The longer I sit with Fortune's Fool, the more I appreciate it. There is a maturity to its craft that is not that common - an obvious commitment to the act of writing as opposed to writing whatever might catch on and be popular. This is not to say that Fortune's Fool wouldn't catch on in the mainstream fantasy community, the Renaissance background and rakish nature of its characters, as well as its romance, have wide appeal, but Fortune's Fool strikes me as something that will burn steadily in the mind of its reader, like Robin Hobb's novels. These aren't books to be rushed, but savored and appreciated and thought of long after the final page has been turned.

What I most enjoyed with Fortune's Fool were its details and its structure. Boord has a way of calling back, time and again, to certain pieces of imagery. The presence of silk is consistently returned to, both for imagery purposes and because silk is so important to the family of the book's lead character, Kyrra. Boord's ability to use the vital components of a character's life as metaphor and background is impressive. I also enjoyed the way in which the novel was structured, with chapters almost always bouncing from past to present, pushing a current story forward while giving the impetus for its movement in that backstory. This is not an uncommon method, but Boord's use of it is flawless and purposeful. We know from the start that Kyrra loses an arm and gains a new one - full metal - and the entire time we are reading her backstory we know that the moment is coming where she gains that new prosthetic. But Boord manages to create a tense suspense in the delaying of that moment that is a difficult feat to perform.

On the whole, I really liked Fortune's Fool and like it more as distance grows between the book and I. My only complaints with it were that it was a tad long, and this is an odd complaint because I don't feel as though the book was padded, and I frankly couldn't find spots that would have needed any kind of editing (the entire thing is technically flawless). It just felt like it was all taking quite a while to progress. I also had some issues with the ending and Boord's use of the supernatural in a story that was so beautifully human. I'll be curious how she deals with her deities in the next book, but I almost wish she would have left them largely out of this one. I liked them well enough until they were too present. Regardless, Fortune's Fool is a book worth reading and I look forward to its sequel.