Booklog 28/2024: Sebastien de Castell: Play of Shadows – Court of Shadows #1
Set in the Greatcoats universe, Damelas Shademantaigne, the grandson of two famous greatcoats, flees a judicial duel with the Vixen and takes refuge amongst the actors of the Operato Belleza where, because of an ancient law he gains a respite from what he believes to be a duel he can’t win. He settles into the company, playing undemanding bit parts, until one day he hears a ghostly voice and blurts out a terrible truth about the city’s legendary hero. This puts him on the wrong side of the Iron Orchids, self appointed dealers of their own version of justice (think Proud Boys without the charm). Added to that, the Violet Duke wants Damelas to enact the unpopular truth. Aided by his solid friend, Bereto, an alluring Dashini assassin who could be ordered to kill him at any moment, a couple of street urchins, and a rag-tag company of players, Damelas has to sort out truth from legend in order to protect the city from an elusive conspiracy. This looks like the start of a spin-off sequence set soon after the end of Tyrant’s Throne (which wraps up the four books about Falcio, Kest and Brasti) and possibly close to the timeline of Borros (Crucible of Chaos). There’s a bonus appearance of a favourite character from the previous books, so it all ties in nicely.
Narrated by Mark Boyett. In the 25th century humans have colonised hundreds of planets. War is a thing of the past, so the Black Fleet is being wound up and the obsolete battleships decommissioned. Captain Jackson Wolfe, captain of the last warship, will soon be out of a job. Wolfe, cursed with a commanding officer who hates him, a crew renowned for its disciplinary problems, and a tendency to take solace in alcohol is not in the best position to repel a powerful alien vessel, but he’s the only one on the spot when two colonies are destroyed by something that looks like an asteroid, but is definitely an alien ship, one that outclasses Wolfe and his crew in every way. Despite the tendency to go into great detail about the ship’s nuts and bolts and how they all wor (which seems to be a feature of military SF) this fairly zips along. The narration is well done and it kept me listening.