A review by sisa_moyo
Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim

This book was very confusing at first, you are thrown immediately into the world with no building of world or anything. While the first few chapters were so intriguing I felt that it slowed down for most of the rest of the book. Also it having multiple points of view, I found that for most of the book I cared about Cain’s chapters and was trudging through the other ones which made the book feel even slower. I felt that most of the world building was also a bit lax. Key plot drivers were not well explained or established eg. there is sorcery used that the sorcerer does not know where she got the spells from or anything, she just does them? 
However, it kicked into gear in the last hour and a half as the action reaches its peak. I also overall liked the themes tackled, from colonisation, empire and anti-imperialism, to revenge and the resilience of man. Kim artfully handled these topics and issues even though the pace faltered. 
Overall, for the most part it was okay. But, the last act was actually so good and intriguing that I’m looking forward to reading the sequel when it’s published in the English.