I finished The Crooked House a few days back. This is #2 in Dave Duncan’s King’s Daggers series. I didn’t enjoy it as much as Sir Stalwart. It just didn’t have the same life as the first book.

In part, I think it was because Duncan didn’t have the fun of introducing his characters and telling us their origins. Nor the mystery that the first book contained (as the threads of two lives became intertwined).

But also… no one really did anything. The protagonists made some bad decisions (in order to get into trouble) but never really made good ones to get themselves out. Events just played out more or less in their favor without their really doing anything to make these events come about. Because of this, the book read more like a vignette than a novel. It was still enjoyable, but not nearly as much fun as Sir Stalwart.

Now I’m into Robin and the King by Parke Godwin. This is a book that has sat on my shelf for so long that its no longer in print, sadly. It’s the second in a series by Godwin, the first being Sherwood. The first book tells the story of Robin Hood the Outlaw. The second follows Robin in later life, once again in trouble with the King, but this time as a politician rather than an outlaw.

Well, I’ll save anymore until I finish it, which might take some time because whenever I pick it up and read a chapter, I’m spurred to put it down and fire up Dark Age of Camelot and range about the lands practicing my period anglais.