I really enjoyed this series, hard to put down. Really strong characters - some of them unlikable! - and some great intertwined quests in an interesting world. Sakar is a priest and spy thrown in the deep end of royal and clerical intrigues; Ardhi has given his life to a quest to undo a great wrong he naively caused; and Sorrel is a woman newly gifted with magic, on the run after killing her murderous husband and finding herself the servant of the Queen of a dangerous court. Mistrust, religion and magic ( )

Australian fantasy is always pacey and full of Stuff Happening. Which can be swings and roundabouts - always enjoyable and highly readable, but often the Stuff lacks weight because of the endless pile-on. It sometimes feels like things happen to the characters, rather than through or because of the characters, leaving them to be buffetted about by events beyond their control.

So while I enjoyed reading The Lascar's Dagger, I have a number of mild annoyances come the conclusion. I had been really looking forward to exploring a non-Euro world and character base, given the titular Lascar, but 99% of the book takes place in a sort of Dutch/English/Nordic analogue, and said lascar isn't a main character (supporting, yes, but only around for perhaps a third of the book). I have way too many unanswered questions about that's real, what forces are acting in which directions, and how everything links up - there's very much a "read on to learn more!" vibe, but having read 450 dense pages (the text is pretty damn small) I am balking a little at having to read more to get a grasp on the world and conflict.

But I did enjoy reading it. It's an interesting patchwork of strong characters with occasionally competing motivations, and it digs nicely into questions of sexism, colonial capitalism, unthinking and irrational elitism, and religion in conflict. I just wish the story had a little more gravitas and significance within itself. ( )

The Lascar’s Dagger is the tale of a Saker Rampion, a spy of the Va faith who, coerced by an enchanted dagger, is unwittingly drawn into a stranger’s quest.

The Bad Stuff: In my opinion there are two major logic flaws within this story. The main character, Saker Rampion, is a veteran spy and I quote “the pontifect’s best; the hunter after truth, the clever spy, the sharp witted investigator.” For a man who is all this, I found him likeable, but incredibly stupid. Saker makes rash assumptions when there is evidence to the contrary. And then there is ‘the thing’ that princess Mathilda hides from the world. I won’t tell you what it is, that would spoil your read if you do take a gander at this tale, but honestly, I have my doubts that she could hide something like this, in this world, under the conditions imposed upon her. I also found some info dumping in the text and some ‘telling’, both of which could have easily been dealt with through different writing techniques.

The Good Stuff: Aside from the flaws I have mentioned above, I really enjoyed this book. The characters are interesting and apart from Saker, they all have strong, clear traits and they stay ‘in character’ throughout the book. The author, Glenda Larke, builds a believable world with a diverse ensemble of characters. She has some creative ideas and weaves some interesting plot lines.

As a reader it is easy for me to criticise Glenda Larke’s writing. As a writer, I know how easy it is to make these sort of mistakes and still not notice them after reading the story a hundred times. On the whole, Glenda has created an original story with some great characters, set in a believable world. Her prose makes for an enjoyable read and I will certainly read more of her works. I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 Golden bookmarks.
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A complicated involved story that starts with a theft and gets so much more complicated from there. There's a magic dagger, spying, political marriages and a lot more, this is not a simple story, there are a lot of shades of grey and people having to make hard decisions that are sometimes a lesser of two evils choice. I'm looking forward to the further adventures of these characters and the repercussions of a variety of decisions. And seeing if the quest for truth is going to be successful. ( )

I made it to 28% and while I've been enjoying the world and writing, the characters are starting to annoy me and I'm not excited about the direction things seem to be going. I might try this again sometime, we'll see!