{"id":17701,"date":"2021-08-30T16:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T20:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=17701"},"modified":"2026-05-08T20:51:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:51:02","slug":"paladins-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/17701","title":{"rendered":"Paladin’s Strength"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paladin’s Strength<\/a><\/em> (2021) T. Kingfisher<\/a> (The Saint of Steel)<\/p>\n

\"Paladin's<\/a>Istvhan is a Paladin of a dead god. When the Saint of Steel died, every paladin went mad, sub-coming to battle rage, and only a few survived the madness. Those who were left went on to work for the Temple of the White Rat, assisting as they can.<\/p>\n

She narrowed her eyes, studying him thoughtfully. \u201cNo, no, I see what it is. You see a hurt you think you can heal. It\u2019s like paladin catnip, isn\u2019t it?\u201d <\/p>\n

That blow was so precise that Istvhan was surprised he wasn\u2019t bleeding,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clara was kidnapped with her sisters, and is now seeking out any nuns who might have survived. She ends up with Istvhan after an incident with the group that nursed her back to health.<\/p>\n

She had spoken so blithely about escaping her captors and traveling by night. His first thought had been that such things were a great deal more difficult than civilians thought.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Each has a secret they are desperate to keep, for fear of what will happen when if that secret gets out.<\/p>\n

What is best about these two characters is how they snipe at each other…<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you have a name?\u201d he asked. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do. Do you?\u201d <\/p>\n

His lips twitched. \u201cYes?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cExcellent. We are both named beings.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and how they try to remain honest while keeping their secrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould it be okay with you if we just agree that we\u2019re both sorry and then skip to the bit where we\u2019ve forgiven each other and stopped feeling awkward about it?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also, there are some delightful characters who appear and then disappear. Such as this little old lady who feels she needs to look out for Clara.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will treat her well.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cYes, ma\u2019am.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cYou will not beat her.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNo! Certainly not!\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cYou will not make her carry things that are too heavy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAh\u2026 no, ma\u2019am.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another poke with the cane. \u201cYou will let her sleep afterward!\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMa\u2019am, I\u2026 ah\u2026\u201d Istvhan looked helplessly over at Clara.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Publisher: Red Wombat Studios
\nRating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paladin’s Strength (2021) T. Kingfisher (The Saint of Steel) Istvhan is a Paladin of a dead god. When the Saint of Steel died, every paladin went mad, sub-coming to battle rage, and only a few survived the madness. Those who were left went on to work for the Temple of the White Rat, assisting as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[191,292,2,204,148,26,56],"tags":[50,723,262],"class_list":["post-17701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-5-10","category-ebook","category-fantasy","category-good","category-queer","category-romance","category-sexual-content","tag-boinking","tag-saint-of-steel","tag-t-kingfisher"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-4Bv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23370,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23370","url_meta":{"origin":17701,"position":0},"title":"Paladin’s Strength","author":"Michelle","date":"March 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Paladin's Strength (2021) T. Kingfisher (The Saint of Steel) For some reason, every time Galen said\"Boss\" to Istvhan I kept thinking of Loiosh from Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series. \u201cWhat are you afraid of, Boss?\u201d \u201cShut up, Loiosh.\u201d \u201cWhat if she kills you, Boss?\u201d called Galen. \u201cThen either avenge me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paladin's Strength","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/paladin-s-strength.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23999,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23999","url_meta":{"origin":17701,"position":1},"title":"Paladin’s Strength, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"October 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Paladin's Strength, Audiobook (2021) T. Kingfisher narrated by Joel Richards (The Saint of Steel #2) \u201cDo you have a name?\u201d he asked. \u201cI do. Do you?\u201d His lips twitched. \u201cYes?\u201d \u201cExcellent. We are both named beings.\u201d \u201cYou will treat her well.\u201d \u201cYes, ma\u2019am.\u201d \u201cYou will not beat her.\u201d \u201cNo! Certainly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paladin's Strength","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/paladin-s-strength.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14219,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14219","url_meta":{"origin":17701,"position":2},"title":"Paladin’s Grace","author":"Michelle","date":"April 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Paladin's Grace (2020) T. Kingfisher (The Saint of Steel) Stephen was a paladin for the Saint of Steel until that god died, and all his paladins went mad. The remaining seven paladins now serve the Rat, in gratitude for taking them in and giving them some purpose. The Rat\u2019s priests\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paladin's Grace","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Paladins-Grace.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Paladins-Grace.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Paladins-Grace.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Paladins-Grace.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23963,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23963","url_meta":{"origin":17701,"position":3},"title":"Paladin’s Grace, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"September 20, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Paladin's Grace, Audiobook (2020) T. Kingfisher narrated by Joel Richards (Saint of Steel #1) \u201cWhat in the name of the little household gods is that?\u201d \u201cAn abomination,\u201d said Stephen. \u201cI believe the cook called it gravy.\u201d \u201cGravy is not that color.\u201d \u201cI did not say the cook was correct.\u201d \u201cCan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paladin's Grace","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Paladins-Grace.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24049,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24049","url_meta":{"origin":17701,"position":4},"title":"Paladin’s Hope, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"November 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Paladin's Hope, Audiobook (2020) T. Kingfisher narrated by Joel Richards (The Saint of Steel #3) I think I've finally figured out why I find this story so disappointing. It's not that it's a bad story, because it isn't. The problem is that it doesn't really match the rest of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paladin's Hope","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Paladins-Hope.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22614,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22614","url_meta":{"origin":17701,"position":5},"title":"Paladin’s Faith","author":"Michelle","date":"December 21, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Paladin's Faith (2023) T. Kingfisher (The Saint of Steel) Marguerite Florian left town in a hurry after helping her friend Grace led her to trouble (Paladin\u2019s Grace). Which wasn't necessarily unexpected, since Marguerite is a spy. So she turns to the White Rat. Apparently one of the problems they had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paladin's Faith","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Paladins-Faith.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Paladins-Faith.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Paladins-Faith.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}