A Dance of Mirrors

October 21, 2013
The cloaks continue to swirl and the blades to flash as Haern the Watcher butchers his way through Dalglish’s third novel of vigilante justice and questionable personal ethics. Two years have passed since the thief war in A Dance of Blades was settled, though as merchant leader Alyssa Gemcroft notes, the troubled present times are “no peace at all.” The latest upstart is the Wraith, a lone killer whose agenda is unknown. He uses the Watcher’s sigil to lure Haern out of Veldaren to Angelport, where new atrocities are being committed. It’s the same song in a different key: vivid scenes of largely one-sided violence, deals done in dark rooms, and enough loose ends to populate the three additional books now being promised for this series. While Dalglish recounts his bloodthirsty cast’s mayhem with as much relish as ever, at this point the formulaic gore is beginning to overshadow the plot twists. Agent: Michael Carr, Veritas Literary Agency.

October 15, 2013
In the third installment of a blood-soaked political fantasy series (A Dance of Cloaks, 2013; A Dance of Blades, 2013), the carnage moves from the capital city of Veldaren to bustling, corrupt Angelport. Haern, the King's Watcher, has threatened the thieves' guilds and the nobles of the Trifect into an uneasy peace in Veldaren. But in Angelport, another vigilante called the Wraith is slaughtering prominent citizens--and marking the bodies with the Watcher's former symbol of an open eye. Haern, Lady Alyssa of the Trifect, and her bodyguard, Zusa, investigate, becoming embroiled in a three-way struggle among Lord Ingram, Angelport's putative ruler; the Merchant Lords, who seek control of the nearby forest, the sole source of a powerfully addictive herb; and the elves, who regard the forest as sacred. The series was actually self-published before it was picked up by a major publisher, freshly edited and re-released. For those interested in the craft of writing, the author's notes about how each book in the series changed during this process are illuminating. This novel's former title was A Dance of Death, and it remains apt: The body count is considerable, nearly drowning the plot's political intrigue in blood. The author is clearly trying to make a point about the wages of vigilante justice and the difficulty in determining the validity of one's cause when so many must die to further it. It's an interesting point, but one must hope that Dalglish considers the point sufficiently established after three books. Retains the attention for now, but it would be great if the author explored other issues in subsequent volumes.

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November 15, 2013

In these follow-up volumes to Dance of Cloaks, the first in an originally self-published online fantasy, Dalglish keeps up the momentum of his debut while moving forward with his character's growth as an individual. Haern now patrols the streets of Veldaren as "the Watcher," on the lookout for illicit guild activity as well as signs of wrongdoing by the ruling Trifect, powerful business interests. When Trifect member Alyssa Gemcroft's son Nathaniel is believed murdered, a hunt begins for his killer--the Watcher, or someone masquerading as the Watcher. VERDICT Introducing secondary characters as fascinating as his protagonist, Dalglish has written a gripping fantasy trilogy about a Batman-like vigilante hero whose penchant for doing the right thing does not outweigh his inner darkness.

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