Im going to be that contrarian. I don't like this book much, and I have found between this and Grave Empire, Richard Swan is not an author for me. Hes a GOOD author, but we have radically different entertainment values.

Justice of Kings was fun because it was a detective story. The Tyranny of Faith is more of a political thriller/ conspiracy story which is fine, only I personally struggled to latch onto the story. Unlike the first book, the crux of the plot wasn't as important or exciting to me.

What i've really learned though, is how with complicated political fantasy, CHARACTERS are so deeply necessary to giving a shit. The Empire of the Wolf series has some great ideas, but after book 1, my expectation was an expansion on the characters. As all but one of the primary characters are hardened older men, there are very few moments of genuine emotion or character development between both individual or multiple characters. Nobody except Helena has anything to learn, so they all just stay the same. The relationships don't really grow or change- nobody has moments of intersection on identity.

So you are left with one big ball of emotion (Helena) and a bunch of cold matter of fact dudes that spit facts and tell her shes being irrational.

I love political fantasy, but I love the messiness of it. Comparing this to The Tainted Cup, which is extremely similar, only the characters our main character interacts with are all tremendously sloppy. Or, A Song of Ice and Fire, where every person involved in a political plot is fucking nuts and you get their POV constantly.

Richard Swan's characters are very imperfect, but they aren't out there doing things that are interesting, they aren't emotional people, not are they people making dramatic moves in the world that make political stories so fun.

So im done. Richard Swan is a no buy for me. I see the vision, I see who is supposed to like his work, but if my politics aren't mixed with a soap opera, I ain't interested.