Book Review: The Tyrant's Law | Daniel Abraham (The Dagger and the Coin #3)

Every victory in the Lord Regent's war calls forth a further conflict, and he is bent on bringing peace, no matter the cost.

The Tyrant's Law, the third book of The Dagger and the Coin, written by Daniel Abraham and published by Orbit Books. I previously reviewed the first two books in the series, The Dragon's Path and The King's Blood.

The book was released in 2013. If you look at the cover above, and compare it to most of the cover images of The Tyrant's Law that are currently floating around the Internet, you may notice a distinctive difference between them.

Look between the two and you'll observe a crucial difference between them: the final version of the released cover exchanges those lovely dragons formed from the flames for very ugly 3D models of dragons crossfaded into the fire with a terrible flame texture wrapped on them - utterly unconvincing. The covers for the series, let's be fair, have never been exceptional - swords and axes have very little to do with the series - but those terrible 3D dragons are a big step down.

It's a real shame that they couldn't just bring back Stephan Martiniere, who did the covers for The Long Price Quartet, Abraham's previous series. Hopefully, if The Dagger and the Coin is ever reissued in, say, hardcover, they'll also get new cover designs (preferably from the able hand of Stephan Martiniere).

With the set-up of The Dragon's Path and the action of The King's Blood, we all step back just a little bit as the story sets itself to continuing to build the world and expand the characters. That said, by no means does Abraham lose the interest he's built up in the previous two books.

Our characters travel in new directions. The banker Cithrin, having suffered the indignities of serving as only voice of the Medean bank, without any genuine power, in Porte Oliva, now is interned instead at the bank in Suddapal under the Timzinae Magistra Isadau, someone who is far cry from Magister Imaniel (from Vanai) and Pyk Usterhall (notary at the Porte Oliva branch).

Once again, Geder continues to be a most interesting of characters, swerving swiftly from likable and sympathetic to sharply hateful and cruel. Scenes with the growing Prince Aster warm the heart. There is one scene where Aster at once shows both his good nature and the unfortunate result of Geder's nurture - when I first read it, it came like a punch in the face. I want dearly to reproduce it but without having read the previous books its power is likely to be lost on the just-popping-by reader.

Here, too, he crosses the moral line that sets him definitely on the end of villainy, though he never knows it. The tyrant who is deeply and intrinsically unaware that he is a tyrant.

Marcus' plotline, though it has never been a favorite of mine, becomes one of the most vital here as he and Master Kit crisscross the world in an attempt to bring down the spider priests. We see some of the Southlings' society in Lyoneia and some of the Haaverkin in Hallskar.

My favorite character, however, remains Clara: stripped of her noble titles, shorn of her husband, she at once mourns her husband and discovers herself anew as she works quietly to undermine Geder Palliako's reign and finds in Vincen Coe new love.

As ever, the characters are beautifully painted and described, from Cithrin's realization that she lacked knowledge of social mores to Geder's continuing failure to truly grow and develop as a person.

The ending of the book - set up at the very beginning - opens the world massively with an epilogue that is both small in scale and epic in scope.

I wish I could say more but to do so would spoil unduly! Suffice to say that, though it is a little slower and that some readers may find themselves dissatisfied still with Marcus' plotline - I wasn't, myself - it continues the high level of quality of the previous books and continues to get better as the first seed towards the end of Geder's war and the cult of the spider goddess is sowed.

Coming soon: reviews of The Widow's House and The Spider's War. Reviews of Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings, the second and third books of the First Law trilogy. Reviews of Shattered Pillars and Steles of the Sky, the second and third books of the Eternal Sky trilogy. And I'll try and finally get around to that Asimov's May/June 2018 review I keep saying I'll do.