The Ruin of Kings

Kihrin was raised in the slums of Quur. As Kihrin, he is the golden-voiced son of a minstrel. But Kihrin is also the self-named Rook, a highly skilled thief capable of stealing just about anything. Upon a seemingly chance encounter with a powerful demon in the middle of the street, Kihrin discovers several truths about himself. He finds that he is a long-lost prince, that the necklace he wears around his neck is far more than a trinket left from his dead mother, and that he has a destiny more fantastic and more devasting than he could ever have imagined.

Jenn Lyon’s The Ruin of Kings is a powerful opening novel of a new epic fantasy series. The story is mostly told in two parts from Kihrin’s prison cell. Both trace the path of how he show more wound up in his present circumstances from alternating points of views, Kihrin’s and his jailer, Talon. Lyons skillfully keeps both narratives moving along while defining a rich, diverse and truly epic world. A world filled with gods, demons, sorcerers and everything in between. The characters are more than simply good and evil. There are complex motivations on both sides. Lyons slowly spills out information on their actions that keep you continually evaluating which side of the ledger the many well-developed characters belong on. Questions of morality and balancing the greater good abound. The novel depends as much on the compelling mystery as it does the action to propel the story along.

There are similarities to Patrick Rothfus’s Kingkiller Chronicles in terms of narrative structure, but the story is very much it's own. Lyon’s has constructed a book that is a complete chapter but in a world that feels like it has a lot of story left in it.

The audiobook is narrated by Vikas Adam, Soneela Nankani and Feodor Chin. Together they do a fantastic job at elevating the story. Given the many mysteries that the characters in the story conceal, it is a delicate job of conveying their personalities while also maintaining the uncertainty of whether the characters can truly be trusted. The story involves intricate, intersecting plots, alternating narratives and a large cast of characters. Adam, Nankani and Chin never leave you confused as to what is going on or who is speaking. At least not any more uncertain than the author intends you to be.

This is an outstanding debut and a welcome beginning to an epic new fantasy series. The audio version complements the storytelling and even at more than 25 hours, never lags. Highly recommended.

I received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher. show less

What if you weren't the hero?

As a bard’s apprentice, Kihrin grew up with tales of legendary deeds. He also steals, desperate to buy a way out of Quur’s slums. Then he raids the wrong house, he’s marked by a demon and life will never be the same again.

Kihrin’s plight brings him to the attention of royalty, who claim him as the lost son of their immoral prince. But far from living the dream, Kihrin’s at the mercy of his new family’s ruthless ambitions. However, escaping his jewelled cage just makes matters worse. Kihrin is horrified to learn he’s at the centre of an ancient prophecy. And every side – from gods and demons to dragons and mages – want him as their pawn. Those old stories lied about many things too, show more especially the myth that the hero always wins.

Then again, maybe Kihrin isn’t the hero, for he’s not destined to save the empire. He’s destined to destroy it.”

Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons was one wild ride! This first book in the series follows a Frankenstenian nested story format. Almost the entire story is a flashback, told by two people who recorded the telling. What we hold is mostly the transcription of that recording, presented by Thurvishar D'Lorus, who adds footnotes as he feels are necessary. We also get a third, present day, timeline, which is rejoined by the end of book, closing the nested format. Kihrin tells his story starting from when he was enslaved and sold in auction. Talon, his jailer, thinks Kihrin's story should begin further back, when he first ended up at House D'Mon. The shifting back and forth in time was a bit confusing at first. Each section is clearly labelled, and the narrators speak in different voices. Kihrin's parts are first person, and Talon speaks in third person. This was very helpful for keeping the timelines straight, and it gives two different views of Kihrin and his personality. Seeing these different perspectives was pretty neat. It was the time-jumping that was the confusing part.

This is a complex story, with brilliant world-building. It’s full of intrigue, action and introspection that spans millennia and involves gods, demons, and dragons! When I say intrigue, I mean a lot of intrigue. Honestly, it might even put GRR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire to shame. There are layers upon layers, which sometimes got confusing trying to keep things straight. I kinda feel like this entire book was prologue for the rest of the series and that's when the meat of the story will come out. I'm hoping future books keep a more linear timeline, while keeping the multiple perspectives. I'd really like a book that focuses more on Terindel and Teraeth. I liked Kihrin well enough, but these two were just fascinating. And the dragons!! We mostly interact with Sharanakal, nicknamed the Old Man. These dragons are massive. They are primal forces of nature, yet their origins are rather humble. From what I gathered, there are eight dragons, just as there are eight Immortals, deities tied to cosmic constants like luck, or death. I wanna see the other dragons!

Just don't get too attached to characters. Like the aforementioned A Song of Ice and Fire, characters are not guaranteed to stick around. The story reminded me more of Michael J Sullivan's Age of Myth series, though Quur itself, especially the Court of Gems, reminded me so much of the drow city Menzoberranzan, from RA Salvatore's Legend of Drizzt series, set in the world of Forgotten Realms.

I will certainly continue this series, it's wonderful in its own right, but I feel it didn't quite live up to the hype heaped upon it. I think the author certainly has the potential to reach the caliber of Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks, Patrick Rothfuss, and the other current heavy-hitters of fantasy, but Ruin of Kings itself isn't quite up there. Recommended if you enjoy fantasy, epic world-building, rich myth, and lots of intrigue. Oh yes, and DRAGONS!

Many thanks to Macmillan-Tor/ Forge and the author for providing a hardcopy in exchange for a fair and honest review. Reviewed for the JBN Book Review. show less

This one was a bit hard on the ticker. So much going on in terms of devices. Differing POVs, woven timelines, several unreliable narrators, characters that show up in one timeline that you haven't been introduced to only to get the backstory in another timeline. It was a wild ride, and I absolutely loved it. Amazing magic, thoughtful world-building, and characters you love and love to hate.

In terms of character-depth, I thought the characters were very well-rounded, but the method of the story's delivery didn't leave a lot of room to really dig into their depths. Room for improvement there.

Otherwise, if you like figuring things out, and don't need a strong linear story, this is definitely for you. And a huge plus for me? The editing show more in this book is FANTSTIC! show less

I picked this book up on a whim and am now anxious to finish the series! It was a bit outside of my normal reading material just because of the lack of romance and overt drama, so it didn't hold my undivided attention like some other books do and it take a bit longer than usual to get through. But every time I picked up the book I was blown away by how well written and how creative the plot was. Everything you could ask for was present, from a witty and sarcastic main character, to an dragons and necromancy. I loved they way that the story was told, as a recounting of events with footnotes and I especially appreciated that things weren't over explained. Sometimes in complex fantasy stories the narrative is overexplained to ensure that show more all readers understand each and every piece, but some things were left for the reader to infer in ruin of kings which I appreciated. Overall it was a very good book, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series! show less

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons
The Ruin of Kings is a debut fantasy novel by Jenn Lyons. It is the first in, what I understand is to be, a 5 books series titled A Chorus of Dragons. To date, I have only read the preview, so this review is based on that alone.
Since I have not read the book in it’s entirely, here is what the publisher has to say:
Kihrin is a bastard orphan who grew up on storybook tales of long-lost princes and grand quests. When he is claimed against his will as the long-lost son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds that being a long-lost prince isn't what the storybooks promised.

Far from living the dream, Kihrin finds himself practically a prisoner, at the mercy of his new family's power plays and ambitions. He also show more discovers that the storybooks have lied about a lot of other things things, too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, true love, and how the hero always wins.

Then again, maybe he’s not the hero, for Kihrin isn’t destined to save the empire.

He’s destined to destroy it . . .

What I liked most about the book is that I was drawn into the world immediately and became invested in the character right away. I felt sorry for Kihrin because he was in jail, even though I thought he brought some of his situation on himself, I wanted to know the whole story behind how he ended up in this situation.
The plot moved along nicely. Even though I only read the preview, I was able to get a sense of the world that allowed me to follow the story without any problems. I would think as the book progressed you would have more world building and character development. It worked for me and I actually prefer that authors don’t do a data dumb at the beginning.
The way the author told the story from the present looking back reminded me of The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. However, unlike Rothfuss, the author had two characters tell the story and the book jumped between three time lines, the present, and two pasts told from different POVs. This I found a little confusing and a couple of times had to reread a few pages to stay on track with each timeline. I thought this could have been handled better and took away a little from the book.
Overall, despite the one negative, I liked the story and want to read the book in its entirety. I would recommend this book to anyone you like epic fantasy.
I received my preview of The Ruin of Kings, via NetGalley, from the publisher. For more of my reviews, and author reviews, see my blog at www.thespineview.com. show less

YA-ish fantasy with a lot of slavery, including soul-slavery that makes defying any orders painful and even deadly if continued. I understand that a technique like having your snarky teen character say “my bad” and similar modern formulations is one way of indicating that they’re doing whatever slang is in their completely different fantasy world (this one has multiple gods that occasionally bring people back from the dead if they like them enough, and also the sun is going out because of god shenanigans), but it is a very difficult thing to pull off successfully and I didn’t think it was successful here. Also one of the narrators is a psychotic shapeshifter who eats her victims and gets their memories to substitute for third show more person omniscient, and she is a caricature who calls everyone, including the other narrator/person she’s torturing, dearie and darling, and that put me off too. Also also, the narrative starts with two different timelines; eventually it becomes clear that both star the same person, albeit under different names, but it’s never clear why they’re split (other than to give the psychotic shapeshifter something to narrate in tandem with the other one) and they then rejoin about 2/3 of the way through, so that was also unbalanced. show less

Loved this book. It is a long book, but it doesn't feel like it. I kept wanting to read just one more chapter... Also has some of the best use of footnotes in a novel since [b:Infinite Jest|6759|Infinite Jest|David Foster Wallace|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1446876799s/6759.jpg|3271542] and the [b:Thursday Next series|8247464|Thursday Next Series Characters in the Thursday Next Series, First Among Sequels, the Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, Bookworld|Books LLC|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348595443s/8247464.jpg|13095065].

There are a lot of characters and a lot of plot. Yet the end of the book is satisfying AND sets up the next novel. (I am so tired of books with cliffhanger and/or sudden endings.) It's been a while show more since i've enjoyed reading such an epic fantasy. In addition to a glossary, it has a pronunciation guide. I do hope that there will be maps and family trees in the next book. I read an ARC, so perhaps those were included in the final published version.

I cannot wait until more people have read it so that we can talk. In the meantime, i'll be reading Leigh Butler's read of it on Tor. show less