Larry reviews the dark and gritty sequel to The Hammer and the Blade, A Discourse in Steel, book 2 of the ‘A Tale of Egil and Nix’ series by Paul S. Kemp published by Angry Robot Books available June 25th.

Egil and Nix back once again kicking serious ass in this sequel ~The Founding Fields

WARNING: This is the second or greater book in an ongoing series, spoilers to previous books maybe contained within.

New York Times best selling author, Paul S. Kemp, brings us another tale about Nix and Egil in the story ‘A Discourse in Steel‘. In book two of the series ‘A Tale of Egil and Nix’ we find the team of Nix, a mage school drop out rogue, and Egil the High Priest of the momentary god who loves to deal divine retribution with his paired hammers trying to lead a somewhat normal life. Well as normal a life that can be had when you are owners of a popular whore house or going on adventures in cursed Blackalleys, high adventure for some, something to just pass the time for these two. The legit life seems to suit them well, at least no demon has tried to eat their soul’s this time around. Everything runs pretty normal until one of the “seeing sisters” is in the mind of someone as they are murdered, it just so happens the person is the eighth blade, the leader, of a notoriously nasty guild and most of their secrets are now stuck in her head. That causes problems and could lead to her to her death unless someone does something quickly. Who you gonna call? You guessed it.

Nothing thrills a book reviewer more then a book that you have been looking forward to finally comes out, especially when that book is part of a series you really enjoy. Needless to say I was ready for this book as soon as I finished the last page on the first book! Better then that is when that sequel meets and blows your expectations away like this one did for me. Paul S. Kemp is an author I have read a lot of and have enjoyed in the past so honestly is was no real surprise that I found this book to be a good read. Its filled with a blend of adventure, action, humor, and moments that have you going uh-oh that left me entertained through the entire  book. At no time in this book did I feel like putting it down, Paul keeps everything flowing nicely and it was a page turner from start to finish.

If you read the first book then you know what type of ride to expect, if you have not you can still read this one, but you will ruin the suspense of the first book but it would still entertaining. I found this book, like the first filled with a good amount of action, adventure, and humor in a good blend that left me entertained throughout the entire book. You do get to witness how bad ass the two truly are in a few scenes, leaving you shaking your head going damn as well as laughing at their witty banter between the two of them. Like the first I suggest this book and rate it a 8/10.

Hammer and the Blade review

Print Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot (June 25, 2013)