This is not a sequel! I admit it was the second Tale of the King's Blades to be published, but the central character of The Gilded Chain only makes a brief appearance in a single scene. And instead of happening after Gilded, it happens before and during that novel (since both books stretch across a period of decades), starring characters who never appeared in Gilded at all, and events which were not mentioned or were only briefly referred to as background material. Likewise, the third book in the series (Sky of Swords) will focus on the viewpoint of a character who only got brief mentions in this one and the previous one. Duncan's intention was to make the books independent despite having them all set in the same general timeframe in the same world. He did his best to have the major plot points of any given book only be vaguely hinted at in any of the others.

As the story starts, Ambrose IV, King of Chivial, is arriving at Ironhall to bind some new Blades to his service. Ironhall takes in adolescent boys (ideally about 13 or 14 years of age) and spends five years turning them into lean mean fighting machines. For centuries, Ironhall graduates have been renowned as the finest swordsmen in the known world, the known world essentially being a continent called Eurania which seems to resemble Medieval Europe, at least culturally. I can't gauge the geographical resemblance, because we never see any maps of it.

Anyone who completes the training at Ironhall with flying colors is then ready to be bound in a sorcerous ritual to the current monarch of Chivial or anyone he chooses to give one or two high-quality bodyguards to. (As a rule of thumb, the monarch takes at least half of the graduates in any given year for himself, as members of his Royal Guard.) Once bound to his ward, the Blade finds that the most important thing in his life is to protect his ward from physical harm no matter what the cost, i.e. a Blade would not hesitate to make a suicide charge against odds of twenty to one if he thought it was the best way to distract those twenty attackers long enough to give his ward a chance to run in the other direction and possibly escape. (Blades are not mindless berserkers, however. They greatly prefer to survive their battles and would only do the kamikaze thing if it were obviously the only tactic that stood a decent chance of success.)

So Ambrose IV has come to Ironhall and sits down in the study of the head of the order (called Grand Master) to be briefed on the strengths and weaknesses of the current members of the senior class and whether or not they are ready to graduate. That attended to, they start calling in seniors (graduation and binding is always done strictly by your seniority as a student at Ironhall - first in, first out) and asking them if they are ready to serve His Majesty as a Blade. Bullwhip, Mallory, Raider, and Wasp are the four Candidates who are called in, although Wasp is crushed because the tradition is that you call in the ones who are about to be bound plus the one who will remain as the senior student at Ironhall until the next time around, which means Wasp is out of luck. (As you may have guessed, candidates at Ironhall are told to select brand new names for themselves, and since they are adolescent boys with big dreams they often select tough, macho, violent ones.)

Bullwhip is asked if he will serve and says yes. Mallory is asked and says yes. Raider is asked . . . and says no! Grand Master turns white and King Ambrose seems to swell up to a huge size in his wrath. Everyone else is just staring in disbelief. Wasp reflects that he has never, ever heard any stories about an Ironhall candidate rejecting the invitation to become one of his King's bound blades when the time came. However, Ambrose controls himself, declares he wants to talk to Raider later (i.e. places him under arrest until further notice, though he doesn't phrase it that bluntly), and decides to take Wasp as a consolation prize. Wasp's mind is racing. Raider is his best friend at Ironhall (or anywhere else, Wasp being an orphan). He knows Raider is extremely intelligent. If Raider has something sneaky in mind as an alternate career path now that he's gained five years of the best martial training available in the known world without it costing him a penny . . . and since all Ironhall candidates are told at the start of their training that they can quit the program at any time prior to actually being bound to a ward . . . without knowing exactly what will come of it, Wasp decides to stick close to his best friend and says no to the invitation to become one of the King's Blades. This was gutsy, but stupid - some kings have been known to hold grudges over such acts of defiance.

We now get a conversation with Raider (real name: Radgar) in which he explains his life story to Ambrose. Thus, almost half of the book is a lengthy flashback describing the background which led to the marriage of Raider's illustrious parents, followed by his childhood, the murder of his father, and the reasons he finally took refuge in Ironhall to stay hidden from the public view for the next five years until the political situation settled down back home in Baelmark. When the flashback ends, King Ambrose starts tossing out orders, and seems to be offering Radgar the protection of a royal guest with certain perks . . . but throughout this book, the purity of King Ambrose's motives in his dealings with Radgar and the Baels in general is, shall we say, open to question. Wasp has deep, dark suspicions which he shares with Raider when they are alone (and on their way back to Baelmark).

An interesting feature of this book is the recognition of different standards of morality. By Baelish standards, it is perfectly reasonable to loot coastal settlements in other nations, burn things down in those towns, kill anyone who resists your raiding, abduct people to be slaves back home (or to sell in other nations that tolerate slavery) and so forth. But of course it would be disgusting to do all those things to your fellow Baels back home! It's the age-old feeling that "strangers from outside our tribe/race/nation/religion/whatever aren't really human. As the naturally superior breed, we may do as we please with them, but we must treat our comrades with courtesy and honor." I'm not saying that Duncan himself endorses that point of view; only that he recognizes that a great many other human beings throughout history have taken it for granted and thus regarded themselves as highly moral individuals - according to the rules they had been taught from the cradle.

Please note that young Wasp walked to Ironhall to enroll after his village was raided by Baels at the end of the last Baelmark/Chivial war, leaving him an orphan. His hatred for Baels is quite intense, and his discovery that Raider (real name: Radgar) was born to one of the most prestigious families in Baelmark is a nasty shock. As he starts associating with more Baels, Wasp comes to see that by their own standards they are a brave and honorable folk, loyal to their friends and close relatives, faithful to their oaths, and so forth. (With the occasional bad apple in the barrel, of course, as is true of any large group of people.) Meanwhile, the internal politics of Baelmark are enough to give a man galloping paranoia. The plot begins to resemble Shakespeare's Hamlet but that's resemble - not slavishly copy from beginning to end.

One odd thing about politics in Baelmark is that if you wish to become the earl of a shire (twenty-one earls at any given time in this nation) or the king who sits above the earls, you must go through an interesting process that contains elements both of the trial by combat and of the vote of confidence. It is possible for a challenger to depose an earl or king without necessarily killing him (sometimes even offering him a good job in the new administration) and Baels have never fallen in love with the idea of guaranteed inheritance of power just because your daddy was somebody special. Thus, Radgar's illustrious lineage makes him a possible candidate for power in Baelmark, but does not mean anyone will hand it to him on a silver platter as soon as he returns home. I recognize that I'm being a little vague about what was so illustrious about his ancestors, but I prefer not to ruin too much of the book for you.

Duncan's writing moves quickly and stays interesting. Dave Duncan is one of those oddball fantasy writers who believes a hero should actually have a brain and keep his problem-solving skills sharp as he moves along, instead of killing or outrunning anything in sight and hoping he ends up in the right place at the right time to make a difference. I thought I knew how this book was going to end up, in general terms - but I was wrong. The ending of the book appeared to blatantly contradict certain historical data provided in The Gilded Chain. I knew, however, that Duncan was too crafty to do such a thing out of sheer carelessness, and I correctly deduced that the next volume would explain everything away, as indeed it did.

It occurs to me that some of you poor unfortunate souls may not have read my review of the previous book in the series. You can find it at http://www.epinions.com/content_19401969284/tk_~CB008.1.1

Recommended: Yes