The Justice of Kings

I rarely give a 5-star review, but this book was magnificent. Expertly told from the first-person perspective (which I love) of a 19-year-old female orphan named Helena, it's a brilliant mashup of epic fantasy, murder mystery, and horror. This is the best fantasy novel I've read in quite some time. Though I'm reading the Kindle versions, I also purchased the hardcovers for my bookshelf-and I rarely buy hardcovers, which speaks to how much I loved this book.

The Justice of Kings feels like a breath of fresh air in the fantasy genre. While the story has all of the usual trappings one would expect in a medieval-like world, Richard Swan has a way of making it feel new and exciting. The focus on the law makes the story unique and I can't wait to read what happens next in the series.

An early renaissance world, investigations by a feared swordsman with the power to influence others through magic, and an unwieldy empire imposing its will on a collection of conquered people – The Justice of Kings has just about everything I love about The Witcher, but without the undercurrent of sexism that made the series difficult for me to connect with.In short, I loved this book. Legal systems and the application of justice can be incredibly slow and boring in reality, so any author wanting to capture your attention has to be able to translate that into something exciting, which Richard Swan does perfectly here. Vonvalt is a dry and calculating justice of the empire, but his flawed intelligence creates for a dynamic depiction of law enforcement that is never boring. He, along with his companions, are thrust right into the machinations of an uncaring political game, and from the pettiest of crimes to the grandest of mysteries, the character writing for them made everything believable, unnerving, humorous - whatever the plot needed most was delivered.One of my absolute favourite aspects was the necromancy. There’s a boring way to write necromancy, where someone mutters a few vaguely ominous sounding words and a skeleton pops up to no fanfare; and then there is the way Richard Swan writes it, being so spectacularly visceral that you can almost smell the peeling flesh and oozing pus as you’re transported to the afterlife and made to confront its uncomfortable truth. If you care at all for gripping depictions of what necromancy might actually look like when the curtains are peeled back, then this book is absolutely worth a read.The only major flaw of the book was one of my cardinal sins, that being that the narrative is told from the perspective of one of the characters who is now much older, and so it’s full of lines to the tune of “we didn’t know it then, but that was a super important thing that happened, which we would only fully realise later”. I hate it with a passion, partly because it tells me that the author has absolutely no faith in me as a reader to remember important details, but also because it often straight up spoils the very story its trying to tell, and all without a fixed purpose.In another book that might have soured me enough to turn my overall opinion, but thankfully the few instances where it happened didn’t bother me quite that much, and when I think back on my feelings towards The Justice of Kings, it is everything I loved that comes to the forefront of my mind. If anything I’ve mentioned here appeals to you, then consider this a strong recommendation.

So I heard about this book through an email from Orbit which said for fans of Brandon Sander and John Gwynne, being a major fan of both it immediately caught my attention.I was sceptical to start with, it didn't immediately pull me in within the first chapter as Brandon Sanderson and John Gwynne do. For me, the first couple of chapters are a little disjointed (particularly transition between chapter 1 and chapter 2) however I could see real potential for a plot that could be pretty good so I stuck with it. Best decision! By chapter 4 I found myself becoming more intrigued and unable to put the book down. The concerns I had with the flow of the first couple of chapters very quickly disappeared as it developed into a well written and immersive story. A strong debut which leaves me wanting to read more.

I had a very good feeling about this book, and it turned out to be correct. I absolutely loved it.I saw one review say the world was inspired by Eastern Europe, and I've been excited to read it ever since. We don't get much rep, and if we do it's rarely good or accurate.In The Justice of Kings I really liked the rep. I counted at least 9 Serbian names and one Croatian (we also give it in Serbia but it's a lot more common there), and who knows how many more Slavic names in general.The world wasn't entirely Eastern European though, it was more a mix of Slavic and German cultures (and a few others to a lesser degree), with some character names reflecting both.That part was kinda funny, because the tones of the names are different and don't exactly go together as well as a Slavic/Slavic or German/German name would, but it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book.I'm not going to describe the plot, because I think it's best when you go in as blind as possible, but what I will say is that most of it is essentially a road trip through different places, with some investigating and eventually a battle.The road trip parts weren't dull to me, because I was attached to the characters from the start. And the investigation leads to something bigger that I wasn't expecting.Now, the blurb will have you believe that the book is narrated by Konrad Vonvalt, which isn't the case. The choice of narrator was surprising to me, but it worked well with the story.There's insta love happening between some of the characters, but please don't let that discourage you from giving this story a try. It's only a small part of the plot.Also, the writing style? Amazing, especially for a debut book. I don't see how Richard Swan could get any better at it, he's already at the top. I'm excited for what he'll do with the next book(s).And the descriptions of women? Totally normal, not typical for male high fantasy authors which just makes me have even more respect for Mr. Swan. I've read so many awful descriptions of female characters over the years, so this was a breath of fresh air.Finally, the ending. I liked it, it wrapped things up while leaving enough material for the sequel if you choose to continue (which I obviously will). All the stars.