Mab, Harry’s boss as the Queen of Winter, has a job for
Harry, one he is not allowed to refuse. He must work for the Order of the Black
Denarius; perhaps the most evil people Harry has ever encountered. He has to
help them steal something
Of course… once it’s stolen Mab considers the deal
finished.
Working for the enemy who hates him almost as much as he hates them, Harry has to be ready for the double cross – and to get his double cross in as soon as he can; and try to reduce the casualties along the way
Which would be difficult under any circumstances – let alone trying to raid the vault of a Greek God.
There were so many awesome things in this book.
Harry delves through so many personal issues in this book
in an excellently written way. It can be hard to have your character have
personal growth moments without a whole lot of clumsy info-dumping or
monologues that don’t work. Harry’s growth fit within the story without being a
distraction or out of place, it meshed ideally. Which is great because there
was a lot to unpack
Most of which is just what side is Harry on now. He’s the
Winter Knight (though,
thankfully, the whole rape element of that mantle has been pushed out in this
book), he’s working for the Unseelie Queen, an association that has now got
him working with the Denarians. Fallen Angels and the very personification of
evil in the series. These are not the associates of a good guy and he’s
painfully aware of it. There’s a constant thread of him trying to cling to his
morality while forced to go along with these people, trying to draw lines,
having to accept a level of evil and wondering how far he will go. But it’s not
just Harry, but also his friends. Murphy has faith in Harry – but that’s only
after she learned that in the last book; Butters asks reasonable questions and
they are reasonable, not remotely unfair. Harry is now associating with evil
people, he is apparently signed in on an evil scheme. Not only that, but Harry
has been absent from all his friends and supporters for a year – Butters has
reason to doubt and reason to be afraid, especially since Harry is so powerful
and dangerous. Butters reasonable doubts stop Harry’s own questions from being
rather standard protagonist moping; they add context and reason
Butters brings a lot of excellence here – someone stepping
up incredibly heroicly to try and fill the void Harry has left takes incredible
courage especially since Butters isn’t special or powerful. But there’s more
parallels with Harry and his growth. Butters is taking some terrible risks, not
just for himself, but by using some resources he is risking giving his enemies
a vastly powerful tool. He is risking them all, he could doom them all; but
what choice does he have? This is an excellent counterpoint to Harry’s own
powerful regrets, especially around the destruction of the Red Court. As much
as Michael’s deep wisdom, Butter’s own example throws a context on Harry’s acts
and doing the best you can in hard situations.
Which also brings us to the Swords. The might, incredible, powerful holy swords of the Cross and their strict moral requirements for their useage – the goodness they require, the moral standards they uphold are pure and wonderful and… not always practical. No-one can argue the powerful goodness of swords and their knights, but Nicodemus and Murphy showed just how such impossibly high standards don’t always work; they’re a powerful tool but if you rely on them to the exclusion of all else, you will lose. Their inflexibility makes them impractical. Which further feeds into Harry’s morality debate – because to actually achieve good and protect the innocent he cannot hold himself to unworkable standards
I think there’s another character who, without giving any
spoilers, is a pretty awesome side point to this as well – it’s really well
done
Bringing it all together we manage to approach Harry’s
growth and morality from several different angles that comes together in an
awesome whole.
