The Liar's Knot suffers from a mild case of second-bookitis, but pulls through.
If The Mask of Mirrors hadn't stated it clearly enough, The Liar's Knot leaves no room to doubt the real main character of this trilogy: the city of Nadezra itself.
Ren remains central, but with major mysteries of the first book out of the way, this second entry is free to delve into the stories of side characters whose perspectives would have spoiled too much fun before now. We're free to explore as many facets of Nadezra as possible--and still, the roving window of perspective offered by each section remains a tiny glimpse of the immense picture. Mystery sustained through scale.
Something is lost in the zoom out from a highly Ren-focused story. It's the horror conundrum: unknown fascinates more than revelation.
Nadezra's mask slips further with every chapter. Its corruption--the looming antagonist of every plot and subplot--is revealed to hold supernatural origins (or at least to be supernaturally exacerbated). Concrete objects emerge to bear the focus of the characters' energies. This is necessary for them to do anything but waffle for three long books. It is even interesting to see how each thread from the previous book develops, to spot overlooked clues. But still, in some ways, the unveiling of a central mystery is always going to feel somewhat of a letdown if the groundwork has been enjoyable enough.
Maybe this is on me for liking the first book so much. The Mask of Mirrors built masterful suspense. Where do you go from there? The characters have to move on. They have to learn and face their challenges. A world can't be fleshed out in such tantalizing detail only to leave the bulk of it behind a shroud.
Besides, The Liar's Knot offers more than enough diversion to compensate for the intangible loss of possibility. For every step back to get a view of the corruption across centuries of Nadezran history, we recieve an equal step inwards, towards intimate views of the trilogy's many realistic perspective characters.
With Ren securely within a noble house (for now), we see more of the magical, seedy, ambitious underbelly that was out of her reach before. The crime lord from the previous book is given delicious center stage with an intimate perspective, unveiling additional depth to both his character and the magic system that would have made no sense before now (and his story involves a wonderful volume of spiders and tragedy besides). A legendary thief who has dwelled within Nadezra for centuries suffers a cataclysmic identity crisis in the face of the corruption they have sought to destroy.
Ultimately, if there is anything bad to say about the scope or focus of The Liar's Knot, it is only in comparison to the book that came before. Considered on its own, it keeps its promises and delivers a solid, intricate story.
Flow is where The Liar's Knot really begins to limp beneath the weight of its own ambition. It knows it needs to help us keep things straight. It knows the glossary and Dramatis Personae are no longer enough due to the volume of threads being picked up, paused, put down, picked up again. A large quantity of one-off interactions we need to recall that happened chapters ago, or even in the previous book.
Unfortunately, keeping things straight translates to bloat. Where the style of The Mask of Mirrors melted into the background, The Liar's Knot necessitates frequent recaps and summaries to the extent they stick out from normal prose. Repeated exposition cracks immersion and trips steady reading rythym.
But again, without them, I would be hopelessly lost to remember who certain characters are or why they're being reacted to. It's a necessary type of diversion, and it does peter off through the second half of the book.
I have otherwise the same remarks as for the previous entry: it's an unpretentious style, yet rich. The M.A.s Carrick really love their food descriptions. They have singlehandedly inspired *me* to get better about writing in food where it matters, because damnit, they're right.
Overall impression: 7.5/10
Desire to live in the setting: still 4/10
Spiders?: more than ever. And yet, there was also a distinct un-spidering of the spideriest spider. A de-arachnification just as the involvement of more arachnids arrive. Alas and hooray.