Sunday, July 16, 2017

The King's New Decree. King's Blood review

Okay, before I get started on the review proper, I'd like to take a moment to show off my new book case.


Glad to have a new space for my books.
Now that I got that out of the way, here's the review proper for


I was starting to learn a certain lesson from book one, King's Folly, that I learned further in this: don't read into the details for parallel real life objects. A culture that I thought may have represented Judaism turned out to be the furthest thing from it. Or have nothing at all to do with Jewish culture.
Another cool thing; this is the first book I've read that took place on the open sea. I never knew you could have so much dense story on open water! Not only that, there's a very good reason Jill Williamson has a sizable fanbase. She knows how to give a story, not simply string together a series of words and make it catchy.
Rather, it's as deep as the ocean. In a couple pages shy of 600 pages, it's still as dense as Stephen King's The Stand, it took me three and a half months of taking a breath after a dip then another dip. Especially when there's SO MANY characters to recall. Some were easier to remember. For a certain traitor to the Hadar House, I easily imagined him as looking like Hector from Westworld- bad boy persona with slick leather outfit. Plus, he gets the attention of ladies easily (as does Hector in Westworld's pilot). That's just one example. The number of characters (both alive and dead) now challenges that of Game of Thrones. Yep, shots fired!
So, cultures! Epic fantasy always has multiple cultures, and just when I was getting used to the Five Realms, a peculiar twist happens, then a more peculiar twist.
For a while, I was trying to figure out why the story is called King's *Blood*, don't worry, it gets revealed, and I think I know why the sequel series (or main series, I suppose) is called the Blood of Kings.
After the incredible battle scene that closes the story, I really want to get to next year for the last book, King's War.