A review by blazeofredfire
The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons

4.0

- this was fine! Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. 3.5 stars rounded up?
- the dual narrative was an interesting way to tell the story and the plot was generally engaging! I also really liked the idea of someone telling the story and adding it footnotes and the unreliable narration was also really cool- not something you normally get in fantasy! However, I felt like it did get a bit too convoluted at points- the end few chapters felt a bit like the author going “well… I bet you weren’t expecting this, haha!” Over and over in a way that didn’t necessarily add to the story- I think a lot of the body swapping/this person’s actually related to *this* person instead of the one you thought they were! could have been cut out and the story would have flowed better.
- I didn’t really like the main character. I get he’s supposed to be young and naïve, but his reactions to things got a bit grating over time, especially as he didn’t really seem to grow out of it. I did enjoy the other characters though- Tyentso the most! Talon was also a pretty fun villain.
- the world building was really cool- I loved all of the lore around the gods and the magic. I also loved the dragons! (More dragons please!) I’m not sure how I feel about the concept of returning though. Whenever someone important died it was like “well they’re just going to come back,” and it made some emotional moments feel quite cheap and lowered the stakes a lot.
- not sure if I’ll get round to reading the others in the series, but I’m not opposed to the idea! This was a generally fun time that put a twist on a lot of traditional fantasy “clichés”, even if I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I wanted to.