This is book 2 in the series, and it has jumped quite far forward in time from the first book, which was all about Blood as an 11 year old (or thereabouts). When we start this off Blood is in his 20s so there is a lengthy period the author could return to in the future to flesh out the series. I read Book 1 in a couple of days to prepare for this, and although i did enjoy that i don't think it was necessary to be able to dive right in at book 2. If anything Blood's idiosyncrasies have been toned down a bit in book 2, or is that more because he has grown up and so knows better how to hide them. The author does talk about him being on the autism scale.
Anyway the meat of this story is Blood becoming embroiled in the political machinations of King James II, who's skint and facing the prospect of an invasion by William of Orange from Holland. France is whispering in his ear, but can they be trusted either? Meanwhile Blood gets on the wrong side of his commanding officer by disobeying a stupid order not to move artillery pieces into a better position in the heat of battle, and even though he saved hundreds of lives, they are sticklers for the fact he disobeyed an order so want to punish him. Blood doesn't have time for such things so sticks to his guns and gets sent away for his troubles to oversee the fortifications at several different bases around the country, thus keeping him away from the troublesome officer. But on his return to London and a swift marriage his friend Churchill invites him to a dinner where he meets a bunch of high ranking lords who are all atalk of sedition and treason against the King, this goes against all of Bloods loyalties so he leaves, but stays quiet about their plan out of his loyalty to Churchill. Things take a turn when William of Orange does eventually invade and Blood is again with the same ordnance troop he disobeyed previous orders with, but all of the treasonous officers he met at that dinner are also in the marching army, will they fght against William of Orange who they so secretly support? What will Blood do if that happens? I'll not spoil the ending.
Also happening parallel to this is the French spy Narrey who has a personal grudge against Blood for making a fool out of him in front of King Louis when Blood was a spy in France. Narrey is on British soil, in London no less, and is up to something with a local crimelord in one of the no go slum areas. Once Blood discovers this he has to find out what he's up to and stop him again.
It's a thoroughly entertaining journey, but I'm docking a star merely for the massive jumps in time it takes with only brief mentions of what happens. Blood spent some years working in France as a spy, could almost be a book's worth there (or i hope that is a future plan), several years re-inforcing several forts for the king. These are all dealt with by mere paragraphs, and we know by now there is no quiet boring time for Blood, he's always getting himself into trouble, so i need to know more about these times, i'm not satisfied with a small paragraph and just a massive jump in dates to move the story along.
Anyway the meat of this story is Blood becoming embroiled in the political machinations of King James II, who's skint and facing the prospect of an invasion by William of Orange from Holland. France is whispering in his ear, but can they be trusted either? Meanwhile Blood gets on the wrong side of his commanding officer by disobeying a stupid order not to move artillery pieces into a better position in the heat of battle, and even though he saved hundreds of lives, they are sticklers for the fact he disobeyed an order so want to punish him. Blood doesn't have time for such things so sticks to his guns and gets sent away for his troubles to oversee the fortifications at several different bases around the country, thus keeping him away from the troublesome officer. But on his return to London and a swift marriage his friend Churchill invites him to a dinner where he meets a bunch of high ranking lords who are all atalk of sedition and treason against the King, this goes against all of Bloods loyalties so he leaves, but stays quiet about their plan out of his loyalty to Churchill. Things take a turn when William of Orange does eventually invade and Blood is again with the same ordnance troop he disobeyed previous orders with, but all of the treasonous officers he met at that dinner are also in the marching army, will they fght against William of Orange who they so secretly support? What will Blood do if that happens? I'll not spoil the ending.
Also happening parallel to this is the French spy Narrey who has a personal grudge against Blood for making a fool out of him in front of King Louis when Blood was a spy in France. Narrey is on British soil, in London no less, and is up to something with a local crimelord in one of the no go slum areas. Once Blood discovers this he has to find out what he's up to and stop him again.
It's a thoroughly entertaining journey, but I'm docking a star merely for the massive jumps in time it takes with only brief mentions of what happens. Blood spent some years working in France as a spy, could almost be a book's worth there (or i hope that is a future plan), several years re-inforcing several forts for the king. These are all dealt with by mere paragraphs, and we know by now there is no quiet boring time for Blood, he's always getting himself into trouble, so i need to know more about these times, i'm not satisfied with a small paragraph and just a massive jump in dates to move the story along.