Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan

14 reviews

godfrina'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

5.0

"Vonvalt tended to deal with entirely alone, on account of my inexperience and relative youth. And as an impertinent young woman, I resented this."

The language used in this book carried the story telling so well. I will be reading the rest of the series and possibly more from this author for sure. The gore and violence is strong at times, as is expected in a story about justice, conflict and empires, but it fits the narrative.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Religious bigotry, Violence, Death, War, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, Vomit, Alcohol, and Torture

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Animal death

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

---

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.

---

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

---

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.

---

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

dogearedbooks's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent and Confinement

Minor: Violence, Torture, Rape, Kidnapping, War, Grief, and Sexual assault

claireisagrisha's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Pros: 

• Political Intrigue - was very interesting how this was discussed and how Helena, the narrator, talks about it 
• Fantasy 
• Murder Mystery
• The Narrator, Helena !! 

Cons: 

• Bruh it was just long and I get that it takes a while to build a world, but it just dragged on. 
• It didn’t always captivate me. I was bored sometimes, but I will not give up on books I’m reading. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

emilyacres's review

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: War, Grief, and Sexual violence

Minor: Ableism and Child death