The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham

Abraham's second Dagger and Coin novel is another solid effort with more than enough intrigue, plot twists and violence.  In Cithrin, he has created one of the more interesting characters of fantasy literature.  While Abraham doesn't have Abercrombie's gift for describing gritty violence, I think he captures the action well enough.

The world he has created has enough magic to be interesting, but not enough to cross over into the absurd.  Perhaps I'm too much of an engineer.

I highly recommend this book, this series and this author.