The Justice of Kings is a triumph, a marvel that has placed courtrooms and wordplay as epic a battle as legions of men versus beasts ever were; with intrigue laced into every word of Helena’s tell-all tale of justice, and the lengths a single man will go to mete it out, the Justice of Kings is a tale above them all? When I say I enjoyed this book, it is the biggest understatement I’ve made this year.
richard swan
Review: The Justice of Kings (Empire of the Wolf #1) by Richard Swan
The Justice of Kings is the debut fantasy novel by Richard Swan and is a riveting mystery and political powerhouse of a book. I was given a pre-release copy of this to review from Orbit and it immediately shot up my TBR. I’m not quite sure what brought it to the top of my list, but boy was I glad read it. Now I have three months to talk about how good it is before it comes out!
I went in knowing very little about the story, only vaguely remembering the synopsis. And I was genuinely surprised along the way about the story and its scope.
The book follows the story of Konrad Vonvalt, an enforcer of the Empire’s laws, and his dispensing of Justice across the unruly nation. His protégé, Helena, is our main POV and the story is written by her far into the future. The style of writing is very similar to Farseer, an absolute favorite of mine, so that was a treat. Because of this style, we get plenty of ominous foreshadowing about the future of this world and its’ Empire.