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poetry_birb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Trafficking
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Sexual violence, Alcohol, and Colonisation
noshakira's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
The only difficulty is that some names can be hard to pronounce (as with most fantasy novels) and keep straight, as many are similar or characters go by multiple names for differing reasons, so it's easy to get confused and I'd have to continually remind myself who was who.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Murder, War, and Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
mysimas's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Another thing that irked me was the total absence of mystery. Everything was revealed straight away. Oh, so this person actually isn’t this guy’s mom? Huh, who could the real mom be — oh, the author tells us on the next page, okay. Ohh, and this person might actually be someone completely different? I wonder who — oh okay, I see. And so on and so forth.
Awarding stars for some good scenes (loved the kraken fight) and also the strange and addictive readability. I never like flashbacks… But here, literally 80% of the book was flashbacks (more if you count the asterisk notes), and for some reason it was ok.
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, and Death of parent
adragoninspace's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
andromeda_1998's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism
anapthine's review against another edition
- 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
1.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Kidnapping
Minor: Pedophilia and Pregnancy
e_flah's review against another edition
I have been hearing a ton of hype from Tor about The Ruin of Kings. Maybe that led me to go in with expectations that were a bit too high. Maybe this just isn’t my kind of fantasy. Either way, I found myself trying to mentally calculate how long it would take me to push through to the end, which was a sure sign that it was time to let this one go.
The Ruin of Kings switches narrative POVs nearly every chapter as we follow a first-person narration of Khirin’s journey as a slave sold to a mysterious order called the Black Brotherhood and a third-person narration as Khirin’s jailer, Talon, tells the story of how he ended up in a prison cell. Both narrations feature lots of narrative footnotes that provide commentary from the royal advisor who compiled the tale. The idea of telling Khirin’s story from two very different perspectives and places in the narrative was initially intriguing but grew tiresome. In reality, just as I would get invested in the events of one narrative, the next chapter would switch to the other POV. I also really struggled with how pointlessly dense and complicated both the writing and the story were. The plot, at least up to the point I quit, had the makings to be gripping but it was bogged down with lots of world-building asides and other writing tricks that seemed to only serve the purpose of trying to impress me.
The part of The Ruin of Kings that I struggled the most with was, even though I found it frustrating and slow, a little part of me wants to keep reading in the hopes it will get more exciting. This is a book with so much potential, especially if you have more of a stomach for dense fantasy than I do.
**2024 thoughts**
The switching POVs didn't bother me this time around but what did get me was the overwhelming number of male characters who we were supposed to view as "extraordinary." I wanted to like Khirin but just didn't find him a compelling main character.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Slavery and Trafficking