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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Très belle écriture, originale mais parfois on a l’impression que certaines actions sortent de nulle part
medium-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:
No
This series made me insane
4.5 Stars Rounded up to 5
Right off the bat I loved the format this book has. The writing style is split between the ‘present’ time in the characters life - written in third person, and the ‘past’ time written in first. This takes the format of a first person narrator story format, however we have the twist that the same story is being told by two different narrators. This in and of itself seemed an interesting premise along with the author also chosing to add in annotations - which I am always a fan off, and together the world started to fill out quickly.
The Story opens with a note that makes it clear what we are about to read is a combination of events compiled by someone else - so we can assume there will be a fair bit of unreliable narration going on. Still. I liked it.
The reason I didn’t give this book a full 5 stars are probably petty at best. I found the dialogue could sometimes use modern slang or phrases which didn’t really fit in with the rest of the world and the story. It only happened a few times, but when it did it completely broke me out of the spell of the book.
I always enjoy the trope of prophecy and seeing how the author chooses to play the trope out. It is always enjoyable to see a clever and creative solution to a prophecy riddle, and I found this one lived up to that standard.
I really liked the way the author fed you the overall ‘systems’ of the world bit by bit. There were no info dumbs, mostly you are left to infer the correct meaning from dialogue and other examples in the book. Occasionally you would get a deeper explanation but I never felt like the info given was too much or felt out of context.
All in all I really enjoyed The Ruin of Kings and I can’t wait to get the next book and drive into it!
Right off the bat I loved the format this book has. The writing style is split between the ‘present’ time in the characters life - written in third person, and the ‘past’ time written in first. This takes the format of a first person narrator story format, however we have the twist that the same story is being told by two different narrators. This in and of itself seemed an interesting premise along with the author also chosing to add in annotations - which I am always a fan off, and together the world started to fill out quickly.
The Story opens with a note that makes it clear what we are about to read is a combination of events compiled by someone else - so we can assume there will be a fair bit of unreliable narration going on. Still. I liked it.
The reason I didn’t give this book a full 5 stars are probably petty at best. I found the dialogue could sometimes use modern slang or phrases which didn’t really fit in with the rest of the world and the story. It only happened a few times, but when it did it completely broke me out of the spell of the book.
I always enjoy the trope of prophecy and seeing how the author chooses to play the trope out. It is always enjoyable to see a clever and creative solution to a prophecy riddle, and I found this one lived up to that standard.
I really liked the way the author fed you the overall ‘systems’ of the world bit by bit. There were no info dumbs, mostly you are left to infer the correct meaning from dialogue and other examples in the book. Occasionally you would get a deeper explanation but I never felt like the info given was too much or felt out of context.
All in all I really enjoyed The Ruin of Kings and I can’t wait to get the next book and drive into it!
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
slow-paced
Sometimes it was difficult to follow who was who what with name changes and the convoluted family trees weren't helping (as it didn't seem to make much difference in terms of loyalty anyway). I was either reading too fast at some points or failed to pick up on the implied events/foreshadowing, but I felt there was a bit of Deus ex here and there. It was nicely balanced by an unexpected twist now and then. However, the world was fascinating, the characters believable and I look forward to the next one. There is a next one, right?
It was so hard to keep track of everyone's name and affiliations and relatives, but it was worth it. I don't understand some of Kihrin's decisions with all my heart, but he was a great character to follow, and the plot was intriguing even if it was very dense.
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Colonisation
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
medium-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:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings: rape (and rape of a teenager), sexual violence, slavery, murder, misogyny and sexism, incest, violence, injury description, and blood.
A synopsis is really hard for this, but basically we’re following Kihrin and his story is being told from two perspectives. In the first Kihrin tells us what happened to him after he was kidnapped and enslaved leading up to how he found himself in the opening situation. The second is how Kihrin found out he was a bastard of a noble house and ended up enslaved, told from a party who Kihrin is not a fan of. This is a twist on a chosen one story that includes magic, demons, dragons, gods, and immortal races.
The audio was done really well in that the different perspectives were told from different narrators with a scribe inserting footnotes, that come off as a sassy narrator sometimes, from a third narrator. There are a lot of different threads that Lyons pulled at and wove together to make a “WTF?!” kind of story that I really enjoyed. There was a body swapping element that I thought was really unique within the magic system and some really interesting use of gods that walk the world. This does get pretty dark, it definitely fits into the grimdark category of fantasy.
The story does play with gender a lot and many of the characters are queer or ambiguous on the sexuality. Though the story does not focus on sexuality and romance.