Although I don’t know if the publisher was doing this series a service by marketing A Chorus of Dragons as the successor to those series. There’s definitely the sort of moral greyness many readers have come to expect from large fantasy series like A Song of Ice and Fire or The Kingkiller Chronicle. I loved so many of the characters, and I thought that most of them were given enough characterisation to feel human while not wasting space in the story with unnecessary scenes. There are several characters who identify as gay or bisexual which is a nice change for a fantasy of this calibre.

Often in epic fantasies it feels like women are sort of getting objectified but the sex mentioned here definitely sees the women as people even when they’re being used. There’s plenty of sex in this story, but I actually enjoyed how it was handled. Lyons also sets up why they’re there so they don’t feel out of place or take you out of the story. I haven’t read any fantasy book quite like this with footnotes before but they were excellent for the world building. Something I’m surprised I loved in this book were the footnotes. They eventually meet each other and the present before we hit the conclusion. His story is told in two parts, one in the distant past and one after he ran from the capital. The protagonist Kihrin is presently in jail. Moreover, she tells the story in a refreshing way. There are plenty of concepts you’ve seen elsewhere blended with things that are new and entirely unique to A Chorus of Dragons.

Lyons builds a vast, and exciting world to tell her story in. Nevertheless The Ruin of Kings is an amazing story that blends adult themes into a storytelling style that flows as well, if not better than most young adult novels I’ve read. Or perhaps that’s just because I mostly exist in spaces where young adult rules the sphere. This book is absolutely not getting the attention that it deserves. Uniting the worldbuilding of a Brandon Sanderson with the storytelling verve of a Patrick Rothfuss, debut author Jenn Lyons delivers an entirely new and captivating fantasy epic. Then again, maybe he’s not the hero, for Kihrin isn’t destined to save the empire. He also discovers that the storybooks have lied about a lot of other things things, too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, true love, and how the hero always wins. When he is claimed against his will as the long-lost son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds that being a long-lost prince isn't what the storybooks promised.įar from living the dream, Kihrin finds himself practically a prisoner, at the mercy of his new family's power plays and ambitions. Kihrin is a bastard orphan who grew up on storybook tales of long-lost princes and grand quests. Published by Tor Books on February 5, 2019Īlso in this series: The Name of All ThingsĪlso by this author: The Name of All Things

The ruin of kings review