*squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee* y’all. Y’all, they gave me a review copy of the book. The book I’ve been squeeing about since April, lol.
So, obviously thank you to Del Rey via NetGalley for this review copy.
You’re too pretty to die.
Astarion Ancunin was supposed to be a magistrate, not a vampire spawn. He was supposed to serve the law, not the vicious vampire lord Cazador Szarr. And he was supposed to drink fine wine, not rat blood. Alas—the city of Baldur’s Gate cares little for what’s supposed to happen.
Though he has been powerless to resist his master’s bidding, haunting the nighttime streets to fetch warm blood, Astarion has never surrendered his hope. One day, this nightmare must end. He just has to find out how.
When the vampire lord announces a twisted competition for his favor, an opportunity presents itself in the form of a rare prize . . . and an unlikely alliance. The blood of a dead god is buried deep beneath Baldur’s Gate, and, to get it, Astarion will need the help of a handsome Aasimar paladin named Hahn den Suriel.
There are just a few problems. Astarion is not supposed to trust his fellow spawn. He’s not supposed to go out into the city for his own ends rather than the vampire lord’s. And he’s certainly not supposed to strike a deal with a stranger whose golden eyes can snare even a blackened, undead heart.
But the city of Baldur’s Gate cares little for what’s supposed to happen.
This is a prequel to Astarion’s story in BG3, and while it won’t really spoil anything in the game for you, a passing knowledge of Astarion’s character would probably be helpful. You could definitely read it without having played the game. It’s going to be enjoyable to T. Kingfisher fans as well because on top of the fact that this is very much a Baldur’s Gate book, it is so wholly a T. Kingfisher book as well. It has hunky paladins and everything, y’all.
In this story we get to see a bit of Astarion’s early life, and a bit of his life as a magistrate, but mostly we see his life as a spawn of Cazador. He and the other spawn avoid each other as much as possible, and survive mostly on the whims of their master. One day he decides that he is going to have a contest to see which of his spawn can bring him the most interesting or unique blood, and whoever wins will get made a full vampire. Well, Astarion happens to know that under the city of Baldur’s Gate, there is a cult who worship the blood of a dead god, and he is going to go get it.
Along the way, he meets the aforementioned hunky paladin, Hahn den Suriel. Now, den Suriel may be an Aasimar, but it’s a hundred percent his Paladin oath that makes him need to kill any undead being that he comes upon, which is a terrible shame really, since Astarion is.. y’know. A bit on the undead side. A very big shame because there are definitely some sparks between these two, as you would imagine.
“I would still be bound to kill you.”
“Yes. But before that happens, I might die, or illithids might invade, or the sky might fall.”
So, I obviously crammed this entire book in my eyeholes in one sitting. This is one of those books that combines one of my favorite authors with one of my favorite subjects. It was as close to perfection in a media tie-in book as I could ever ask for.
That said, this audiobook (which I preordered the very second that I heard this book was in fact a thing) is narrated by Neil Newbon, which… I mean, it is going to be the most perfect 8 hours I am going to spend with an audiobook, I think. It is the only thing that will make this book a better experience.
Trying not to just make this a review of gushing about this one, but it was as good as I wanted it to be, and at face value, that means it was a solid 5/5 stars. If you’re a fan of Astarion, you’re probably going to love it. If you’re a fan of T. Kingfisher, you’re probably going to at the very least like it, and if you’re a fan of both, you’re going to have a hard time writing a review that isn’t just vomiting rainbows all over the place about it.
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