Egil and Nix, Paul S. Kemp’s sword and sorcery duo, always find themselves in trouble. With a dark wizard, sorceress or an arcane artifact, these two friends are like magnets for bad situations with serious ramifications. The third novel featuring the erstwhile priest and his thieving friend, A Conversation in Blood, is no different.
The hard-fighting, harder-drinking fortune hunters of The Hammer and the Blade and A Discourse in Steel are back to test their mettle and tempt fickle fate.
Fantasy fiction has long welcomed adventurous rogues: Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, George R. R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg, and Scott Lynch’s Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen have all made their mark. In his Egil & Nix series, New York Times bestselling author Paul S. Kemp introduces a daring new duo to the ranks of fantasy fame—or is it infamy?
Nix is a nimble thief with just enough knowledge of magic to get into serious trouble. Egil is the only priest of a discredited god. Together, they seek riches and renown, but somehow it is always misadventure and mayhem that find them—even in the dive bar they call home. And their luck has yet to change.
All Nix wants to do is cheer Egil up after a bout of heartbreak. And, of course, strike it so rich that they need never worry about their combined bar bill. But when the light-fingered scoundrel plunders a tomb and snatches mysterious golden plates covered in runes, the treasure brings terrifying trouble. Pursued by an abomination full of ravenous hunger and unquenchable wrath, Egil and Nix find all they hold dear—including their beloved tavern—in dire peril. To say nothing of the world itself.
Thinking they can take a respite from their hard-hitting adventuring days, our bros-in-arms make an attempt to settle down as owners of a tavern, the Slick Tunnel. It doesn’t take well or last long. Nix is itching for something to do while Egil is still lamenting the fallout of the events of the previous novel, A Discourse in Steel. When Nix asks a sorcerer-associate about strange writing on plates in his possession, the plot goes full throttle. The sorcerer cuts to the quick and urges Nix to hand over the plates, since Nix has no idea how powerful the plates are. Nix being the mischievous, no-orders-taking thief he is, refuses and the wizard starts to chase him, eventually leading to more protracted hunt which involves Egil and their friend Jyme who stumbles onto the scene.
As Kemp did with the previous novel in the series, A Conversation in Blood starts with a prologue which tells of rather shocking ending, which is a bit unsettling. It sets a tense mood for the novel and for me, I was a bit confused with the status (for lack of a better tem) of each character. Soon enough, the plot settles into a brisk pace and the prologue begins to make much more sense as the main novel escalates to a climax and eventually draws to a close.
I’ve read the previous Egil and Nix novels and I’m a big fan. Kemp showed in his Forgotten Realms novels featuring the character Erevis Cale that he has a great hand with character and pacing, and with each novel, those strengths increase. Here with Egil and Nix, he’s playing with characters he created, characters who have a history together, so there’s a welcome level of comfort reading their tales, especially with the witty banter and fluid dialogue.
Kemp also does a great job of allowing the tension to intensify with each passing chapter and word. After the prologue set a slightly chaotic tone, settling into the doldrums with Nix then Egil was a false sense of the norm. By the climax of the novel, the stakes were at their highest and the prologue was cast in a slightly different light, and the whole of the story Kemp wanted to tell fell into place with an “A-HA!” sense of revelation.
Smartly, Kemp has made A Conversation in Blood welcoming to readers who may not have read the previous two novels featuring this duo. Considering it has been nearly four years since the previous novel (which included a publisher switch and “graduation” from paperback to hardcover), this novel might be considered a soft reboot for the duo. Kemp sprinkled in minor details of Egil and Nix’s previous exploits which not only gives new readers a nice background, but refreshes readers who read the previous novels when they first published.
The hardcover sports a terrific, eye-catching cover from John Picacio with some nice text treatment of the title.
It was great fun to re-engage with Egil and Nix once again and I look forward to following their exploits in future novels.
Recommended.
© 2017 Rob H. Bedford
Reviews of the previous novels in the series:
The Hammer and the Blade (http://www.sffworld.com/2012/03/bookreview825/)
A Discourse in Steel (http://www.sffworld.com/2013/07/a-discourse-in-steel-by-paul-s-kemp-a-tale-of-egil-nix/)
Hardcover | 280 Pages
January 2017 | Del Rey Books
Excerpt: http://paulskemp.com/blog/excerpt-from-a-conversation-in-blood/ | http://paulskemp.com/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher Del Rey Books
