Sworn in Steel by Douglas Hulick, Tales of the Kin #2 It’s been three months since Drothe killed a legend, burned down a portion of the imperial capital, and unexpectedly elevated himself into the ranks of the criminal elite. Now, as the newest Gray Prince in the underworld, he’s learning just how good he used to have it.
With barely the beginnings of an organization to his name, Drothe is already being called out by other Gray Princes. And to make matters worse, when one dies, all signs point to Drothe as wielding the knife. As members of the Kin begin choosing sides – mostly against him – for what looks to be another impending war, Drothe is approached by a man who not only has the solution to Drothe’s most pressing problem, but an offer of redemption. The only problem is the offer isn’t for him.
Now Drothe finds himself on the way to the Despotate of Djan, the empire’s long-standing enemy, with an offer to make and a price on his head. And the grains of sand in the hour glass are running out, fast...
Douglas Hulick is for me a bit of an underdog when it comes down to the fantasy books. In the die-hard circle his name is well known but outside of that many of the casual readers might have let the Tales of the Kin escape their attention. So I do hereby call, no shout out that you should really read the books of Douglas Hulick, it's great epic fantasy. Douglas Hulick has a terrific interpretation of the genre. I do have to be honest and say that I only read his first book, Among Thieves, last year, for those who read it on the publication day, they had to wait three year for the sequel, lucky me only 6 months! One question does remain to be answered, is this sequel worth the wait? Yes, it is!
After all that Douglas Hulick showed in Among Thieves I do have to say that I had a few reservations when it came down to the sequel. There were a lot of cool things in the first book that could cause a potential stagnant sequel. It can be hard to make up a more and exciting storyline, however this is far from the case in Sworn in Steel, Douglas Hulick definitely ups the ante. How does Douglas Hulick do it? Well he nicely expands his existing universe and takes you and emerges you into a completely new environment. In Sworn in Steel you go from the criminal city of Ildrecca to the more exotic Despotate of Djan. This chance in scenery really helped to make another non-stop action packed story, there is far from a moment that drags in Sworn in Steel. You are in for a treat. Trust me.
For the story of Sworn in Steel is a direct continuation from where Among Thieves ended. Drothe managed to kill off a Gray Prince, one of the most (in)famous leaders of the Ildrecca underworld and well wouldn't you have it, if you kill one of those you automatically find yourself promoted in the ranks. So yes, Drothe now finds himself to be a Gray Prince. But a transition from Kin to Gray Prince is quite the change and all the added responsibility to Drothe's new task seem to weigh him down and he doesn't really know how to go about this all. Added to this comes the fact that he is being framed for a murder he didn't commit. Another Gray Prince winds up dead on the streets of Ildrecca and all the evidence points towards Drothe... One member of the Degans known as Wolf needs Drothe and has planned this blackmailing into the details. Drothe can do nothing else but to accept his newly appointed task by Wold, that of traveling to the Despotate of Djan. Do you remember the Bronze Degan from Among Thieves? Drothe needs to find him. Also if you still recall what happened, Drothe and the Bronze Degan didn't part in the best of ways, as betrayals often aren't the best... Because of his blackmailing Drothe does accept but also because he is a guy that wants to set things right with the Bronze Degan does he accept. In his travels he isn't alone as he soon meets up with a group of interesting stage travelers and troubadours. Though this might sound a bit odd with Drothe's purpose of traveling to the Despotate it is nicely linked to the remained of the story. All in all I have to say that the story of Sworn in Steel was terrific to read and that those 500 pages, which the story spanned, didn't feel like it at all but more half of it. And, this is also far from just a sequel of an excursion to a different setting, there are some great revealings along the way that will put a smile on your face. Just as a sequel should be giving more and more details about the world to further bolster that feeling of epicness. yes that is a word!
Drothe came over as a very solid characters in the earlier books, he knew the streets and everything that went about in Ildrecca, but with his promotion to Gray Prince he is becoming less sure of everything, probably due to the weight that is resting on his shoulders. And this does reflect back to how his character acts and reacts. Drothe has to find himself back in his promotions and need to find out how to delegate stuff and not do everything himself. This is one element that you see developing along the story, Douglas Hulick does make Drothe once again an engaging character but instead of him taking the reigns in everything he allows Drothe to take in everything and only reacts, most of the time. Looking back on this was actually only natural as, how would you react if you would be placed into a completely new environment? The best thing is to just take in everything, and react when and where it counts, and this latter part does come show for a few times and when it does it offers some breakneck acceleration and great fighting scenes. If you look back on Drothe in the first book and in the beginning of Sworn in Steel he is the same guy, but in the end... he is changed person, and knows where he want to go.
Next to Drothe, Douglas Hulick shows some recurrent characters from the first book and also introduces plenty of new ones, both to like and to very much dislike. It was great to see that we got more time invested in Fowler the Oak that stands guard over Drothe, her character is fun to read about. Fowler is the protector and when Drothe goes about his own way, since he is used to it when he wasn't a Gray Prince was fun to see. In many ways Fowler is this determined women without regard to the womanly bits but on several occasions it was good to see her be more womanly about several things. A great addition to the storyline was Aribah, a young woman that Drothe gets acquiantted with in Djan, and who he takes back to Ildrecca. I wont go into her origins and exactly what she does, but if she is connecting with Drothe, then you might be able to see just where this will be going.
Now I have already talked about the characters and the story itself and have mentioned that mainly due to the location the story is readily taken forward, there is one thing I haven't said yet and that is what type of information is revealed along the way. Well you will get the full low down on the Order of the Degans! Yes these guys have got quite the interesting history to say the least. Since Drothe has to find the Bronze Degan, he starts to uncover all kinds of bits of history about the Order and that there is much more going on than we first had dared to guess. Because it was mentioned that every member of the Order of Degans was mentioned after a metal wasn't it? But where does the Ivory Degan come from?? It was great to see that Douglas Hulick besides emerging us into a completely new surrounding took the time and effort to further build on the premise of the story to which he introduced us in the first book. As an added bonus you also get to see much more of the magic system that makes the world of the Tales of the Kin go round.
For me Douglas Hulick has taken those needed steps in Sworn in Steel to take his story of Tales of the Kin that much further. A sequel is a tricky book to write but he managed to avoid dooming his series and falling into repetition, instead the story of Sworn in Steel introduces many great promises and with breakneck speed and non stop action readily places you on the edge of your seat. By going to a new geographical location the story gives a fresh breath of wind in general but the "stink" that we saw in in Ildrecca with the criminal ruling is just as present in Djan, and Drothe really has his work cut out for him. In Among Thieves we have gotten to know the creativity of Douglas Hulick when it comes down to plot twists etc and this is again not missing in Sworn in Steel, every page has a potential plot twist lurking behind the words and this will keep you sharp on on your toes for the whole story. As I said before, Douglas Hulick ups the ante with Sworn in Steel and with creating such an outstanding sequel after a solid debut I can only imagine what will be in store in the third book.
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