Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan

16 reviews

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

 

Context:

I borrowed The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan from my library through the Libby App.

 

Review:

The Justice of Kings worked for me, due in large part to the refreshingly unique way Swan frames the novel. The obvious choice would have been to follow Vonvalt’s perspective, but instead, the book follows the retrospective POV of his clerk, nineteen-year-old Helena. This choice would have been disastrous if he had used Helena merely as a device through which to focus on Vonvalt; however, in my opinion, her character is well-written and adds considerable texture to the story. Helena is a realistic example of what would happen if you follow a nineteen-year-old clerk in a fantasy novel rather than the stereotypical protagonist with “main character syndrome.” She’s smart and eager to please, but also self-centered, moody, and occasionally rash. She makes a lot of mistakes due to her youth and inexperience. She’s limited by her gender, emotional vulnerability, and social position, but she also demonstrates agency and initiative. I also liked that she responded to situations of danger and violence with a realistic level of terror and horror; it's not often that we get to read about a protagonist who panics instead of automatically acting like a hero. While I can understand why some might consider her character to be sexist, Helena reminds me of myself when I was a nineteen-year-old girl—especially in how she confuses the overwhelming awe, affection, and dependency she feels toward the older male figures in her life for potential romantic feelings.

Her whirlwind romance with the first attractive boy she befriends made sense to me in the context of her upbringing and situation.

 

Helena is a fascinating character in her own right, but her perspective allows us to gain a unique understanding of those around her, particularly Vonvalt. The depth of love and admiration she has for him—despite an intimate knowledge of his flaws—provides new layers to his character development as he faces a new world in which his nearly overwhelming power is suddenly threatened. Through her eyes, the themes of justice and power that this book explores gain added meaning.

 

Beyond the wonderfully crafted character development, Swan demonstrates competent worldbuilding and plot development in The Justice of Kings. The magic system is limited, and the world is not as expansive as some epic fantasy series, but Swan smartly focuses on building a strong story instead of throwing a large number of names, places, and exposition at the reader. As the plot gradually builds to a gripping crescendo, Swan opens the door for greater worldbuilding and plot development in future books. Overall, The Justice of Kings impressed me, and I plan on picking up the second book soon.

 

The Run-Down: 

You will probably like The Justice of Kings if . . . 

·      You want to read a story with well-written characters and a gripping plot

·      You like medieval-inspired fantasy

·      You want to read a fantasy story through the lines of a non-traditional protagonist

 

You might not like The Justice of Kings if . . .

·      You are not in the mood for a very dark and violent book

·      You don’t want to read a book from the perspective of a moody teenage girl 

·      You want to read a fantasy story with epic, colorful worldbuilding

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, War, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Alcoholism, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Minor: Sexual content, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, and Rape

fran's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Excrement, Alcoholism, Death, Body horror, Child death, Medical content, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Grief, Kidnapping, and Sexism

kingcrookback's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This took a bit to get into. It's is an interesting consideration of justice, morality, and power. As a lawyer, Swan is clearly invested in the exploration of these themes. The conceit of the story being told via the recollections of the protagonist in the distant future was an interesting choice in that it prompts curiosity as to what happens in this book that warrants keeping a record of it. But I found that sometimes that compulsion to keep reading was offset by wondering, "To what end?" Transcription and the recording of events is a running motif in the plot, but the fact that I kept getting distracted by what might be happening outside of the story - by what possible event, outside of the story we're actively following, prompted Helena to commit everything to paper - detracted from my engagement with the actual story. Even when I was engaged with the story, though, I found myself feeling somewhat detached from the main cast of characters, though that may just be an effect of the temporal distance of the older Helena's recollections.

I'll pick up the sequel because I'm curious as to where this all goes, but I'm not dying to find out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Grief, Animal death, War, Confinement, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Rape, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, and Child death

blacksphinx's review

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, War, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Colonisation, Confinement, Vomit, Torture, Xenophobia, Fatphobia, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Child death

foxwish's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Starts out as a murder mystery, which quickly becomes an empire ending threat. Justice Konrad is a very mysterious character and as the story is told from the POV of his apprentice/clerk Helena as an older woman we get to see his character shift and what seems to be the start of a moral decline from an outside POV. Helena herself is very dull and a victim of insta-love unfortunately, she has no idea what she wants in life, her streetrat orphan background is barely relevant to her character, and for some reason older Helena stands by her insta-love as her "first true love". Sir Radomir develops into a wonderfully charismatic character by the end of the book and the climax makes for a compelling start to this trilogy. I will be reading the sequel and hoping for better characterisation for Helena.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Sexual harassment, Cultural appropriation, Death, Confinement, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and Child death

ohmage_resistance's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Murder, Gore, Blood, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Minor: Rape, Alcohol, Child death, and Alcoholism

pvbobrien's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Sexual violence, Child death, Grief, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Death, and Sexual content

misterwisp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

(edit: For the completionists out there this trilogy is now fully published and finished, so if you've been waiting to start now is the time!) I think it actually lives up to the hype, which I was not expecting. It's everything. The characters feel like people, the world is subtly well established without info dumps, the plot pulls you in and feels like it matters, and the whole framing of one of the characters writing the story of her mentor in his strengths, failures, and changes he goes through due to story events they experience is surprisingly compelling. It was hard to put down and I'm left excited to read the next one. It's quite good and worth the time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Medical content

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

the child death does not happen "on page", the bones of a child are exhumed to determine true cause of death.

dani_reis's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

I found the first 50% kind of boring. I had to reread the synopsis to see if I even knew what I picked up.
50-70% was where the plot really picked up.
The end was intense. I don't think I liked how the narrator is sometimes talking to the reader like a story is being given about the past, but then present tense for the majority of the book. It happened few enough that I can look past it. I am looking forward to the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Death of parent and Child death

death of animal is with an unattached animal to the reader. It is graphic.

fenglei's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book left me feeling quite conflicted, but after a few days, I can definitely say that I enjoyed it and that it made me think.
The plot is rather slow, but the characters, particularly our narrator Helena and Sir Konrad, get you hooked on the story. The magic is not really one of the main elements of the story, but it is still compelling, and hopefully we will learn more about it in the next installments.
The main point, or even character, of this book was definitely the Law. The concept of law, the role it has in society, what it means to different people, how it can unite or divide.. it gave me a lot of food for thought.
If you enjoy fantasy and law, this is a great read. I'm not entirely sure it lived up to the hype that it got, but I still enjoyed it and would recommend it. I will certainly read the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content and Alcohol

Minor: Child death