Kevin's Corner: Scott's Take: The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher (Golgatha Series Book 3)

The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher is the third book in the Golgotha series and marks a change in how the series has been written to this point. Instead of the usual main characters, Maude Stapleton and her ancestor, Anne Bonny, are front and center. These two are very different from each other in many ways and are far different than the previous main characters.

The book alternates between Maude and Anne to tell their respective stories in different time periods while also explaining the history of the Daughters of Lilith. Anne Bonny is a pirate queen in 1721 who is looking for treasure that is supposed to be hidden in a lost city of Bones located in Africa. More than one hundred years later, her ancestor, Maude Stapleton, is in the year of 1870 and is trying to rescue her kidnapped daughter during a war between the Daughters of Lilith and the Sons of Typhoon.

The Queen of Swords leaves most of the main characters and side characters of the previous books out of things as it focuses Maude Stapleton and the actions of her ancestor which have had an impact on Maude’s time period and on Maude. While the book is a good read in the series, this reader had grown attached to numerous characters in the earlier books and missed their presence. This third book ties into key plot points of previous books and thus the series should be read in order to fully understand what is happening here in this read.

The hallmarks of the series in terms of action, mystery, some horror, and some humor are present in a large setting that travels countries and continents while introducing many new characters that could be possibly used in future books of the series. This is a book that is focused a lot on world building and lore to setup the next book in the series. This book further details and provides perspective about some previous events while also charting a course forward for Maude that is focused on her letting go of the past and becoming somebody important in the fate of the world.

This book is weaker than the previous two in the series. Especially in the final eighty or so pages where it appears that characters are making questionable decisions and last second elements are magically added. One gets the feeling the author had one ending in mind and changed the ending at the last minute without going back through and setting anything up that would foreshadow the abrupt changes. It is clearer that decisions made in the last book and the previous book will have horrible consequences that should have been avoided, but the plot must be fulfilled.

The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher is a good read but I personally did not enjoy it as much as the first two. This is due to two main reasons. The first is the fact that I missed the previous characters and kept hoping they would show up. The second reason is that some plot based decisions were handled contrary to how the characters had been established and by the end of the book were doing things that made no sense. Despite all of that, overall, this is a good read in a long running series that tries to do things differently and, for the most part, succeeds.

My reviews of the previous books in the series are:

The Six Gun Tarot (July 2020)

The Shotgun Arcana (September 2020)

The Queen of Swords (You Are here)

The Ghost Dance Judgement (library request filed)

The Queen of Swords (Golgotha Book 3)

R. S. Belcher

https://www.tor.com/author/r-s-belcher/

Tom Doherty Associates (Tor)

https://www.tor.com/2017/05/24/excerpts-rs-becher-the-queen-of-swords/

May 2017

ISBN# 978-0-7653-9009-7