Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Im Namen des Wolfes by Richard Swan

14 reviews

kingcrookback's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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
This took a bit to get into. It's is an interesting consideration of justice, morality, and power. As a lawyer, Swan is clearly invested in the exploration of these themes. The conceit of the story being told via the recollections of the protagonist in the distant future was an interesting choice in that it prompts curiosity as to what happens in this book that warrants keeping a record of it. But I found that sometimes that compulsion to keep reading was offset by wondering, "To what end?" Transcription and the recording of events is a running motif in the plot, but the fact that I kept getting distracted by what might be happening outside of the story - by what possible event, outside of the story we're actively following, prompted Helena to commit everything to paper - detracted from my engagement with the actual story. Even when I was engaged with the story, though, I found myself feeling somewhat detached from the main cast of characters, though that may just be an effect of the temporal distance of the older Helena's recollections.

I'll pick up the sequel because I'm curious as to where this all goes, but I'm not dying to find out.
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blacksphinx's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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verinvaldez's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Starts out as a murder mystery, which quickly becomes an empire ending threat. Justice Konrad is a very mysterious character and as the story is told from the POV of his apprentice/clerk Helena as an older woman we get to see his character shift and what seems to be the start of a moral decline from an outside POV. Helena herself is very dull and a victim of insta-love unfortunately, she has no idea what she wants in life, her streetrat orphan background is barely relevant to her character, and for some reason older Helena stands by her insta-love as her "first true love". Sir Radomir develops into a wonderfully charismatic character by the end of the book and the climax makes for a compelling start to this trilogy. I will be reading the sequel and hoping for better characterisation for Helena.
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ohmage_resistance's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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pvbobrien's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.25

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misterwisp's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

I think it actually lives up to the hype, which I was not expecting. It's everything. The characters feel like people, the world is subtly well established without info dumps, the plot pulls you in and feels like it matters, and the whole framing of one of the characters writing the story of her mentor in his strengths, failures, and changes he goes through due to story events they experience is surprisingly compelling. It was hard to put down and I'm left excited to read the next one. It's quite good and worth the time. 
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dani_reis's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

I found the first 50% kind of boring. I had to reread the synopsis to see if I even knew what I picked up.
50-70% was where the plot really picked up.
The end was intense. I don't think I liked how the narrator is sometimes talking to the reader like a story is being given about the past, but then present tense for the majority of the book. It happened few enough that I can look past it. I am looking forward to the next book.
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fenglei's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book left me feeling quite conflicted, but after a few days, I can definitely say that I enjoyed it and that it made me think.
The plot is rather slow, but the characters, particularly our narrator Helena and Sir Konrad, get you hooked on the story. The magic is not really one of the main elements of the story, but it is still compelling, and hopefully we will learn more about it in the next installments.
The main point, or even character, of this book was definitely the Law. The concept of law, the role it has in society, what it means to different people, how it can unite or divide.. it gave me a lot of food for thought.
If you enjoy fantasy and law, this is a great read. I'm not entirely sure it lived up to the hype that it got, but I still enjoyed it and would recommend it. I will certainly read the sequel.
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emilyacres's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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readundancies's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

And so ends my streak of ≥4 star reads, with a half hearted sigh and a splash of chagrin. 

I’m sorry to say that I really struggled getting through this novel. It caught my eye a couple months before it’s release earlier this year in February because I love a good investigative tale. But it was really bogged down by the narrative style and voice, specifically of Helena, the clerk of the fabled Sir Konrad Vonvalt, who puts the Justice in the title, The Justice of Kings. 

But let’s start with what did work for me. 

I enjoyed the worldbuilding, along with the accompanying map that was included. The world is one where the Sovan religion of Nema has been imposed upon a region that is still trying to keep the old gods in favour; although it’s been some time since the initial invasion of the Sovans and the old ways are slowly but surely being completely eradicated by brute force and violence. Which is how the narrative starts, in the tiny village of Rill, where the old Draedist ways are still being practiced despite it’s illegality. And we slowly get to see how one small instance quickly snowballs into a far and wide reaching conspiracy that affects the entirety of the Sovan empire, all the way up to the Emperor himself. It’s a land that is on the precipice of change, of revolt, of turmoil because those of the Neman church want to reign supreme over all other aspects of politics and law. This is not a tale of religion trying to indoctrinate church with state, this is a tale where religion is attempting to consume the powers of the state as their own. It is not a meeting of two equals, but rather the devouring of one by the other, and I think that that overarching plot in the grand scope of things is worth exploring. If I were to consider continuing on with the series, this would be the reason I would do so. 

But despite the intriguing political situation that looms at the edge of each page of the story, the focus is a bit more insular, instead focusing more so on the character development of Sir Konrad Vonvalt through the eyes of his clerk and protegee Helena Sedanka, who initially is torn about apprenticing under Sir Konrad as she’s a bit disillusioned about becoming a Justice and has no passion for it. And while the story focuses on Sir Konrad and his tale, it is framed a bit like a coming of age novel for Helena at the same time, watching her grow as a character but not to the degree your average coming of age story normally would. 

Herein lies my first issue of the story. I think there was just a bit too much trying to be combined. There’s the investigation involving Bauer and Vogt and Graves, alongside the larger political implications of Patria Claver and Fischer and Westenholtz, and then the even larger scope of what’s happening in Sova with the Emperor and leader of the Order, Kadlec. But it’s all framed within Helena’s narrative, and Helena is contending with Sir Konrad himself and the patriarchal role he has in her life in addition to being his employee, her dissatisfaction in her role as a clerk and her weariness of it, the new romance she garners with Matas, and trying to come to terms with her upbringing in Muldau with the young woman she is now. I thought I was getting into a more investigative tale, with more of a courtroom drama feel, but that’s truly at a minimum in this story. It’s not really about the judicial aspects, which are definitely still present - I don’t think a lawyer can write a story of this nature without mentioning things like due process and tiresome research that law requires - but they’re never the focus, and that’s what I was leaning towards. 

Perhaps I could’ve overcome all of this, bit the pacing was a bit off for me. It was slow to medium paced for the most part, but then some action scenes would occur that flew by entirely too quickly for me to appreciate them to any great degree. The story is also written as a metafiction, where the prose and narrator directly address the reader. In this case, Helena is telling the story as an old woman, and because of that there was a not infrequent amount of blatant foreshadowing. Actually we went beyond that. There was quite a lot of overt foreshadowing, at the end of more than half the chapters it seemed, and I personally don’t find that an effective use of the literary device anytime I’ve seen an author employ it. I find it way too heavy-handed, especially when used more than once and it’s kind of a peeve of mine to be honest. 

Let’s get petty now and do a map check. The map overall was fine, except the feather in the top right hand side looked so out of place, I wish it hadn’t been included at all. 

And then there was the romance. This instalove romance angle between Helena and Matas which was trying my patience vastly because hypocrisy, thy name is Helena. The more it appeared, the more upset I got about it. I didn’t like it, I didn’t need it, and while I know it was supposed to show Helena’s lack of maturity at this stage in her life and the impacts of her decisions, just, no. It was only included to tie Helena to Sir Konrad’s cause, especially with where it goes, and I thought it was a cheap addition to the story that just wasn’t necessary. I didn’t get anything of value out of it, I didn’t agree with it and truly, it made me dislike Helena more than I should’ve. 

From a characterization perspective, I wasn’t wholly impressed. I wasn’t unimpressed either, I just didn’t really know what I wanted out of the characters and even upon finishing I still don’t, but I do know that I didn’t get what I wanted out of them. In Vonvalt we witness the corruption of man because Vonvalt, as brilliant and wise as he may be, is flawed with pride and arrogance at the forefront of his character, and he was moody as heck all which made him seem inconsistent at times. Likewise, Helena is a very emotionally turbulent character; she felt strongly and was not well versed in tempering said emotions which means she was prone to loud outbursts and sometimes rash decisions. Action and emotion were tied very tightly in her being, and everything was a personal affront to her which made her aggravating, especially because she came off a bit whiny to me as well. It really felt like Helena was written from a man’s perspective, because she was, and I had a hard time grappling with her as a character. 

At the end of the day, I enjoyed the investigative aspects and how the magic and the necromancy were tied to it. The worldbuilding was definitely the strongest part of the novel for me. But characters weren’t doing enough for me, and I can’t see myself picking up the sequel without a significant amount of prodding from others. 
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