cpjeanz's review against another edition
4.0
Awesome debut, 4.25/5 stars. Great writing, interesting characters, and discourse of themes.
Quick hits:
- The last 110 pages is super fast paced and felt like the best type of anarchy. So much happening on every page.
- The underlying discussion of not only justice, but how people are effected by that justice and how the events of our lives change our perception of justice was awesome.
- Interesting characters with interesting motivations.
- A solid mystery, but more importantly how that mystery plays into the future plot.
- Helena is an interesting POV character and gives us a truly unique view into the world. She plays well off of Vonvault and Bressinger (even Radomir).
- I felt sometimes Helena was a little too immature and petulant. The love story was honestly meh, not bad but just there. None of these are really too often or present and doesn’t take away from the story.
- Complex political landscape with a lot of moving pieces.
Overall, this is a great fantasy debut. I enjoyed my time reading it and would definitely recommend. Due to some of the stuff with Helena bringing me down slightly, and the mystery being resolved earlier than I was expecting, it wasn’t fully 5 stars. But still dope!
P.S. I would caution going into this book with no expectations. It’s getting comparisons to a lot of different things (which happens to every book), but I think going in blind is best. It has intrigue, action, suspense and more. But going in expecting too much of one thing may leave you disappointed.
Quick hits:
- The last 110 pages is super fast paced and felt like the best type of anarchy. So much happening on every page.
- The underlying discussion of not only justice, but how people are effected by that justice and how the events of our lives change our perception of justice was awesome.
- Interesting characters with interesting motivations.
- A solid mystery, but more importantly how that mystery plays into the future plot.
- Helena is an interesting POV character and gives us a truly unique view into the world. She plays well off of Vonvault and Bressinger (even Radomir).
- I felt sometimes Helena was a little too immature and petulant. The love story was honestly meh, not bad but just there. None of these are really too often or present and doesn’t take away from the story.
- Complex political landscape with a lot of moving pieces.
Overall, this is a great fantasy debut. I enjoyed my time reading it and would definitely recommend. Due to some of the stuff with Helena bringing me down slightly, and the mystery being resolved earlier than I was expecting, it wasn’t fully 5 stars. But still dope!
P.S. I would caution going into this book with no expectations. It’s getting comparisons to a lot of different things (which happens to every book), but I think going in blind is best. It has intrigue, action, suspense and more. But going in expecting too much of one thing may leave you disappointed.
drlark's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
2.5
I went into this fantasy knowing it would be dark, but I picked it up because I enjoy my genre fiction mashed up with other genres, so a fantasy with a murder mystery and some plucky roving government investigators on the case sounded like a good time. It was not a good time. But I think that's mostly because I would put this in the grimdark sub-genre of fantasy, and that is just not for me.
I couldn't root for the characters. Our narrator is a 19-year-old clerk named Helena, who grew up on the streets fending for herself as a thief. Yet, all she does in this book is flail about and cry, be petty and immature (she is 19, after all), make a couple of decent observations about the case, cry some more, and get rescued a few times. It's not that I think female characters shouldn't be allowed to cry or be rescued, but when her background is that she survived on the streets in a truly grim fantasy world where the threat of violence, and sexual violence specifically, was at every turn -- I'd have thought she'd be made of sterner stuff. Or at least know how to defend herself. But all of this was written by a cis white dude, and that group has earned my suspicion when it comes to writing women.
As a clerk, she's apprenticed to Sir Conrad VonValt, a Justice of the Emperor, who's empowered to be judge, jury, and executioner as he carries out the Common Law in the realm. He's a moderately interesting combination of father figure to Helena, employer, and mentor, but he's a more interesting combination of righteous and naive. His arc is tied to the larger arc of the series, which is the question of who should wield the power and how in an empire with far-flung outposts and colonies.
I was way more interested in this larger political question -- the legitimacy of VonValt's authority in an empire built on (graphic) violence -- than the smaller murder mystery the bulk of the book was spent on. But, given that this is a grimdark fantasy, I don't think I'm going to like the answer, as one of the themes of the genre seems to be how people who try to do right are slowly disillusioned and compromised.
And finally, I'm still not a fan of stories told in retrospective. I don't like being told a story. I want to be in it with the characters. So, tl;dr, I should've DNFd this one because it was clearly not for me.
I couldn't root for the characters. Our narrator is a 19-year-old clerk named Helena, who grew up on the streets fending for herself as a thief. Yet, all she does in this book is flail about and cry, be petty and immature (she is 19, after all), make a couple of decent observations about the case, cry some more, and get rescued a few times. It's not that I think female characters shouldn't be allowed to cry or be rescued, but when her background is that she survived on the streets in a truly grim fantasy world where the threat of violence, and sexual violence specifically, was at every turn -- I'd have thought she'd be made of sterner stuff. Or at least know how to defend herself. But all of this was written by a cis white dude, and that group has earned my suspicion when it comes to writing women.
As a clerk, she's apprenticed to Sir Conrad VonValt, a Justice of the Emperor, who's empowered to be judge, jury, and executioner as he carries out the Common Law in the realm. He's a moderately interesting combination of father figure to Helena, employer, and mentor, but he's a more interesting combination of righteous and naive. His arc is tied to the larger arc of the series, which is the question of who should wield the power and how in an empire with far-flung outposts and colonies.
I was way more interested in this larger political question -- the legitimacy of VonValt's authority in an empire built on (graphic) violence -- than the smaller murder mystery the bulk of the book was spent on. But, given that this is a grimdark fantasy, I don't think I'm going to like the answer, as one of the themes of the genre seems to be how people who try to do right are slowly disillusioned and compromised.
And finally, I'm still not a fan of stories told in retrospective. I don't like being told a story. I want to be in it with the characters. So, tl;dr, I should've DNFd this one because it was clearly not for me.
egajowski's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
maevedora's review against another edition
4.0
Wow. This was really, really good. I’ve been in a horrible reading slump for probably over a month now (as evident by my dnf pile). I saw a random tiktok comment recommending The Justice of Kings for a political fantasy, and thought, why not? I want to kiss that commenter now because this book was amazing.
Highly recommend if you like:
- bleak medieval fantasy
- the last of us (for the daddy issues and traveling across a country aspect)
- legal studies (honestly, I probably ate this book up because I’m back in school to become a paralegal and the merging of fantasy with law was something that completely blew my mind)
Highly recommend if you like:
- bleak medieval fantasy
- the last of us (for the daddy issues and traveling across a country aspect)
- legal studies (honestly, I probably ate this book up because I’m back in school to become a paralegal and the merging of fantasy with law was something that completely blew my mind)
rain_97's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Fantastic read! I loved Vonvalt’s single-minded self-righteousness.
shaysbookshelf_'s review against another edition
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
isabyrne's review against another edition
A cool concept just a bit too politically dense for me right now/not engaged by the mysteries or characters.
kalinhitrov's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
4.0
carlysgrowingtbr's review against another edition
5.0
The book, a justice of kings by Richard swan, is an absolute mash up between Sherlock Holmes and Game of Thrones.
This book is told by the POV of Helena, who is the justice clerk to Konrad Vonvlade. I Conrad is the emperor's justice, which means he travels throughout the kingdom handing down rulings of the emperor in matters from a small is petty theft to murder. He is also the emperors executioner, and he carries out the justice himself. Upon entering a province within the kingdom, and discovering the murder of a noble lady, which is a very uncommon, Conrad decides to take the case. Conrad and Helena quickly realize that there is much more to this case, than a simple murder, and are dragged into a case of extreme political tyranny and mutiny against the emperor. To top it off they have an extremely short timeline with which to solve this before one or both of them parishes alongside the murder victim. And they quickly realize that they can trust no one.
This was one of the best books I have read this month. I cannot wait to see where this series of books goes. It's very well done and keeps your attention. It is medium/fast paced. The world building and political intrigue are A+.
This book is told by the POV of Helena, who is the justice clerk to Konrad Vonvlade. I Conrad is the emperor's justice, which means he travels throughout the kingdom handing down rulings of the emperor in matters from a small is petty theft to murder. He is also the emperors executioner, and he carries out the justice himself. Upon entering a province within the kingdom, and discovering the murder of a noble lady, which is a very uncommon, Conrad decides to take the case. Conrad and Helena quickly realize that there is much more to this case, than a simple murder, and are dragged into a case of extreme political tyranny and mutiny against the emperor. To top it off they have an extremely short timeline with which to solve this before one or both of them parishes alongside the murder victim. And they quickly realize that they can trust no one.
This was one of the best books I have read this month. I cannot wait to see where this series of books goes. It's very well done and keeps your attention. It is medium/fast paced. The world building and political intrigue are A+.