For example: Teraeth, Terindel, Therin, Tyentso, Kelindel, and Kelinos, just to name a few. Not only the unconventional storytelling makes it very easy to lose focus on who’s who or what, many of the characters-and believe me, there are a lot of names to remember-have multiple nicknames, and also similar-sounding names. There are also a lot of footnotes added by another character, because everything you read about Kihrin-in both timelines-was actually done in written format by this character. These chapters are told in a see-saw method, consecutively switching back and forth with each chapter progression in the first person (Kihrin’s narration) and third person (Talon’s narration) perspectives. Then, the second and third timelines-where the majority of the book takes place in-deal with Kihrin’s past.

First is the present timeline in which Kihrin is in jail telling his story to Talon. This means there are three main timeframes to follow. Kihrin’s narration doesn’t begin from his actual beginning but halfway through his journey the first half of Kihrin’s story is instead being narrated by his jailor-Talon. Now, here’s where it immediately started to get complicated. The main story revolves around Kihrin, who in the present timeline is in jail retelling all the events that have happened to him which eventually led to his capture. The Ruin of Kings is Jenn Lyon’s debut and it’s the first out of five books in A Chorus of Dragons series. “A hero who has never had a bad thing happen to him isn’t a hero-he’s just spoiled.”

I’m one of those readers who had their interest for this book sparked by that bold claim, and I jumped at the chance of reading and reviewing it early expecting it to be a debut that will go down into my ‘best of all time’ lists. I’ll be completely honest here, if any publisher or author decides to put all of these giant, super high profile fantasy authors’ references into a debut work by an unknown author, it seriously better be a masterpiece.

Martin, Robin Hobb, Joe Abercrombie, Brent Weeks, Brandon Sanderson, and Patrick Rothfuss”. This novel has been advertised as the debut of the year that’s targeted “For fans of George R. ARC provided by the publisher-Tor Books-in exchange for an honest review.Ĭonvoluted and complex are probably understatements, but I don’t have any other words to describe the main attributes of this debut.įor those of you who don’t know, The Ruin of Kings have been the fantasy debut that Tor has been promoting heavily for several months now.

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons