A King in Cobwebs is the third novel in David Keck's Tales of Durand series. I'll admit that I made a bit of a mistake when I dove into this book – I didn't realize that it was part of a series. Obviously, I figured that out pretty quickly, but by then, I was fairly invested in the story.

I'm trying to say that while I goofed up and dove into the third book in the series, A King in Cobwebs was still compelling. Learning all the characters and subplots took me longer than is typical, but I still really enjoyed the world and the magical system.

It's safe to say that I liked A King in Cobwebs well enough to want to go back and read the rest of the Tales of Durand. In order, that is!

Thanks to Tor Books and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

It’s only been about a year or so since I started reading David Keck’s The Tales of Durand trilogy but it still feels like I’ve been waiting for years to read this book and find out just how Durand’s story ends. Though I can happily say that this book has been well worth the wait. A King In Cobwebs by David Keck is a fantastic read full of intense action and adventure that I was nearly unable to put it down once I had picked it up. You know a book is good when you almost can’t turn the pages fast enough to find out what happens next, or when you have to backtrack a few paragraphs because you’re afraid you missed something in your hurry.

I’m honestly always a bit surprised when I enjoy a book as grim and dark as A King In Cobwebs can be as I like my fantasy to be a little bit more light-hearted in tone, but David Keck is a great author and you can tell he puts everything he has into writing these books. He managed to create a world that’s dark, bloody, and almost a little too realistic for my tastes and filled it with a cast of characters who really help drive the story in some interesting directions.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed this series as much as I have is Durand Col himself. He’s a fantastic character and probably the perfect protagonist for this sort of series. So I was really happy that in this book we get to delve deeper into who Durand is as a character and what his past is. I feel like we really get to see what Durand can do in this book and what lines he’s willing to cross in an effort to do what he sees as his duty.

The only thing that really bothered me about A King In Cobwebs was a minor plot hole that I just couldn’t manage to forget about as I was reading the book. I don’t want to spoil anything by going into any details on what it was, but happily, it’s a minor thing and didn’t do much to affect how great I found the story to be. I would recommend A King In Cobwebs to anyone looking for something new to read, especially if they are a fan of authors like George R.R. Martin or Mark Lawrence. Although I would definitely recommend reading the first two book in the series otherwise you will be completely lost and not really understand what’s going on.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I was unable to read this book. The Kindle edition that was sent to my Kindle was very badly formatted. The spacing, justification, and page separation were all off.

This is a great conclusion to the series, we find Durand 10 years after the fateful events of the last book. He has now become the brooding knight in Black, but still is driven by his great desire of loyalty and duty. He has new dangers to face from the shadows the dead and undead. both of whom haunt his waking hours. Keck does a great job on keeping the story going, and giving enough detail to keep the reader intrigued but still guessing about the final outcome.