked me in and chewed on me and then spit me out. Its intrigue and brutality and inventiveness is a visceral high. I mean, the cyborg horses were my favorite things in the first book, but ships propelled by giant beating hearts, cars that run on nerves and spinal fluid?? It’s a twisted and perverse world, and Petre, the main character, is definitely a product of its obscenity. His siblings (he is the youngest of royal quadruplets) dragged him back into the world of court intrigue, each wanting to use him for their own ends, and when it all goes to hell in a handbasket, Petre’s the one in the grinder.

It’s painful and exhilarating. The world building is bonkers and just freaking incredible, and every one of the characters is indelibly flawed and exquisitely formed.

Book three better be coming soon.