Reviews

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan

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gray_05_sea's review

2.5

I have mixed feelings. It was slow to start, but at no point did I consider giving up. I wanted to know what happened. However, there were two main things that bothered me. The narrator voice rang false - Richard Swan must have a low opinion of woman. I also hated the insta-love plot- there was no reason for her to love Matas, so her love of him and his death felt like a plot device. The second part that bothered me was a poor marriage of political intrigue and detective story. I find it hard to believe that in the face of armies being stood up and the potential fall of an empire, a political actor would say “no, I really need to solve this insignificant woman’s murder first, who mostly merits the name of ‘Bauer’s wife’”. The character development across the board struck me as false; and I don’t think I will read the rest of the series.

steelfern's review

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

a truly compelling mystery set within some really wonderful, interesting world building.

ngallion's review

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4.0

Very interesting combination of murder mystery, fantasy, and political thriller. One of the main characters feels a lot like a hybrid of Aragorn and Poirot and that works a lot better than you may initially think. The biggest strike against this book in my mind is that it’s doing the thing where a seemingly basic plot point actually has world-changing ramifications. Because of that, the book has to balance empire-wide politics and micro-level storytelling, which is a difficult task to pull off. To be clear, I think this book does it pretty well, but I always felt like the book would be more enjoyable if it could dice completely into either stream. I suspect that book 2 will be exactly that, though, and I’m looking forward to reading it.

spellboundbybooks's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

It looks like I'm in the minority with this one. Let me say this was a solid read with interesting characters and a steady plot. But it didn't grab me the way I hoped it would. I think I set my expectations too high.

What I really liked is the magic of the Justices. Necromancy has always been a favourite of mine and I really want to explore that more.

The plot starts out with Vonvalt and Helena investigating a murder and as the book goes on, we realise this murder has much wider ramifications for the world at large. I found myself more interested in those ramifications than in the the actual murder mystery itself.

I'm an emotional reader, so if I don't connect with a character or what is happening to them, the story just doesn't grab as strongly. It took me a long time to really warm to Helena and get to know her and Vonvalt better.

Due to this it wasn't until toward the end of the book that I really became invested in them. Everything is coming to a head and those ramifications I mentioned are being realised, and I could finally feel myself really wanting to dive in to the story.

So while I didn't love this first book as much as I hoped, I am genuinely excited for the sequel. I've heard that it dips over into horror and I'm really intrigied to see how the author does this.

akazen's review

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4.0

This book was great. From the start I simply felt tense, the whole world felt tense, primed to explode into chaos; I couldn't point you to a single unneeded point or sentence, the writing, the plot masterfully came together to create a miserable and dark world filled with different contingents of politics slamming against eachother. I don't think I've felt anything of the sort since reading ASOIAF (not to suggest that they are incredibly similar, merely the writing connotes similar feelings). I don't think many books recently have had its writing stick so cleanly into my mind, from the start of the book I knew the writing, the prose was gritty and skilful, and I still feel it spin around in my mind.

Truly I had began the book with misconception, thinking this book was more magic-focused, and whilst I wish it was, the book did not fail for the lack but succeeded. Whatever existing magic shone brightly in that world that seemed scarce of existing magic.

The Audiobook narrator did a marvellous job with this book, I can easily imagine their voice for the rest of the story. Not once did it ever seem wrong to me.

I don't think I can continue this series at this current point, it is rather too tense and dark (kinda?) for my current book reading whims. I will most definitely return though.

Easily 4-4.25*