Scan barcode
A review by mishlist
The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons
2.0
The chapters flip back and forth between two periods of time - I have seen this work well in other novels but not when it happens every single chapter and when the momentum of each chapter means that as a reader you are veing thrown violently from one situation to the next - one moment in a brothel speaking with your friends, another you are witnessing a demon summoning; the next a war flashback, right in the action, then you're having a tense dinner with your toxic, dangerous family; you're running from a dragon and then finding out that your mum really isn't dead. From a pacing point of view it might work for some, because this story flies by - there's actions and machinations in every single chapter, you won't be the slightest bit bored - but its also really confusing because Lyons has created a very detailed world that is heavy on characters, myths, houses and heirarchy. If you're not paying attention, or reading too quickly, or still trying to adjust to the time switch, it's hard to get with the program and reorient yourself to the current group of characters - and then just as soon as you have, the chapter ends and you're back where you started. Or you spend half the book asking yourself who the heck is Doc/ Thruvishar/ Shelomon? Who is whose mortal enemy? Why is this other guy in cahoots with that other guy???
I could see how this paid off in the last chapters, when the two periods and perspectives converge on each other. It was very clever, and gave a full vast picture of everything leading up to the peak of conflict. This made it feel like the moments had weight, that the world really was going to end, because of everything we had (sort of) understood before.
This book had huge potential because it is creative and vast - so much world building, particularly interesting to layer magic and religion across the structure of three worlds/ dimensions: the living, the land of magic, and that of the dead. But also at times so suffocating because of how much Lyons tries to build in and explain.
Kihirin, the main character, suffers from an excess of tropes - he is the illegitimate son of one of the lords of the House of D'mon (still haven't wrapped my head around who and why exactly), has powers yet to be unlocked, possibly the boy destined within a prophecy, is allegedly very pretty, has a voice that enchants dragons etc. And while some of the other characters come with backgrounds and context attached, all too often I felt that someone was introduced to move the story along and then pushed off the pages, never to be seen again. The additional difficulty of this was that so many characters died, and then came back to life, or just straight up died and never came back, that it was not really worth the effort to care too much about any of them.
And the cast all had similar sounding names - Tana, Therin, Taena, Teraeth - or multiple names and past identities referenced in the same chapter.
And one final personal complaint - my Libby version puts all the footnotes in the end chapter, so I didn't get to really experience the exact commentary along the chapters, which honestly might have been for the better given how much is crammed in here.
I think this could have worked better split in 2, maybe ending when Kihirin decides how he will go after Gadrith and escapes Ynisthana, and beginning again when he lands back in the City.