The Death of the Necromancer

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
Nicholas Valiarde, disregarded noble and part-time thief, is on a mission of revenge. For years, he has planned to lay low the man who falsely implicated his mentor in necromantic crime. But now a plague of ghouls is getting in his way.

Review
This second installment of Ile-Rien is a much more cohesive, polished affair than the first. It's set in the same world, a hundred years later, and has a few references to its predecessor. But there are also so many references to other past exploits of its protagonists, that you'd be forgiven for thinking it a sequel to another (nonexistent) book entirely. (And the later sequels are another story as well.)

Happily, there's far less of Faerie and courts in this book. Instead, it's a magic-infused period mystery/heist story that works much better than the first book did. I've given each book the same rating, but they lean toward different ends of the range. This book is much more assured and enjoyable; I looked forward to picking it up. The wrapup is on the easy side and doesn't stand up to the quality of the rest of book, but you can look past it to enjoy the whole.

This again is the omnibus Book of Ile-Rien version. I didn't compare it to the prior e or print versions I have, but also didn't note any substantive changes. Looking this series up in ISFDB reminded me that an Ile-Rien story is also in the anthology Elemental I also have, so I'll be looking that up as well, though the anthology didn't stand out in my mind, so I won't be rereading the whole thing.