Hi Cara,
I’ve finally got round to visiting my favourite Squirrel Cat and read Queen Slayer.
Queenslayer is the 5th book in the Spellslinger series by Sebastien de Castell. This is also the penultimate book in the series.
Below are the links to my reviews of the previous four books.
Spellsinger
Shadowblack
Charmcaster
Soulbinder.
After finishing a duel Kellen does something very stupid and smears blood on the Daroman flag, in front of Daroman Marshals.
Smearing blood on the flag is an act of treason. Kellen and Reichis are arrest and taken to be put before the Queen to be executed.
On route to his trail Kellen is given a strange piece of advice from one of his fellow prisoners: kill the Queen and he’ll be given clemency by those who take power. But when Kellen comes face-to-face with the eleven-year-old monarch, Kellen realises she’s vastly smarter than he expected and in so much more danger, than he expected.
Queenslayer slayed as a book. It has action, drama, humour, mystery and a splash of romance.
Let’s talk about Kellen sister Shalla now going by her mage name Sha’maat. I still finder her a polarising character. Most of the time I can’t stand her, and then she does something that softens my opinion of her. I am left wondering where her loyalties lie – Do they lie with her Father, Brother or herself?
Reichis is still my favourite character, below are some of my favourite quotes from him or about him.
“Idjit”
“Don’t worry, Partner,” Reichis chittered. I’ll smother him with my noble fur.”
“This is my life; run from all the people trying to kill me, while the two-foot-tall ball of furry insanity I call a business partner tries to murder everything in sight.” ( This is also a perfect description for the series as a whole.)“No stinkin’ human defeats a squirrel cat!”
Shout out for the name Reichs comes up with, to describe finding out why people are screwing with them. More things in life should be referred to as “Lousy Rotten Bastard.”
I wish I had kept a running total of the number of times Reiches threatens to eat eyes and when he does. Also, does it say something about my humour when he does threaten to eat eyes that it makes me laugh?
2 years have passed since the beginning of Spellslinger and you can see the change in Kellenm more so now as it he has lost his path. The conflict in Daraman empire I felt mirrors with Kellen own conflict. He has spent so long-running and surviving that he more reactive than proactive. Where the Daraman Empire cant cope with only reacting to trouble instead of actively conquering other lands.
Queenslayer is also the perfect example of people doing things they believe to be for the right reason. Even if their action comes across villainous.
I enjoyed that the story was multi-layered many things built up for the ending but it still surprised me. Nothing is ever simple in Kellen World.
My rating for Queenslayer is 5 out of 5.
The final book in the series is called Crownbreaker is out in the UK 17th October 2019.
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Thanks for reading,
