Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher

Other T. Kingfisher books: 

What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier #1)

What Feasts at Night (Sworn Solider #2)

A House with Good Bones

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

The World of the White Rat

Clocktaur War (duology)

Swordheart

The Saint of Steel (quartet)

T. Kingfisher's newest book is Hemlock & Silver. As should be clear from above, I am a huge Kingfisher fan and I think she does super exciting things in fantasy. 

Here's how this one shook out. 

Anja is a Healer, but she's not really. She studies poisons and antidotes. If you break your arm or have the flu, she's not useful, but if someone is poisoning you, she can help you out. The King hears about Anja's expertise and asks her to help him figure out what is wrong with his daughter Snow. The King recently had found his wife, the queen, killing their daughter Rose and then slew his own wife through with a sword, so he's in a bit of a pickle right now. Snow must be saved. So Anja heads off to help Snow. And there's that sexy guard who comes along. And there's a talking cat. 

I liked this one. I liked Anja. I liked the talking cat. I found the magic system (it involves mirrors) to be a bit snoozy and that meant this one dragged a bit in the middle, but, overall, what we have here is a good old time. Kingfisher isn't for everyone, but if you have read and liked Kingfisher in the past, you'll enjoy this one, too. 

I listened on audio and found the narrator to do an amazing job. 4/5 stars

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Lines of note:

I was a child with a child's attention span. Many adults think this is no more than a butterfly's, flittering from thought to thought, but they have forgotten in some children it is as sharp and pointed as a stiletto. (timestamp 29:39)

Right? Kids are hyper focused. 

There is a crazy wild delight that comes over you when you discover something new, something extraordinary. If you try to share that and people look at you blankly, it's crushing. But if there's someone else there to say "really?" and take fire with enthusiasm alongside you, well, that will keep you going for a long time. (timestamp 40:37)

Yeah, this is right. You want to celebrate with someone. Great observational writing. 

"It was translated from Harkelion the physician." 

Scand leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. "What if he was wrong?"

I stared at him in alarm. "What? But, he's...he was one of the classical scholars, you know? He wrote half the books on medicine." 
"That doesn't mean he was right," Scand said. 

"But physicians still use his books." I tapped the cover of a book next to me. "They quote him all the time." Practically every book I'd read had at least an epigraph attributed to Harkelion and most of the had much more.

"I'm sure they do," said Scand. "But that doesn't mean he was right. It just means that everyone has learned to repeat his errors." (timestamp 47:22)

So much this! Back in the day, I listened to the podcast Sawbones, which is about medical history, and there was so much referring back to Galen and Hippocrates and boy were they wrong about a lot of shit. 

The last thing Isabelle had said to me before I left was, "try to be tactful." "I always try," I protested. She gave me a look. "Try harder." (timestamp 2:09:52)

I might have written about this here already, but it's worth saying. I had a difficult meeting with someone last month and I tried so hard to be super tactful and diplomatic and there was a lot of laughing at me later when the other person in the meeting referred to me as "honest" and "brutal" and I was TRYING HARD TO BE DELICATE. Apparently I cannot try harder.

I had honestly never given much thought to the sort of cat that a king's daughter would have as a pet, something white and fluffy, maybe, with a jeweled collar and a tail like a feather duster? This cat was not that. It was the shade of dark grey that people call blue. It was short-haired and skinny and it was missing an eye. Also, it had an expression like it was thinking about disemboweling everyone in the room. (timestamp 4:03:35)

All cats look like they are going to disembowel someone. It's why we love them 

No sense asking why he was like this. He was a cat.  If cats were helpful, they'd be dogs. (timestamp 5:57:27)

I think maybe Kingfisher doesn't like cats. 

There's no point in discovering something amazing if you can't grab another person by the forearms and shake each other and yell "do you see that?" (timestamp 6:11:02)

I feel this in my soul. 

My eyes felt gritty. That's caused by your tears evaporating while you sleep, incidentally. Tears are salty  so when your eyes dry out, tiny salt crystals get left behind. Bodies are so marvelously revolting.  (timestamp 7:29:06)

I don't know why, but this line made me laugh out loud for several minutes. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

broad-brimmed hat (timestamp 2:05:01)

Hats decked with enormous plumes... (timestamp 2:06:54)

He took off his hat...(timestamp 3:53:15)

scratched under his hat (timestamp 3:53:51)

pull the ribbons off my hats (timestamp 4:10:29)

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Have you read any T. Kingfisher? Would you like it if cats could talk?