Reviews

The Widow's House by Daniel Abraham

veraann's review against another edition

3.0

Dagger & Coin Series Book #4

This series must be read in order. It is a political fantasy. So there is not very much action, though there is some.

This one was a lot of up and down for me. I was either at a part that totally engrossed me or a part that struggled to keep my attention and not bore me. The characters and the world are pretty well established at this point. Now is a big set up for the finale and finding out more about the very distant past.

shadowthrone11's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

storytimed's review

3.0

Unfortunately this is not a very good middle book
It suffers from needing to build a lot of things up: Clara (Dawson's wife from book 2) has started to subvert the empire; Cithrin is on the run from Geder; Geder is overextending his empire and falling apart; Marcus needs to find some PRIME EXPOSITION about the spider cult and how they exist
Intellectually, I understand that a lot of shit happens in this book, but emotionally it feels a lot like Abraham spinning his wheels and doing filler
There are two fun things that happen:
1) DRAGON! The concept of the world here is that dragons created every race to serve them, then all died out. Turns out there is one (1) dragon left, and he's kind of an asshole
My brother was disappointed that the dragon didn't really do anything, but I enjoyed him! I mean the point that Abraham is trying to make is that all these myths and legends are at their core actually very mundane
But it's fun to have Marcus pissed off at how everyone instinctively wants to please Inys (the dragon), who mostly spends his time moping 
I still don't care much for Marcus, except for the very funny joke that he's only happy when he's miserable and he's miserable when things are going well, but Marcus plus Inys are a prime comedy duo
2) Cithrin invents the idea of national debt!
And paper money! And fractional interest banking!
Basically the idea is that she goes to a king and tells him she will lend him an insane amount of money as long as she's allowed to sell his debt to others
And the idea is that the debt will never be repaid, because like. Who the fuck is going to ask the king to pay them back lol
BUT that means that she can basically say that the debt is whatever size she wants it to be, because she's never going to get called on it by someone asking to redeem the debt anyway
So the bank is now minting money instead of smelting gold coins
I think this was underexplained but very cool, though in our current economic climate the idea that two nations will not go to war because one of them owes money to the other is.............. kinda goofy ngl
But it's fun!

hankdatank's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

brendalovesbooks's review against another edition

4.0

This one took just a little bit for me to really get into. I blame it on the wait in between books, and then forgetting what all had previously happened. I did still like it a lot, and hate having to wait to see what happens next.

gsember's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

tadster20's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

jesslynh's review against another edition

5.0

I truly cannot say enough good things about this series. The worldbuilding is excellent, the dialogue and story put together perfectly.

The characterization is relatable, funny and intelligent. I am off to more books by Mr Abraham. I've already read his excellent Long Price Quartet and know there has to be other stuff out there.

The audiobook is highly recommended--the narrator really knows his stuff.

mary_soon_lee's review against another edition

3.0

This is the fourth book in Daniel Abraham's "The Dragon and the Coin" epic fantasy quintet. Abraham is the author of the superb fantasy quartet, "The Long Price Quartet," and is the co-author, under the pseudonym of James S. A. Corey, of the superb science fiction series, "The Expanse." It is largely because of the strength of his other fiction that I am reading these books. Whilst they have entertained me, they have neither riveted me the way that the Expanse books did, nor impressed me the way that the Long Price Quartet did. The cult of the spider goddess is a strong plot element, but the other ideas are less interesting to me at this point. And despite my sympathies being engaged by three of the four main point-of-view characters, the drama feels overly drawn-out. Enjoyable, but not first-rate.

cmbohn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcohol, Xenophobia, and Fire/Fire injury