** spoiler alert ** **Here be spoilers. Read accordingly.**

Let me say at the start that I really wanted to like this The King's Blood, and the series of which it is the second part, The Dagger and the Coin. I like Abraham's focus on characters, something you don't see very much in fantasy, and his willingness to alter the story in interesting ways. In The Dragon's Path, for example, I loved when Cithrin stops trying to be an adventurer and starts acting like a banker. That's the work of an author who's thinking about his characters, and not just a Dungeon Master shoehorning the PCs into the mold necessary for the grand quest.

However, in my view there are some significant flaws in this story, and in its predecessor, so forgive me if I reference both in this review.

Scale: The story spends an awful lot of time on small matters and relegates to the background more momentous events. In the space of 400 pages Antea loses a king, gains a lord regent, conquers a neighboring nation and puts down a rebellion, and yet in that same space Marcus Wester does little except pine over Cithrin and get kidnapped. It's as if Abraham wants to chronicle large events only so they can impact his characters, and otherwise gives them short shrift. He can certainly take that route, of course – it's been done successfully before – but if so he should spend no narrative effort on them. Instead, these world-shaking events get enough attention to take up the reader's time, but not enough to grab his interest..the worst of both worlds.

World-building: The world of The Dagger and the Coin feels oddly empty, as if the only occurrences that matter are the ones caused by the main characters. Only Dawson Kalliam or Geder Palliako affect the Antean political situation; the other nobles and power brokers are mere background and do not complicate the characters' actions in any meaningful way. Ideally, characters should appear in a world that is moving all around them, and their choices should be influenced or opposed even by the actions of minor characters.

Information: Abraham sometimes isn't very elegant in the way he conveys information. For example, in the first chapter of The Dragon's Path, the reader is subjected to a long list of the thirteen races of man, with accompanying odd names like Jasuru and Tralgu, etc., all before the reader has had a chance to invest in the world. I find that the "sand beneath your feet" approach works better; that is, don't describe the entire beach the minute the reader steps off the sidewalk. Tell her about each race as she encounters it, and not before. Abraham instead goes for the info-dump, which is never fun to read.

Pace: Every chapter of a novel should either advance the story or tell us something new about the characters, and ideally both. A chapter in which we learn for the fourth time that Marcus Wester is not over the deaths of his family and that he views Cithrin as his adoptive daughter does neither. There is too much of this in The King's Blood, and also in its predecessor; indeed, I think the first third of The Dragon's Path could have been cut out and its contents sown throughout the remaining two-thirds of the novel.

The Big Story: I understand that Master Kit, or the apostate if you prefer, hates the spider goddess and wants her dead. Why should I care? Dawson doesn't. Cithrin doesn't. Hell, even Marcus, who reluctantly joins Kit's quest for the Sword That Can Make Things Right, doesn't really care either. He goes along because he has nothing better to do. Sure, the spider goddess's priests are up to no good in Antea, but nobody from Antea is on the quest anyway, so what of it? It's as if Gandalf recruited the Fellowship of the Ring from a temp agency; the members have all the requisite skills but no personal commitment to the cause.

Also, it's probably not advisable to introduce The Major Quest two-thirds of the way through the second book of a trilogy. In The Lord of the Rings everyone knows from the get-go that Sauron is really, really bad, and that knowledge guides everything the characters do. In The King's Blood, Master Kit reveals the dread spider goddess to exactly one person who shrugs and says, "What the hell...joining your mad quest beats being chained up in a pigeon coop." That's attitude doesn't inspire much dramatic interest, nor does it bode well for the success of the mission.

Finally, let's-get-the-gadget-to-defeat-the-foozle is an old, old, trope, and I was disappointed to discover it in The King's Blood. Perhaps Abraham will do something interesting with it, but lampshading it by having Marcus remark on the trope is not interesting.

As I said, I think there's some good stuff in here, but I think Abraham needs to evaluate just what that is and cut out the rest. Personally, I could read an entire book just about Cithrin's rise to power in the Medean Bank, and how she defeats the spider goddess by devaluing her infernal stock portfolio. I wonder if Abraham will consider writing that one?