What Stalks the Deep Sworn Soldier; 3

This has once again been absolutely fantastic and considering the last bit of the book I truly hope this is not the last time. Loved the atmosphere, loved the characters as always and the Lovecraftian-esque has totally surprised me! Kingfisher, you're my true love, I swear.

Alex Easton returns to solve yet another mystery in the third instalment of The Sworn Soldier trilogy and delivers a deadpan humour and wayward resilience to the horrible and unknown of the deep, deep down. You never know what you will find in the pitch dark of an abandoned mine. Easton knows that it can't possibly be anything good. But when a friend calls for help, you've got no choice but to jump into the abyss. This novella was entertaining, atmospheric, and humorous thanks to the main character's reluctant narration, and their silent observation of their comrades. The group dynamics were multifaceted and never boring. I thoroughly enjoyed being a fly on the (stone) wall of this cave.

I loved the first 2 books, and this one wasnt bad at all either. I hadn't seen the ka/kan, or any other pronouns, as any kind of problem before. But suddenly in the 3rd book, I found out that Alex is apparently non binary? And what's with the sudden importance of gender, of pronouns and the slight jabs at the whole gender debate? I couldn't care less about Alex's gender, but this just felt so forced and out of nowhere. 2 chapters into the 3rd book and suddenly for the first time, someone cares about addressing Alex, about using pronouns or how to address "her"? I'm not reading to be brought back into modern day problems, I want my gruff, sarcastic sworn soldier to fight horrors beyond human comprehension.