The Not a Book Club Club discussion

The King's Blood (The Dagger and the Coin, #2)
This topic is about The King's Blood
19 views
The Dagger and Coin > TKB: Section 4: 7th Marcus - Entr’acte (Full Spoilers)

Comments Showing 1-18 of 18 (18 new)    post a comment »
dateUp arrow    newest »

Lindsay | 546 comments Full spoilers for the entire book. Please don't spoil later books.

No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you Uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling this for your goodreads friends.

This section covers the 7th Marcus chapter through to the end of the book. The first sentence of the section is:

All through the long night’s ride, Marcus had looked for his escape.


message 2: by Bill (last edited Jul 21, 2015 08:32AM) (new) - rated it 5 stars

Bill | 1596 comments Fantastic book.

Loved the last exchange at the end of Clara's section.
"They asked if I'd been conspiring against Geder Palliako and the crown"
"What did you say?"
"That the thought hadn't occured to me," she said
"And?" Vincen said.
Clara raised an eyebrow.
"And now it has."

Ok so Dawson's execution was seriously messed up. After all his worrying about how Jorey would feel Geder straight loses control and brutally chops Dawson down. I mean it is one thing giving the order and another to do it yourself. I have to admit I didn't think Dawson was going to get executed I thought that Basrahip and crew would brainwash him or something.

The scene right after with Cithrin made me laugh. Geder running out into the crowd still covered in blood and being like hey girl wanna grab dinner.

"He had read love notes before, but usually in the form of poetry or song. To cast it as business correspondence was both odd and exactly what he would have expected of a banker." Haha really Geder. Abraham nailed it.

On a side note I guess I bought my Kindle version of this book before the third book came out at the end I have an excerpt from "The Poisoned Sword" Book Three of The Dagger and The Coin. Guess part of the editing process was changing the name.


message 3: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new) - rated it 4 stars

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Obviously you loved it. You seemed to tear through it. :-P


Bill | 1596 comments Rob wrote: "Obviously you loved it. You seemed to tear through it. :-P"

I did. Now comes the hard part of holding back on books 3+4 until the group reads them.


Suzanne | 1582 comments I'm so glad you liked it Bill. So far it seems to get better with every book, maybe because the characters are so complex.


message 6: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new) - rated it 4 stars

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Suzanne wrote: "I'm so glad you liked it Bill. So far it seems to get better with every book, maybe because the characters are so complex."

Yeah. And adding Clara as a POV was really good. Balances things out better IMHO.


Bill | 1596 comments Yeah I really enjoyed Clara. Looking forward to see who Abraham replaces Dawson with if anyone.


message 8: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new) - rated it 4 stars

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Ok. That was this book. I thought he died here, but no one had said anything. You suspected he might die in the previous section I think...

And I don't think he adds a new POV. But it's been awhile. Imthink Clara was meant as the replacement.

Her POVs dont start until later in the book right?


Lindsay | 546 comments Rob wrote: "Her POVs dont start until later in the book right?"

Actually she had POVs in the first book.


message 10: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new) - rated it 4 stars

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
The end of the first book then? I pretty much listened back to back. It kind of blends together.


Lindsay | 546 comments I finished this last night and I thought it was brilliant. Best epic fantasy I've read for a while and I thought it was a marked improvement on the first book.

Of particular note in this section is Cithrin's analysis of Geder for the king of Northcoast and Geder driving Clara into rebellion in the last chapter. I don't think I'd want Clara as an enemy.


Lindsay | 546 comments Rob wrote: "The end of the first book then? I pretty much listened back to back. It kind of blends together."

Yes, her first POV chapter is at around the 75% mark of the first book and she's a POV character from the beginning of this one.


message 13: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new) - rated it 4 stars

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Lindsay wrote: "I finished this last night and I thought it was brilliant. Best epic fantasy I've read for a while and I thought it was a marked improvement on the first book.

Of particular note in this section i..."


As good as this one is, I think it just keeps getting better. Though as I said, the books have all sort of blended for me.


Justine (justine_ao) I also loved this book...and agreed Rob, it's hard to comment back except on specific events because the story does tend to blend together. Clara is such a brilliant character; I just love her.


message 15: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new) - rated it 4 stars

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Abraham has a knack for writing awesome older women. Especially Avasarala and Clara.


Teanka | 134 comments I was pretty sorry to see Dawson die, even though I thought it was going to happen (I mean once he decided to commit high treason). I liked him a lot more than most of you, it seems. He saw through the priests and had the courage to act on it. A pity he did in in such an ineffective way. The fact of executing one of the main protagonists at the beginning of a series reminded me more than a lot of Eddard Stark.

Justine wrote: " Clara is such a brilliant character; I just love her."
I agree. All the more reason to be sorry that Dawson died, because her life is going to be hell for at least some time now and she will grieve for him a lot since she genuinely loved him.

I remember also what Jemisin said in her blog entry as regards her latest book, The Fifth Season which we discussed last month. She stated that it was extremely difficult to have an older woman ('older' apparently meaning 'around 40') as a main character of the story because readers don't sympathise/don't care about such people. I for one disagree because I like when fantasy/sci fi characters are more mature and am fed up with teens saving the world, but it made me think. Clara was introduced as a protagonist only towards the end of the first volume. Maybe having Dawson as one of the protagonists served mostly to make us care more about Clara later and to introduce her character?

I also happen to have a different view on Geder. I don't sympathise with him at all as he is quite clearly becoming a sociopath. Of course, he is only a puppet in the priest of the Goddess' hands, and completely under their influence (which is also by his own choice), but from the moment he committed mass murder in Vanai he is the villain of this story to me. And Cithrin lost much of my affection when she saved him during the coup too, even though I understand her perspective. I'm very glad she left the city afterwards.


message 17: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new) - rated it 4 stars

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Abraham seems to like to include at least 1 older woman as a major character in each of his series. Or at least the 3 I've read.

I forget the name of the one in long price, but she was in her 50s. Then you have Clara in this, and my personal favorite: Avasarala in Expanse.


Justine (justine_ao) Teanka wrote: "I was pretty sorry to see Dawson die, even though I thought it was going to happen (I mean once he decided to commit high treason). I liked him a lot more than most of you, it seems. He saw through..."

It's interesting that Jemisin should say that, I mean if you look at Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, which is extremely popular and long running, that features main characters in their late 40s and 50s. It is an exceptional case though, but it shows that it can be done, and done well, and in a way that makes people care about the characters. Outlander readers are seriously devoted to those characters:)


back to top