Traitor's Blade - Sebastien de Castell

I'll be honest up-front: when I said Head of State was in my sweet spot of political intrigue and entertainment, I was not telling the whole truth. You see, there is a third circle of my Venn diagram of happiness, and it is labelled "fantasy/magic/swords".

This is because I am just a gigantic nerd.

This is also why Traitor's Blade has been one of the most enjoyable reads I've had recently. The plot centres around the leader of the Magisters; Judge Dredd for the dystopian past, rather than the dystopian future. And dystopic it is; assassins, plots, intrigues, and deeply unpleasant people abound. But naturally there are the good and the glorious, even if they are mostly stereotypes: the Archer, the Swordsman; the Leader with a Troubled Past.

The plot whips along, and while some twists are tropes and signposted from the first word - nay, from the title - there are enough that it keeps you turning the page. The characters are fleshed out, their ambitions more complicated than the everyday - although there is still the evil villain whose motivation appears only to be "I like being evil. Evilly evilly evil. Behold, an evil thing that I have done!"

If there are any complaints to be made, they are about the gang of thieves whose plot appears to have been forgotten halfway through; the distinct lack of female heroes grates; and the endless exclamations of surprise by the villains at the hero's lack of comprehension get very boring very quickly.

In short, this book is a great, easy, summer-time read. Enjoy it in the sunshine, if your skin can handle it. Mine can't, but then I'm so pale I'm practically see-through.