4.5 Stars Rounded up to 5

Right off the bat I loved the format this book has. The writing style is split between the ‘present’ time in the characters life - written in third person, and the ‘past’ time written in first. This takes the format of a first person narrator story format, however we have the twist that the same story is being told by two different narrators. This in and of itself seemed an interesting premise along with the author also chosing to add in annotations - which I am always a fan off, and together the world started to fill out quickly.

The Story opens with a note that makes it clear what we are about to read is a combination of events compiled by someone else - so we can assume there will be a fair bit of unreliable narration going on. Still. I liked it.

The reason I didn’t give this book a full 5 stars are probably petty at best. I found the dialogue could sometimes use modern slang or phrases which didn’t really fit in with the rest of the world and the story. It only happened a few times, but when it did it completely broke me out of the spell of the book.

I always enjoy the trope of prophecy and seeing how the author chooses to play the trope out. It is always enjoyable to see a clever and creative solution to a prophecy riddle, and I found this one lived up to that standard.

I really liked the way the author fed you the overall ‘systems’ of the world bit by bit. There were no info dumbs, mostly you are left to infer the correct meaning from dialogue and other examples in the book. Occasionally you would get a deeper explanation but I never felt like the info given was too much or felt out of context.

All in all I really enjoyed The Ruin of Kings and I can’t wait to get the next book and drive into it!

Sometimes it was difficult to follow who was who what with name changes and the convoluted family trees weren't helping (as it didn't seem to make much difference in terms of loyalty anyway). I was either reading too fast at some points or failed to pick up on the implied events/foreshadowing, but I felt there was a bit of Deus ex here and there. It was nicely balanced by an unexpected twist now and then. However, the world was fascinating, the characters believable and I look forward to the next one. There is a next one, right?

It was so hard to keep track of everyone's name and affiliations and relatives, but it was worth it. I don't understand some of Kihrin's decisions with all my heart, but he was a great character to follow, and the plot was intriguing even if it was very dense.

I like that this massive fantasy tome from debut author Jenn Lyons takes some stylistic risks, presenting much of its story as dual-timeline narratives interspersed with comments from a later narrator reviewing both accounts. But there's so much info-dumping early on, and so little justification for who is telling all this to whom and why. Even the bifurcated plot feels ultimately unmotivated, since there's never really any moment that would have been spoiled by a more straightforward chronology.

"Convoluted" seems like the best word for this novel, especially factoring in the massive cast and their frequent disguises via past lives, shape-shifting, memory-absorption, and body-swapping. It's hard keeping everything straight enough to actually care about any of the characters, and although I'd read other work by Lyons, I don't think I have it in me to stick with this particular series for its four forthcoming sequels.