For the Killing of Kings

eARC provided by St. Martin’s Press for review (via NetGalley)

Alright listen up you all! This book has been criminally under-exposed, seeing as how it comes out in less than two weeks and I’ve seen it absolutely nowhere except on NetGalley! If you’re a high fantasy fan, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

This book had pretty much everything I love – a cast of characters that all have their own strengths and weaknesses and are all fun to read about; magic!; an innovative world setup that I haven’t seen before; fight scenes on both small and large scales; and epic quests (or not so much as a quest as a fleeing from a recently discovered murdery conspiracy).

The first set of characters we are first introduced to are the Altenerai, an elite group of warriors tasked with protecting the realm. The story is set seven years after a peace treaty has been struck with a neighboring land, which followed an intense war. Many of the Altenerai died in the war or have gone missing while on other missions since then. Yet others have retired or left the service, so there are only a handful left to train new squires. One of my favorite things about this book was that at the beginning Elenai (one of the main characters) and the younger generations have just heard of these famed older Altenerai, and as the novel goes on we get to meet many of them. It is an interesting way to contrast how people get talked about and how others remember them with what they are actually like. Of course a lot of people’s flaws aren’t talked about when they are referred to as heroes, so I liked seeing those come out since it makes people more relatable and realistic.

I love the dynamic between the two main characters, Elenai and Kyrkenall. I haven’t read Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker in a while, but their dynamic reminded me of Vasher and Vivenna from Warbreaker. At first Elenai is hesitant and unsure in her abilities, but as she travels with Kyrkenall she learns from him and is forced to develop her abilities with all the obstacles they encounter. Kyrkenall is sassy and crazy and dangerous and I like him a lot.

The world setup was very different than most I have seen before. In order to travel to different lands/kingdoms, you must travel across this odd borderland area that doesn’t quite have a grounding in reality, and can undergo shifts where the entire reality/landscape around you can change. The main realms are large country-sized areas of ‘reality’ and within this borderland there are fragments/shards/slivers of land that are also grounded in reality. It’s likened to crossing an ocean but obviously, it’s much more treacherous. I really really like this concept! I hope it’s explored more in the future novels. I will say I didn’t really get a different feeling from the major realms other than the one we start in, and the land of the Naor, the enemies of the war (and with whom the peace treaty has been struck).

The plot is centered around the sword of N’lahr, a fallen Altenerai who was the commander in the war. There is a prophecy that his sword will defeat the leader of the Naor, the enemy that they were at war against. The sword is discovered to be a fake by Elenai’s mentor, and Elenai and Krykenall are subsequently framed for murder and forced to flee the capital. They go in search of the real sword and are hunted along the way by those who don’t want them to expose the fake sword and the true murderers. Pretty much my only complaint is that though the plot evolves into a much larger scale thing than just the discovery of the fake sword, I still thought it was lacking throughout the book. A lot happened, and there was a lot of fighting, but I still feel that the plot didn’t advance very much.

Jones’ writing style flows very well, and kept me reading through the whole day that I read this. I never wanted to stop! The chapters and points of view were well spaced to keep you on your toes while reading. The characters and world were well fleshed out for a first novel in a trilogy, and I can’t wait to see the expansion of both in the next books.

Most of all, this was such a fun read. In my head it almost read like a movie, it was so easy to picture and there was a great balance of action and politics. I’m looking forward to the next two books! And mad that I’ll have to wait so long for them 😂.

I will definitely be getting a hardcopy when it comes out! And I hope some of you will now add this to your TBR 🙂