Monday, March 25, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons




The Ruin of Kings is the first in a new epic fantasy series (titled A Chorus of Dragons), and I do mean the term "Epic Fantasy" in its most proper terms.  I've debated whether certain books I've read in the past really count as "epic fantasy" (the most modern example one thinks about is Game of Thrones/SoIaF of course), but there's no question here - this book is a tale of politics, magic, prophecy, gods, and destiny all tied together, as is often the case in the genre.  As is also often the case in this genre, the book is rather long - the hardback is roughly 540 pages long, and the text size is small enough that it feels like a significantly longer book than that.

But how much did I enjoy those pages is the real question.  And my answer is a bit mixed - the story is well paced, telling a dual narrative for most of it before a final act set in a single narrative, and the main character is enjoyable enough, and the story leaves some intriguing plot threads for the subsequent books to pick up.  On the other hand, none of the characters truly grabbed me as much as I wanted from an epic fantasy, resulting in me not caring as much as I wanted about what happened to them, and the book is kind of a bit confusing as to its mythology and overarching threat.  I'm intrigued enough to want to try out a second book, but not invested enough to truly want that book to come out soon, if that makes any sense.

Better explanations (I hope) after the jump:

TRIGGER WARNING:  Rape:  A major plot device is that people in this world can be magically enslaved by tearing out a piece of their soul and linking it to a control device.  While it's never shown on-page, needless to say, this does result in non-consensual sexual activity to put it nicely, including between two side characters of particular importance.  Fair Warning. 

--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
In a tale recapped by one man to his majesty, an epic story that promises change and disaster to the Empire of Quur begins:

Kihrin was raised thinking himself a street urchin in the Capital, trained as a th ief who could see magic but not perform it, with his only valuable possession being a strange stone that he always had around his neck.  But when he finds himself on the run from a demon, his adoptive parents are killed, he finds himself apparently a Prince in one of the noble households, the alleged son of a monstrous man who tortures for pleasure, and whose desires are far far more terrifying - and who was the one who summoned the demon in the first place.  As Kihrin navigates this new world of Court politics, he seeks to find out his "father's" agenda and the truth behind it all, and any way possible to stop the horrors he sees coming from coming to pass.

Years later, Kihrin is sold as a slave to an order worshiping the Goddess of Death - a sale that saves Kihrin from being sold to a far more dangerous and powerful sorcerer.  There he learns that some believe he has a dangerous destiny of destruction, and he has ties to legendary magical forces and deities who once waged battle for the fate of the world.  But in the meantime, he learns more about his own abilities and self, and the magical evils he had left behind in the Capital, evils he must confront, or death and destruction will come to thousands of innocents - even if confrontation is playing right into those evil enemies' hands.

Somehow, Kihrin will wind up imprisoned with a deadly monster as his jailor, awaiting certain doom and all seemed lost.....or was it?
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The Ruin of Kings is told in a plot structure that doesn't really make sense in the end if you think about it, but if you don't think about it works decently enough.  The First Part, which is 90% of the book, features Kihrin and his jailer Talon telling their versions of his story, with each version alternating between chapters.  Talon's story is Kihrin's early beginnings (from a variety of perspectives, though mainly Kihrin's) and Kihrin's story (in first person) is what happened from the midpoint to the present, so in essence the story keeps jumping back and forth in timelines.  Meanwhile a narrator revealed at the beginning comments in footnotes on some of these stories throughout - with these footnotes sometimes being dry, sometimes being funny, but never adding too significantly.  In the final 10%, the action merges onto one timeline.

Still, the result of this is that unlike some other Epic Fantasies, the entire book revolves around one character's story: Kihrin's.  And he's an enjoyable character for the most part - smart but not brilliant, strong but aware his strength is limited, with people he cares about and those he hates.  He's very easy to root for, even when the reader might think him doing something dumb, and man does he go through an awful lot in this book.  The other side characters are much less developed, but are generally solid, even if I wish they had a bit more depth to them to care about them.

The world this epic fantasy takes place in is pretty damn grand, with an Empire with a past spanning ages, magic of various forms, gods that are very present (particularly a Goddess of Luck, which is Kihrin's "patron" and a Goddess of Death), as well as demons and other monsters hanging around.  The idea of how the Emperor is chosen is pretty awesome, and more importantly, the book uses its setting to play with themes like oppression and free will, which work out really nicely - for example, the main character takes some of these aspects of its setting for granted, only to be called out for it, and the magical macguffin which is the focus of many of the plot threads only furthers the book's exploration of these themes.

Still, if you couldn't tell from the above, I didn't quite love The Ruin of Kings as much as I wished.  Unlike other epic fantasies, there really isn't a whole lot of wit here, although the story isn't really quite at the level of grimdark either.  The story never drags really, with me finishing it over the course of a 5 hour flight and a little bedtime reading, and never feeling that annoyed at having to go on, and I was always interested in what happens next, but after I finished, I didn't really feel like going back too much to reread, which is something that I tend to feel in books I really enjoy.  I suppose the biggest problems are twofold:  First, while I liked Kihrin, I didn't love him as a character, and none of the other characters really stand out in any way to get me hooked on them.  The book's jacket and marketing push suggested that he wouldn't be the typical hero due to a prophecy that suggests he'd destroy rather than save, but that description is kind of misleading and he does act in some typically heroic ways, which is fine, but not that special.

Second, the book isn't particularly good at communicating the two different threats that pop up, to the point where it gets a bit confusing.  I understand that the book is trying to play its cards close to its chest regarding the overarching story arc that will make up the series, but the book isn't particularly clear about which threat Kihrin is really aiming to tangle with here and what the scope of the greater threat truly is, to the point where Kihrin finds out about the greater threat halfway through, and then we never tangle with it again in this book....and it was never really made clear to me why that would be.  To use a Game of Thrones parallel (show, not book), it'd be like the first season having the Starks all brought to the north to face off with the Night King, then having them whisked back to their original locations to deal with the more present problems without ever going back to the greater threat - it just feels weird and confusing.   For a different comparison, I read Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings and while it too had both present and greater scope dangers (as is typical of the genre), it was clear where each sort of began and ended and why only one was being dealt with at a time (and I didn't love that novel either).  To this book's credit, it does end in a more satisfying ending than a typical epic fantasy first novel as a result, as the book nicely ties up the plot threads created by one major enemy, but I just wished it had been done in a more effective and clear manner.

We'll see if I get to this one's sequel when it comes out I guess.
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