The Ruin of Kings by Jenn LyonsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
ETA 3/1/2019: I borrowed a copy on two-week loan from the library (it must be in high demand if you can only have it two weeks at a time!) and will be finishing it ASAP! Changing this back to currently reading, switching edition, updating read dates... Full review to follow.
3/9/2019: Ok, I have finally finished. Spoilers ahead. I dropped a star because this was the most ridiculously convoluted family tree inbreeding catfight I have ever read. And unless this is going to be a series (please don't do that, I can't handle another 550 pages of these fucked up body-switching people - oh God there are going to be FIVE of these?! I'm out.) I did not get any satisfaction out of the ending. Not every story needs a happy ending, but I kind of feel robbed after listening to Kihrin obsess over who he is and how he's supposed to save the world and blah blah blah when instead he pretty much destroys everything. Great read, very dark and brooding, well-plotted, but confusing as all get-out (I have no idea who most of the names mentioned actually we're), and that ending!!!
Original review:
I received a free e-copy preview excerpt of this book from NetGalley for review purposes. It included the first 23 chapters (seemed like about half the book).
Ho-lee-crap. I was *not* expecting to love this as much as I did. I was expecting it to be your average adventure-fantasy, but there's a lot here to like. Kihrin is kind of a dumbass, but I was fascinated by his story. Getting to know the various characters was interesting, because they each had their own actual developed personality (unlike a lot of the newer stuff out there that sacrifices world-building and characterization for romance and a badly-written plot). The plot itself is pretty tangled up, and even though I'm pretty sure I got the first half of the book, I have no idea where it's really going. And for once, I liked that!!
There were two things that really took away from the book for me:
1. I HATED switching back and forth between Kihrin and Talon for each chapter.
2. Those footnotes! They were numerous, they didn't seem to be super helpful, and who the heck was speaking in them? It wasn't Talon, and presumably wasn't Kihrin - was it supposed to be the person writing everything down from the recording stone? Was it someone else? I'm hoping we get that later.
I am definitely placing this on my to-be-finished shelf (not that I have one) and will hopefully remember to pick up a copy when it's released so I can finish the damn thing! Setting Google alert now...
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