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celestialjeu'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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault
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
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
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.
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
caitb's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Gore, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Rape
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
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Violence, Confinement, and Murder
Moderate: Religious bigotry and Medical content
Minor: Alcohol, Child death, Physical abuse, and Sexual content
marque's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Sexual content and War
bookishwondergoth's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Every now and then a book will come along that I feel was written specifically for me to enjoy. ‘The Justice of Kings’ is one such book. Essentially a murder mystery framed by enormous political upheaval, the story follows the Emperor’s Justice, Sir Konrad Vonvalt. Accompanied by his taskman Dubine Bressinger and his clerk (and our narrator) Helena Sedanka, Vonvalt makes his way from town to town across the Sovan Empire, exacting the law as judge, jury and executioner.
I don’t think—outside of Skulduggery Pleasant—I’ve ever read a fantasy crime book before, but that’s basically what this book is. There’s so much weighing of the law vs justice vs morality amongst these pages, that it’s easy to see where comparisons to Andrzej Sapkowski’s ‘The Witcher’ come from. The rumination on these different factors made for such thought-provoking reading, and I was totally invested in the outcome of each case.
Richard Swan is a wonderful storyteller with a keen grasp of character. Subtext is key, and it’s what’s unsaid as much as it is what’s said. Helena is a highly fallible narrator, writing as an older woman looking back on her young petulant self. I found her fraught, jealous, hormonally-charged father/daughter relationship with Vonvalt relatable and endearing, and Richard Swan falls into none of the traps male fantasy authors are prone to falling into when writing about hormonal young women. I thought he did a really good job. Vonvalt also is a compelling and charismatic protagonist (for truly, it is his story Helena is telling), and I definitely grew attached to this dysfunctional little family in ways that will no doubt hurt me in future books to come.
The framing narrative of the crumbling Sovan Empire was, in my opinion, far less interesting than the legal nuances of the murder mystery at its core, which is why my rating drops down to 4 stars for me. I would honestly love to read an entire book that solely consists of Vonvalt, Bressinger and Helena travelling around and episodically exacting the law. I just find it so so interesting. AND it got proper brutal in places, my God! Just… all the things I love. Like it was written specially for me, like I said.
Loved it. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Can’t wait for ‘The Tyranny of Faith’.
I don’t think—outside of Skulduggery Pleasant—I’ve ever read a fantasy crime book before, but that’s basically what this book is. There’s so much weighing of the law vs justice vs morality amongst these pages, that it’s easy to see where comparisons to Andrzej Sapkowski’s ‘The Witcher’ come from. The rumination on these different factors made for such thought-provoking reading, and I was totally invested in the outcome of each case.
Richard Swan is a wonderful storyteller with a keen grasp of character. Subtext is key, and it’s what’s unsaid as much as it is what’s said. Helena is a highly fallible narrator, writing as an older woman looking back on her young petulant self. I found her fraught, jealous, hormonally-charged father/daughter relationship with Vonvalt relatable and endearing, and Richard Swan falls into none of the traps male fantasy authors are prone to falling into when writing about hormonal young women. I thought he did a really good job. Vonvalt also is a compelling and charismatic protagonist (for truly, it is his story Helena is telling), and I definitely grew attached to this dysfunctional little family in ways that will no doubt hurt me in future books to come.
The framing narrative of the crumbling Sovan Empire was, in my opinion, far less interesting than the legal nuances of the murder mystery at its core, which is why my rating drops down to 4 stars for me. I would honestly love to read an entire book that solely consists of Vonvalt, Bressinger and Helena travelling around and episodically exacting the law. I just find it so so interesting. AND it got proper brutal in places, my God! Just… all the things I love. Like it was written specially for me, like I said.
Loved it. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Can’t wait for ‘The Tyranny of Faith’.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Religious bigotry and Murder
Minor: Xenophobia, Cursing, Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual content
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content and Alcohol
Minor: Child death
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