Walter Jon Williams’ Quillifer the Knight is, pretty obviously, a sequel to his Quillifer. In that book, a young man had a bunch of adventures in early modern not-Europe; in this one, the man is a bit less young and somewhat more established (given the title, I guess it’s not a spoiler to say that he’s a knight), and is primarily enmeshed in political intrigue, new business enterprises, and romantic entanglements.

Like the first book, it’s a quick-reading tale of derring-do and hyper-competence, and if there are somewhat fewer bold adventures and somewhat more political intrigues, well, that just makes sense for where the character is in his life — it’s like how the Miles Vorkosigan books went from military adventure to diplomatic intrigue. (And that’s not an idle comparison; if you liked the Vorkosigan books, these are probably right up your alley.)

Allegedly this is planned as a six book series, but only a trilogy under contract so far; I for one would be delighted to read all six volumes. Recommended.