The Return of Fitzroy Angursell

Charming, cozy read, but a bit of a guilty pleasure. I loved The Hands of the Emperor and its sequel, so was ready to read more stories about the characters. But Fitzroy Angursell turns out not to be the most interesting character for a whole book.

Compared to the Lays of the Hearth-Fire what's missing here is any real tension or bite. Kip's story, particularly the first book, has a meaningful fantasy story with events that happen and bureaucracy. And Kip has a real long personal journey to go on with meaningful conflicts about his heritage, his role in the world, his relationship with the Emperor.

But here in this Red Company book it's the return; Fitzroy is an established person and is just coming back. There's some tension as he wrestles with his own history and who he is but it's all in service to a foregone conclusion. Narratively it's interesting since this is the first full book the author is written: we the reader have no idea who this Fitzroy is, other than some hints from other books. But that dramatic irony isn't explored as well as it could be, I could have done with some more surprises.

Structural complaints aside it is nicely written and sweet. Goddard is a remarkably good prose stylist. Her pages flow smoothly, full of just musical enough language to be more than a direct read. And sometimes she waxes elegiac with paragraph-long descriptions of some scenery, or lighting, or the arrangement of objects in a room. They're like little paintings, lovely.

The book greatly improves after the first 100 pages or so, the author finds the right voice. I might well read more of this series if I'm looking for something undemanding to pass the time.