We Lie With Death

Second books in series are undeniably challenging. The characters are there, the world is created. By nature they tend to be explorations rather than completely new things. We Lie With Death is definitely in that character. It definitely feels like a middle book in a series.

Three main plots are followed, although they do interweave a bit, especially towards the start and ends of the novel. The first one follows the deposed empress and one of the disgraced invaders. This plot is kind of a typical questing journey type thing. It meanders somewhat, but we do learn a bit more about two key characters from the first book and get to see a bit more of a part of the world that was not really delved into previously. The second main plot is more on the politicking of the conquerors. Here we see the influence of a nefarious outside presence starting to have a malign influence on things. This ties into our final plot that dives a bit more into the source of this malign influence.

The book does wander around quite a bit and parts of it are a bit bloated, but there is definitely a sense of build towards something more climactic. The characters are definitely delved into more. Some of the more interesting cultural conflict established in the first book is lost a bit which is a shame. This is a solid middle book in a series. Nothing spectacular but definitely leaves me intrigued towards continuing