I keep meaning to read the SF series by Leckie, but have not. This, however. This I liked. It's sort of a secondary world riff on Hamlet if it were told to Horatio by the Castle of Elsinore, who also wants Horatio to know about theology and deep history (the castle wants him to know the context of what's happening, you see, oh yes, she does). You absolutely don't have to know Shakespeare to follow the book, but I enjoyed how the motifs kept popping up and getting remixed. Plus you know there's going to be a satisfyingly large pile of bodies at the end, but who is the King of Norway? I think fans of the play will be pleased with how it all works out.

The narrator's voice (both in the audiobook, and the character telling the story) was excellent, and kept building layer on layer of suspense. Because it was first person omnipresent but couldn't see inside anyone's heads, it lead to a very spare, action-focused style on the present day scenes, with lots of dialogue and letting characters speak for themselves. It really worked introducing us to people and letting the mystery unfold. Our Horatio is a little more than he seems, and we're constantly left wondering exactly what his motivations are and how much he knows, which sometimes distracts from the character we should be watching. A lot of the storytelling isn't quite slight of hand, but you know the narrator is being cagey, and figuring out how is a delight.

I seriously couldn't put this book down because I had to know what happened. I don't want to spoil anything, but the anticipation and pay-off were gorgeously executed as the tension builds and builds and something is rotten in the state of Iraden.