A Blade of Black Steel

This one surprised the hell out of me. I mean, I liked a lot of the aspects of the first in the series, all the cussing, girl-chasing, older matron ex-queen bent on reclaiming her lost queendom, the heavy-metal aspects of getting the evil band back together and being the underdog villains amidst wonderful dialogue and demon-strewn wastelands (that they may or may not have had a part in bringing about). I was even thrilled by the effortless way that the world-building automatically assumes that s [...]

Honestly I was both excited and nervous when I started this - how could it possibly live up to the triumph that was A Crown for Cold Silver? But rest assured it did. I never thought I would see the day when I said "how about instead of this love triangle we have polyamory" and the creator of the work said, "hoo boy are you gonna be pleased with this." How am I going to survive the wait until the next instalment?

Almost deserves the 5 stars, very entertaining.

Just finished but it had Some things I really liked Ill get the review done soon

“A Blade of Black Steel” is the second book of a series—a follow-up to the excellent “A Crown for Cold Silver,” which absolutely must be read before this book. The transition between the two is meant to be the responsibility of the reader as the author begins the new story with no summary of the first novel, and some may find this to be a problem. For those who don’t, there is a prologue that subtly sets the stage for the story in a fashion as black and strong as the title. And it do [...]

WOW. Easily the best book I've read all year.I am in LOVE with this series. This is one of those reviews where I'll have to try really hard not to ramble excitedly and I'll surely forget half of what I want to say.I am absolutely amazed by the depth of this story, both in its themes and its character development. Unbelievably satisfying character development, at that. Alliances shift, and what originally seems to be a sinister act turns out to have a rational purpose; likewise, something rationa [...]

Like the opener Marshall crafts some great characters and puts them into multitudinous plotlines that all have good bones---then buries the whole enterprise beneath reeking tons of verbiage that, waaaay more often than not, serves not to advance any part of the story but only fill up the pages. I found that the best way to read this was just to skim anything that wasn't dialog. What a waste of effort on the author's part. I'll still probably tackle the sequels, at least until the main story star [...]

In Een kroon voor Koud Zilver maakten we kennis met de op wraak beluste Zosia en de Trawanten die samen met haar een eenheid vormen die alom bekend was. Deze eerste kennismaking eindigde met een grootschalige veldslag en het is de dag na het slagveld bij de Leeuwerikstong dat dit tweede deel meteen weer verder gaat.Ook dit keer duurde het eventjes vooraleer ik in het verhaal kon wegduiken. Grotendeels vermits de gebeurtenissen uit het eerste boek niet meer al te helder in mijn geheugen zaten. Bi [...]

A Crown For Cold Silver was my favorite book of 2016. I loved that it relished in subverting epic fantasy tropes and having a sense of humor. Felt a bit more relatable and modern than most swords and sorcery. It had a gobsmacking weird cliffhanger and I was excited to see where it would go in the middle volume. Somewhere I saw this called Empire Strikes Back and that's pretty apt. There is a lot of swashbuckling here, but it's also a dark hour for our heroes, with foes new and old coming at all [...]

I love this book (and the first) so much that I bought it in hardback and ebook. I haven't read the third yet, but this series is so good I bought that one twice too. And my husband used an Audible credit on the first one. The Song of the Lioness quartet were the queer books I needed when I was a tween. The Crimson Empire books are the queer books I need as an adult. I know different people are going to take different things away from these books, and I want to say that this is one of the most e [...]

This is the second book in a series, so you probably know what you'll think of it based on the first, so I'll keep it brief:Pros: All the cool relationship and sexual orientation stuff from the first book is back and bigger and better than ever. The big bad appears and things start rolling. Cons: The split up party that means the story has to jump from location to location to follow all the action is also back (and there's a even a couple of new characters introduced). It's not necessarily bad, [...]

9 million stars

4.5 stars. This was everything I wanted the first book in the series to be. I did like the first book, but had a number of issues with it. I also think some of the characters took some warming up to, and I came around to most of them in this installment.We're clearly in the Empire Strikes Back phase of the series, which I usually find to be the best part of a fantasy trilogy. The story became more compelling in this book as well, and you can't beat Marshall's sense of humor. Bonus points because [...]

A great continuation from the previous book A Crown for Cold Silver which follows the established characters from the previous book and expands heavily on their backstories as well as continuing on with their war against the chained! :DThe revival of the Sunken Kingdom of Jex Toth is handled well and in a kind of insect way in that slowly start to take a more dominant role as the book carries on and this is sure to have an impact in later books! :DWe also get to see Zosia and Indsorith's relatio [...]

The characters are growing on me but there are serious pacing issues and plot progression issues here. Basically fu*k all happened in the middle third. And the pace only picked up in the last 15% of the book, and then what did happen totally overturned everything else that had happened.If anyone knows what on earth is happening with the plot then please tell me.

Largely a continuation of the first volume in substance and quality. There's more magic and monsters, and things have gotten a LOT more queer and sexy, but for the most part things are chugging along as they were. Which is to say, a huge cast of great characters being emotionally vulnerable and caring and fun in the face of some vast and frightening and demanding circumstances. And despite a plot that sometimes feels relatively static, there are a lot of meaningful and surprising twists here, to [...]

Having been introduced to all the characters (and the war situation) in the first book (WELL worth reading), we now get to experience what they're really like in action! And, we are treated to each backstory, some in greater detail, getting to know them in far too intimate ways, at times.The Drama builds-- the Chainites and their religion is exposed for what it is: Danger to All Those That Live.Grandfather becomes a Sword (very cool!); Sullen finds a purpose; Cobalt Zosia is redirected; her Five [...]

A sad step down from the excellence of the first book this was still an enjoyable read, it was just MUCH slower. I was excited that this picks up exactly where book 1 left off but gone is the crazy energy of its predecessor. Our cast basically sits in the same spot for 200+ pages talking to each other about future plans, potential double crosses, and relationships until I found myself skimming through a lot of the dialogue. Things eventually do happen but for every action there are chapters and [...]

A strong sequel to a great first book in the series. Zosia, Five Villains and a whole bunch of others return for more fast-paced, hilarious action as the world of the Star finds itself on teh brink of the Apocalypse. The plot is a hard thing to describe. Individual plotlines are pretty great, showing personal development and taking a number of characters on unexpected arcs. However, the overall plot moves very slowly, and only really picks up towards the very end, promising a lot more excitement [...]

The second book in the Crimson Empire series does an amazing job of adding to the mythos created in the first. This book picks up right where the first one leaves off. After five hundred years, the Sunken Kingdom has returned and the Cobalt Company must decide if they will fight against the inhumans monsters that have risen with it or continue on the path to taking over the kingdom. All the things I loved about the first book are evident in this sequel: the dark humour and the characters with fl [...]

More of the same, babe. While it doesn't quite capture the globetrotting glory of the first volume, Blade of Black Steel is smaller, more inward and even avoids the Martinesque problem of introducing too many new point-of-views in the second installment. Highlights include Zosia and Ji-hyeon's confrontation, Hoartrap's big blunder, the ending image and Maroto's whole plotline. Onward to Part Three!

Pretty interesting sequel that ended up setting things up pretty nicely for the third novel of the series. It's going to be interesting to see how the two queens get along, Zosia and Insorith, also I'm hoping to see J'hyeon get her revenge on the Immaculate Queen.Intriguing and complex world and very interesting characters make this a pretty entertaining read.

Good second book Dragged on in parts but overall a good book. Suffered from having too many points of view. I wasn't invested in a few of them so I would almost skim those chapters

I resent this over-the-top, chaotic, political, gruesome, ever-changing, funny, and extremely gay series so much I have to keep giving it five-star reviews.

Summer blockbuster. It has some faults but mostly it's just lots of weird sexy fun.

Way less impressive than the first book. Not a whole lot really happened here other than a bit of character development. Hopefully the next book picks the pace up a little bit.

Heel af en toe bevat het stuk aangename stukken, maar daar wordt afbreuk aan gedaan door (al dan niet bedoelde) absurde plotwendingen en een onvoldoende diepgang.

I did not enjoy this as much as the first book. I lost interest a few times, but always got back into it.

The story continues on and is still okay. This time Maroto wasn't the most interesting character, it was finally Zosia. It will be interesting to see how this all ends in book three.

Perfectly paced! Unique characters! Loved it can't wait for book 3!