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A review by repha
The Name of All Things by Jenn Lyons
5.0
This was not what I expected. I thought this book would follow Kihrin's adventures, but instead we got to discover a whole new set of characters, whose lives are tightly interwoven with the events and characters present in book 1. And those characters are just brilliant ! We briefly saw Janel in « The Ruin of Kings », but there we learn who she truly is, and what happened to her. We also discover Brother Qown, Ninavis and Dorna, and not one of them was boring. The author continues to blur the line between good and evil, making protagonists and antagonists interact and even occasionally agree. May she be blessed.
Instead of a sequel to book one, we get a big flashback, which gives us access to another side of the events that already happened, and more events we had no idea of. We get to know where some of the characters disappeared when they weren’t with Kihrin. There is a small part were the story goes forward, too.
The world-building is impressive, and delightfully queer (which is pretty rare in adult fantasy) ! Jorat, for exemple, has all this system where everything is named in relation to horses. One can be a mare, a stallion or a hare (If I remember correctly), and it has nothing to do with biological sex or even gender. Nobody in Jorat cares about who you want to be and/or sleep with. The novel also contains a lot of interesting discussions about gender and it looks like Kihrin-Janel-Taraeth could be a thing. Just… yes, please !!!!
As usual, the book is pretty long, but it is totally worth it. The pace is never slow, and there is enough to discover for every chapter to be needed. The structure and rhythm is on point. The author used 4 different narration styles, and it all works out together, adding momentum to the story. Senera’s footnotes are better even than Turvishar’s.
All in all, this is the perfect fantasy series if you want something epic, witty and queer ! ☺️
Instead of a sequel to book one, we get a big flashback, which gives us access to another side of the events that already happened, and more events we had no idea of. We get to know where some of the characters disappeared when they weren’t with Kihrin. There is a small part were the story goes forward, too.
The world-building is impressive, and delightfully queer (which is pretty rare in adult fantasy) ! Jorat, for exemple, has all this system where everything is named in relation to horses. One can be a mare, a stallion or a hare (If I remember correctly), and it has nothing to do with biological sex or even gender. Nobody in Jorat cares about who you want to be and/or sleep with. The novel also contains a lot of interesting discussions about gender and it looks like Kihrin-Janel-Taraeth could be a thing. Just… yes, please !!!!
As usual, the book is pretty long, but it is totally worth it. The pace is never slow, and there is enough to discover for every chapter to be needed. The structure and rhythm is on point. The author used 4 different narration styles, and it all works out together, adding momentum to the story. Senera’s footnotes are better even than Turvishar’s.
All in all, this is the perfect fantasy series if you want something epic, witty and queer ! ☺️