Traitor's Blade: The Greatcoats Book 1 (Greatcoats, #1)

by Sebastien de Castell

The Three Musketeers meets Joe Abercrombie via Mark Lawrence: 'Guaranteed to increase household swashbuckling by 100%,' says Library Journal

The Greatcoats are travelling magistrates bringing justice to all . . . or at least they were, before they watched the Dukes impale their King's head on a spike. Now the land's heroes are reviled as traitors, their Greatcoats in tatters.

Facio, Kest and Brasti have been reduced to working as mercenaries, but when they find their employer dead - and are forced to watch as the killer plants evidence framing them for the murder - they realise things are about to get even worse.

For the royal conspiracy that began with overthrowing an idealistic young king is spreading to Rijou, the most corrupt city in the land, and the life of a young girl hangs in the balance.

When every noble is a tyrant and every knight is a thug, the only thing you can really trust is a traitor's blade.

• ISBN10: 1782066756
• ISBN13: 9781782066750
• Publish Date: 4 September 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• Imprint: Jo Fletcher Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[moraa]

I wondered, not for the first time, that the world could bear the weight of so many foul people.



ok wait, wait, wait, wait a damn minute! I knew for a fact when I saw so many people reading this that I had to pick it up, but it wasn't until a certain review (by a favourite author) that I bumped it up on the tbr and my... wasn't that quite an unexpected ride.

Things you will love about this book:
-it's a bit on the lighter side of fantasy (more medieval than epic so you have lots of feudal things going on but the world-building isn't as expansive)
-the writing style, trust me you will not:
✨want to look away
✨want to miss a moment
✨be able to resist the urge to reread certain passages
✨be able to resist the urge to take a damn break, dammit, you've been reading non-stop for three hours, Jesus, woman!
-the characters: all such a joy to follow and all so very realistic
(I still want to know how Falcio beat Kest in a duel)
-the general tone of the book: the writing style is fairly... light (can I call it that?) the characters do struggle and lose hope and all that sort of thing but there's always a bit of comic relief to look forward to in the end (I'm looking at you Brasti) that doesn't necessarily cheapen things
-pacing: it never stops, trust me (and neither will your reading)
-the fight scenes: those were good, those were really good, I've never read such detailed yet entertaining passages about sword fights

Things I wanted more of:
-representation (self-explanatory)

Summary: read this book or you're going to be sorry you missed out

[ross91]

This was a very fun and light read.
Loved the main protagonist and his friends, love the setting.
I'm definitely going to read the sequel!

[wyvernfriend]

While not perfect and there were moments that dragged, this was interesting and kept me reading well past my bedtime. The king is dead, the greatcoats are disbanded and three of them, including the leader, are trying to work their way to somewhere that will lead them to the last mission the king left them with. Along the way they will have to deal with the murderous dukes who led the killing of the king, and survive.

I liked it, shows great promise.

[Kait ✨]

Even though I had heard some buzz about this book being an edge-of-your-seat, dashing and daring adventure in a fantastically-built fantasy world, for some reason I was pretty hesitant to dive into this one. (I think because I can be really picky about fantasy novels, even though I love them, which makes me tentative to try new fantasy series.) It’s safe to say I was unexpectedly blown away by this book, though, and I will definitely be following up with the rest of the series when the time comes.

Read the rest of the review on Bookish Comforts!