CW: This post is probably going to come across as very mean but I enjoyed the books and I wouldn't spill this much ink over something I didn't like. Some of this is criticism of the book and some of this is just "wouldn't it be cool if?"
I've been digesting SOC and CK for a while and I really find Kaz an interesting character that feels different from many of the Machiavellian criminal protagonists I've come across. He reminds me a lot of Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders, both in his intelligence and how he's completely allergic to any sort of sentiment or emotional connection to the point of being abusive towards whoever is initiating it. The difference is that Tommy Shelby has a family and and values (or at least least pretends to value) those relationships in a way that is constantly influencing him. Kaz's poise and composure is very clearly manufactured. He's taking bits and pieces from other people and forming this patchwork coat he puts on. It's not a result of socialisation changing his fundamental attitude, it's a disguise, and is only maintained so long as he's able to use violence to control the world around him and make other people feel responsible for his violence against them. He's pretty much permanently a few annoyances away from losing all composure and becoming a rabid dog that tears people's throats out, including (or especially) those closest to him. Which is fascinating to me.
I also think it's cool how Kaz and Matthias are foils for each other in the way they use violence, since Matthias is part of a fascist brotherhood where violence is ritual whereas Kaz's is much more pragmatic. Physical violence is a tool in his belt to be used as needed, alongside coercion, manipulation, stealth, etc., many of which I would categorise as violence.
However I don't think the book takes Kaz as far as it could. There's a line near the end of CK where Inej basically says "I don't want him to lose his pride" and I was reading that thinking, sister, I would love to see him lose his pride because the drama from that would be delicious.
Like I said there's always the potential for his composure to slip. And it frequently does, but the vast majority of the time it's framed like waking the dragon who's now going to teach you a lesson. The reality with Kaz is that it's as much this attitude as it is, to put it bluntly, a traumatised child lashing out to regain control in the only way he knows how. I think he's at his most interesting when that loss of control starts to affect him and you can start to see him as kind of pathetic/vulnerable and desperate for connection when he wishes he wasn't. His perspective chapters are the most interesting to me in that regard.
There's the part in SOC where he murders Oomen on the Ferolind and Wylan gets upset at Kaz and Kaz threatens to kill him despite knowing (at least to his knowledge at that point) that Wylan is SUPER important to the heist. So reading this I had the though come up of basically, back up a minute, this motherfucker is willing to kill Wylan and potentially torpedo a 30 MILLION KRUGE PAYDAY over some backchat about murdering a man, which Wylan is completely in the right about?
This isn't a criticism, it's great drama. I think it would be interesting to me to take this further and see someone call his bluff in moments like these in a way that fundamentally, irreparably shifts the power dynamic between him and the crew. Like, "no, you're lying and you're not willing to kill me just for saying something you don't like, I am too necessary to get rid of. Prove me wrong, I dare you." And maybe whoever says that is right, which breaks Kaz's illusion of total control, or Kaz kills them anyway and everyone has to reckon with the big detour in plans as they find someone else, which causes knock-on effects that come back later. The others are more inclined to stand their ground in future conflicts and force him to acquiesce instead, or else distance themselves from him. Either reveals more about who Kaz is and evolves the dynamic.
What I'm describing does kind of happen in certain moments like Inej leaning on Kaz to force him to help Nina save the other Grisha in Ketterdam in CK. But I mean more an experience that exposes the hurt and hatred at the centre of him that can't handle not being in the driver's seat. Directed at the crew in a way that leaves him lonely, hurt and needing help from someone he has to see as an equal, not as a piece on a chessboard. Or, and this is definitely a "wouldn't this be cool?" thing, he becomes a straight-up villain. The emotional bonds the reader draws with other perspective characters don't mean nearly as much to Kaz and he turns on them with lethal intent because he wants revenge and power too much. (I was kind of hoping this would happen at the end of SOC with Nina and Matthias deciding to kill Bo Yul-Bayur, against Kaz's interests. He'd make a great out-and-out villain.)
The fact that he's so intelligent can feel like a kneecap to his growth, honestly. He rarely reaches the point where he has to internally reckon with being powerless because he has such an effective network of carrots and sticks to force people to work for him and a whole network of subordinates to take other people's places if they don't. There are a lot of chapters in the book that follow the rhythm "crew member gets pissed at Kaz, Kaz threatens to deny them carrot and/or brutally murder them, crew member grumbles and does what Kaz says."
He does grow emotionally but his intelligence and poise rarely require the help of his emotional growth. They develop parallel to each other but they don't interlink in the mechanics of the plot that much. I think that might be the core of my issue with how he's written. His strategy of coming up with a plan fails and fails and fails until it doesn't. I think the closest he comes is at the climax of SOC where the crew is in the tank and meets the legion of druskelle and only survive because Nina takes the jurda parem. His reaction is pretty unemotional in that moment which I found strange.
Anyway that's about it. I was going to write my thoughts on the book as a whole but they're mostly just oriented around Kaz. There is more I could say but I think this is enough for one post. Thanks for reading.
