Book Review: The Splinter King

Potential Spoilers Ahead: The Splinter King is the sequel to The Black Coast. As such, the blurb for this book and the following review will inevitably have some level of spoilers for the previous book. I’ve tried to keep those spoilers to a minimum, but you have been warned.

THE WORLD FRACTURES AS A DEAD GOD RISES . . .

Darel, dragon knight and the new leader of Black Keep, must travel to the palace of the God-King to beg for the lives of his people. But in the capital of Narida, Marin and his warrior husband will be drawn into a palace coup, and Princess Tila will resort to murder to keep her hold on power.

In the far reaches of the kingdom an heir in exile is hunted by assassins, rumours of a rival God-King abound, and daemonic forces from across the seas draw ever nearer…

Summary: The Splinter King by Mike Brooks is a fun sequel that develops excitingly on the plot threads set up in the first book. There are more dragons, more intrigue, and more of the hopeful attitude that helped me fall in love with the series.

From the blurb, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the people of Black Keep, and my personal favourites Saana and Daimon, get ignored in this entry. While they are less of a focus than in the previous entry, their storylines are still progressed, as unwelcome guests come to meddle in their affairs. Princess Tila and urchin Jeya get more satisfying continuations to their storylines this time round, and we get new adventures for theif Marin, newly made thane Darel, defeated raider Stonejaw, and Saana’s daughter Zhanna.

What works really well for me in this book is how Brooks expands and deepens the world, while still tying everything in to the plotlines that have already been established. Everything feels relevant, and I instantly attached to the new storylines because of how they tied back in to Blackkeep, and Narida as a whole.

The element of hopefulness is a through-line that continues into this book – while still focused mostly in Blackkeep, there is the feeling that if only the characters worked together, things would work out for the better. It’s one of the main things I love about the series – it doesn’t shy away from betrayal and violence and epic scenes, but infuses everything with a hopefulness that makes me feel like the protagonists (for the most part) will leave the world better than they left it.

Unfortunately, this book suffers badly from middle book-itis – many of the climaxes are relatively small, the spread of POVs meaning there were several separate climaxes this time. And like the last book, one of the storylines just sort of ends abruptly, this time leaving us in the middle of a conflict that we’ll have to wait to see the resolution of. If the next book comes out as quickly as this one, I’ll forgive it somewhat, but it does leave things feeling a little incomplete.

The dragons are back, and this time there are even more varieties! Since this is the sequel review, I’ll just come out and say it – the dragons are basically variations on dinosaurs (feathered ones at that). There’s definitely a couple of moments that put me in mind of Jurassic Park, in a very good way. There’s not really all that much in the way of magic in this entry, although there are hints to it becoming more prevalent in the next book(s?).

As far as the different plotlines go, the only lowlight for me would be Jeya, and even then, I didn’t mind her sections – I particularly love the City of Islands setting and its progressive approach to gender, and it was great seeing Galem figure out who they are past the obligations forced upon them. The politicking in Tila’s plotline was great, as was Darel’s introduction to Idramar and Zhanna’s journey to the mountains. And of course I loved seeing how Saana and Daimon’s relationship and co-leadership is developing in Blackkeep. This was one of those chunky books that doesn’t feel its length, and I am very much ready to read the next instalment as soon as possible!

So, while its status as a middle book leaves it somewhat diminished, The Splinter King is still a great new entry to the series, bringing us more of everything that worked so well on the first book. If you enjoyed the first book, please read this one too. If not, go and get the first book!

Rating: 8.5/10

Thanks to Netgalley and Orbit for providing me with an e-arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.