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A review by laelyn
The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan
4.0
Oh, this was a fascinating one! I went into this mostly blind, but having seen it compared to The Witcher series I did approach "The Justice of Kings" with certain expectations. Now, this is nothing like The Witcher, and the comparison does it no good. But it's a really intriguing, very well crafted start to a new series which I cannot recommend enough to lovers of political fantasy focussing on characters.
The plot sounds simple enough: The Justice Konrad Vonvalt, tasked with maintaining order throughout the empire, and his protegé Helena (who is our pov protagonist) and armsman Bressinger more or less stumble into a murder mystery that turns out to be much more than meets the eye.
The book does have its slow parts, absolutely, and the writing is a little detached because it's written in form of a kind of memoir of Helena, but it fits the story absolutely perfectly. Whenever I felt my interest dipping the story suddenly took a new turn, and I can honestly say I have never been so interested in reading a book focusing on, essentially, law and order before.
The characters are all intriguing, but Vonvalt... Vonvalt alone will make me read the entire series. He is absolutely fascinating, and the way Swan explores morality with him is simply masterful. I honestly cannot wait to see where this character goes. I loved Helena too, and the relationships between the characters are engaging and make them feel actually alive. Considering that the protagonists in fantasy novels are more often than not the rebels, the people without power, the people fighting authorities, it was a welcome fresh air, too, to switch perspectives and have the authority figures as main characters for a change. It opened up all new ways of exploring power and morals.
All in all, this is an amazingly written and very unique start of a new low fantasy trilogy with slow pacing but fascinating characters. I'm excited to read the next books.
Many thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for the arc
The plot sounds simple enough: The Justice Konrad Vonvalt, tasked with maintaining order throughout the empire, and his protegé Helena (who is our pov protagonist) and armsman Bressinger more or less stumble into a murder mystery that turns out to be much more than meets the eye.
The book does have its slow parts, absolutely, and the writing is a little detached because it's written in form of a kind of memoir of Helena, but it fits the story absolutely perfectly. Whenever I felt my interest dipping the story suddenly took a new turn, and I can honestly say I have never been so interested in reading a book focusing on, essentially, law and order before.
The characters are all intriguing, but Vonvalt... Vonvalt alone will make me read the entire series. He is absolutely fascinating, and the way Swan explores morality with him is simply masterful. I honestly cannot wait to see where this character goes. I loved Helena too, and the relationships between the characters are engaging and make them feel actually alive. Considering that the protagonists in fantasy novels are more often than not the rebels, the people without power, the people fighting authorities, it was a welcome fresh air, too, to switch perspectives and have the authority figures as main characters for a change. It opened up all new ways of exploring power and morals.
All in all, this is an amazingly written and very unique start of a new low fantasy trilogy with slow pacing but fascinating characters. I'm excited to read the next books.
Many thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for the arc