Adrienne Martini Reviews Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher
Paladin’s Faith, T. Kingfisher (Argyll Productions 978-1614506096, $6.99, 422pp, eb) December 2023.
T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon) ventures back into her Saint of Steel universe with Paladin’s Faith. Each book in the planned seven-book series is nominally about one of the paladins whose spirits were broken when their animating saint died. But Kingfisher expands what we know about these paladins, their god, and his demise with each volume. That larger story only grows more intriguing with each crumb of information Kingfisher drops.
Paladin’s Faith, the fourth book, concerns the Paladin Shane and the industrial spy Marguerite, both of whom we met in earlier books but didn’t really get to know. Shane is, perhaps, the most formal and stiff of the paladins (which is saying something), and Marguerite is inclined to use all of the tools at her disposal to uncover the information she’s in search of.
The driving conflict almost writes itself, especially when it has been written by Kingfisher – and that might be the magic of her books. Her voice feels effortless, like the words have always been there and she just happened to be the one to capture them. Of course, that’s not how writing works. Kingfisher’s ease disguises the skill and heavy lifting that goes into any story. But you don’t see the author’s sweat and walk away feeling that she is having a grand time spinning this tale about Shane and Marguerite, the Temple of the White Rat, and a couple of demons. When familiar characters like Bishop Beartongue and Grace pass through, this world takes on more texture. And then there’s Davith, a new character who starts as comic relief and builds into something more solid.
Which isn’t to say that their story is a light-hearted romp with no consequences for the characters. But even as the tension ramps up – the last 50 pages were hard to not consume in one go – Kingfisher’s snappy descriptions and dialogue are expertly deployed to keep the reader primed to enjoy the next pitfall, rather than dread it.
When you add that ability to manage pace to her ebullient voice and her joy in the peculiar, wonderful world she’s built, the end result is a delight with some unexpected depth
Adrienne Martini has been reading or writing about science fiction for decades and has had two non-fiction, non-genre books published by Simon and Schuster. She lives in Upstate New York with one husband, two kids, and one corgi. She also runs a lot.
This review and more like it in the February 2024 issue of Locus.
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