I don't know it there's something in the air but I was lucky to read the start of some exciting and brilliant fantasy series.
This book is one of them and I loved it as it's gripping and riveting.
Excellent world building, fascinating characters, good storytelling.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was a stunning debut, and was filled with elements of epic fantasy that I know and love, with new twists on tropes and classic themes. With a prosaic writing style, I feel in love with The Justice of Kings, and I’m intrigued to see where this story goes next!

Sir Konrad Vonvalt is an Emperor's Justice. That means he rides the length and breadth of an empire, bringing the promise of truth, and law, to a fractious and diverse populace. It means investigating murder, it means dabbling in dark powers, and sometimes, just sometimes, it means digging into the truth behind treason. Vonvalt is someone willing to serve the law, to dive into those depths, to follow a trail of evidence wherever it might lead, confident in himself, his team, and the primacy of the law.
Vonvalt isn't the voice we hear from here though; It's his clerk, Helena, looking back on events with an eye on future triumphs and tragedies, judging herself, her employer, and his associates, through the more jaded lens of history. The Justice of Kings is one part fantasy, one part political intrigue, one part murder investigaiton, and laced through with loss, tragedy, and shared humanity. It is, in sum, a wonderfully well crafted work, and one I want to recommend before diving into some of the detail.

The world that Vonvalt seeks to keep in order is an unstable one. An Empire slowly being bound together over generations, but still at the stage where those most recently conquered are quickly pressed into conquering their neighbours. It's a patchwork of people who, a few years before, were burning each other's cities to the ground, reaching out and finding the next people ot incorporate. An expansionist machine, with a human cost. And it's an engine of religious orthodoxy, cycling in existing religions and superstitions, and capturing them in its own insitutions, for its own ends. It's driving forward a single cutlure at the point of a sword, and calling it peace.

But it's also, well, peace. Inside the borders, trade goes forward, life goes on, and people don't seme to kill each other, well, not in large numbers, usually. Religions are absorbed, not destroyed, cultures synthesised rather than obliterated. Small comfort to the recently conquered, but they can have a bath and sometimes a functional sewage system for their trouble, and be fairly sure that nobody's going to steal their things at swordpoint. At least not without a trial.

In the end, the Empire is a fascinating, complex place, a world balanced on precarious politics and progressive but troubling policies. It carries shades of early Imperial Rome in its ancestry, and shades of Rome's successors in the possibility of its decline. Still, for now, the Empire stands tall - a scintillatingly imagined tapestry of a million lights. Or, perhaps more fittingly, a rich gumbo, each flavour something new.

And swimming in that gumbo are Vonvalt and his team. Helena we come to know well. Young, incisive, with a past that's less troubled and more horrific, she provides the lens through which we see the others. But her older self, looking back, is willing to probe at her own mistakes and victories, at the trail of decisions that leads forward into her now. Helena is passionate, thoughtful, perhaps unsure of herself and who dhe wants to be. Guarded, wrapped in her own emotional armour, and not quite sure how to extricate herself from it - but also able to look through clouds of smoke to the heart of a case, or see what must be done.

Then there's Bressinger, a veteran of the wars (well, aren't they all, in one way or another), Vonvalt's hard right arm and body-man. At first glance, someone living a long life of slow decline, an attack dog occasionally let off the chain - but Bressinger's loyalties, and history, are more complex than one might expect (though I shan't spoil them here).

And of course, Vonvalt. A man who, like Bressinger, survived occupation and went on to perpetuate it. A man with a keen sword arm and a keener mind. A man with a zealotry for the law, and the intelligence to exercise that law finely. A man given absolute power of life and death, the power to issue judgments in the Emperor's name - and the ability to use other, less savoury, less natural powers to make sure those judgments are correct. Vonvalt is cultured, clever, morose, difficult, and genuinely entertaining to read. All of their choices matter, but his, perhaps, are the most impactful - as he struggles to make the law work in a society which isn't always ready to accept it, or is in fact actively hostile to the idea of anything other than naked power backed by a blade. Vonvalt has drive, and focus and determination, and a certain flexibility within his bounds, but is perhaps ill placed to believe in any serious shifts to the social order.

In any event, they are all fascinating characters, and my simple summary does them a disservice; as readers, we gain a view on all their richly textured lives a the story progresses. But at least go in knowing that these, your cor eprotagonists, are not ciphers. if they are not always likable, then nor are people. if they are prone to sympathy and empathy, blind rage and revenge, that makes them all the more human, the more like us. They are the angels and demons on their own shoulders.

The story - well, I won't spoil it. But there's a murder investigation to dig your teeth into, one that is fair to the reader in what it reveals and when. perhaps you'll guess how things happenned before it comes onto the page, but perhaps not - I was always a few delighted steps behind the revelations. There's some cracking twists and turns there, enough to keep you intrigued. Then there's the dense, low fantasy politics, with knights on the march, and questions of canon law versus secular authority, and a sense of things fraying at the edges. Where we see the less-than-normal, it has a n impact; snd ewhere we do not, the politics are still dleightfully byzantine whilst also making clear the high stakes in the game. There's blood and death aplenty if that's your thing, breakneck chases, sweeping battles that end in blood and fire, and queit moments of reflection in the eye of the storm. The story, I think, sometimes wants to show us more than it has time for, but what it does give us is an excellent read.

That's a good note to end on actually: this is an excellent read, thoroughly enjoyable, and I suggest you give it a try.

i requested this wanting to explore something different to what i would usually read and it definitely did not disappoint. i loved this book so fricken much.

I was generously offered the chance to read an earc from The Justice of Kings, provided by Netgalley and Orbit books.
After receiving the book I remembered that I almost never start a new series before all the books have been published, because I don’t like having to wait for another year until I can read the next part.
Now I’ve finished The Justice of Kings I can say I’m happy that I already read it, but hating it at the same time. Because I really want to know what happens next!
The story about Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt and his team is being told from the point of view of Helena, Vonvalt his scribe. And the memoir type of narration gives us a perfect view on the happenings throughout the story.
What starts as a ‘simple’ murder investigation turns out to be an Empire on the verge of collapsing. One event leading to the next. It changes our main characters and the country itself.
It is so well written! After easying into the story in the first few chapters and getting to know the main characters, a bit of the country and history of it, the trouble starts. And throughout the book the feeling of foreboding grows and doesn’t leave. Being able to maintain that tension is a big accomplishment. It made me feel the story had put its claws in to me and didn’t let go until the end.
Was the story perfect? No, it wasn’t. There were a few parts that I had some questions about how or why. Or if the romance part could have been ‘more’ developed. Why then still give it 5 stars? Because for me a story doesn’t have to be ‘perfect’. If it grips me, holds me until the end and makes me want to read the rest and want to read it again in the future, I give it full marks.

While the characters we follow are untraditional, the supposed fantasy world feels disappointingly familiar.

The setup of this is great and different from anything I've read before. We follow Sir Konrad Vonvalt, an Emperor's Justice tasked with travelling the Empire to uphold the law in its remotest corners. His two companions are Dubine Bressinger, his bodyguard, and Helena Sedanka, his clerk and our point of view character. A much older Helena is telling us the story of Vonvalt and the impact he had on the Empire.

This book initially starts off as a mystery of sorts, with Vonvalt investigating the murder of a noblewoman. And that is interesting in and of itself; the investigation and the events preceding give us a good feeling for what kind of a man Vonvalt is: the law is everything to him, and while he is just, he is not cruel, and he is willing to let certain things slide. We also get plenty familiar with Helena, and quickly find out that, while she feels indebted to Vonvalt for rescuing her off the streets and giving her a job, she's not entirely sure that she wants to be a Justice. This conflicted feeling makes her sulky and belligerent sometimes, but since she's only nineteen it doesn't feel strange for her to act the way she does. She is clever, but not particularly strong when it comes to fighting, and it's refreshing to not have a main character that excels at all she does right off the bat.

The relationship between this trio is clearly deep, and fascinating to explore. There's an easy camaraderie among them, but there's also a deeper bond between Vonvalt and Helena that only gets explored a little bit. She sees a bit of a father figure in him, and he clearly has protective instincts towards her. Some of the scenes between them were very heart-warming, and I'm curious to see how this will develop in future books.

As our characters follow the thread of the murder mystery, they become embroiled in something much larger than that. If you like political machinations, you'll probably really enjoy this book, because there's plenty to be found, and I think the rest of the trilogy will focus a lot more on those aspects of the story than the ones related to Vonvalt's role as Justice.

I will say that I felt pretty confused by the world, and that feeling never really went away. The world is big, with plenty of colonized areas and different factions that have different interests, and even though I do feel the author tried to introduce the information gradually, I still found myself unable to form a solid image of the way the world works in my mind. I could never keep the different groups straight, or any of the countries, which made parts of this difficult to follow, especially towards the second half of the book. I did enjoy the writing style overall, and there were several instances where I felt the author had cleverly shown us something about the traditions of this world without telling us, and I really appreciated that.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of female characters in this book. Aside from Helena, there is only one other notable woman in the form of Justice August, and we don't spend much time with her. There is a moment in the story where August delivers a warning to Vonvalt. He ignores it because he didn't consider the situation dangerous enough. Later, someone else (a man) delivers a similar warning, and Vonvalt now seems to feel regret at having brushed off August due to thinking that her concern was born out of affection for him. But the man that he does listen to is also a friend of his, and yet his warning is apparently not considered an overreaction. Take from that what you will, but this, as well as the general treatment of female characters in this book, didn't always sit well with me.

I also wish the world had been less inspired by the Roman Empire. While reading, I looked up some of the words he uses that relate to the Empire, such as "margrave" (a medieval title for a commander assigned to defend part of the Roman Empire) or "reichskrieg" (wars fought by the Roman Empire as a whole against a common enemy). Even the way he described how other religions became part of the Empire's pantheon was reminiscent of Romanization. At this point I can't say whether this is intentional or not; maybe the author is planning something epic and we find out that the world in this book is actually our world. But based on just this book, all I can say is that I wanted something different and more unique than a copy of the Roman Empire with some minor tweaks.

This debut follows the story of the Emperor’s Justice, Sir Konrad Vonvalt, Helena his clerk and Dubine a swordsman. The trio are travelling through the towns of the Empire of the Wolf ensuring proper customs are being followed in line with the expectations of the Emperor. Justice Vonvalt is a much feared man, where people are both intrigued by the Justice, as well as terrified of what he can do. Vonvalt has magical abilities such as being able to use ‘the Voice’ which commands people to tell the truth. Under certain conditions he can also speak with the dead. He uses these to act as Judge when criminal activities happen in the towns.

The story begins very fast paced when they arrive in a town called Rill where people are following a banned faith. Claver, a priest, who has joined the trio is not happy with the judgement of Sir Vonvalt and leaves the town in anger. You can tell that it won’t be the last time you see the priest. They move on to the next town where the support the mayor in finding the person who murdered a Lord’s wife. The hell that ensues sends them back to Rill and the beginning of a difficult battle where no man is above the law.

This is an engaging, dark beginning to a new fantasy series. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have to say, I didn't manage to get through all of this book and I'm very sad about that – I’ve been seeing hyped up reviews for it since before Christmas and couldn’t wait to start reading it. And when I started, things were looking good. It had a slow, brooding start, and I liked the fact that it was Helena the clerk and not Sir Konrad Vonvalt the intimidating Justice that was narrating the story because it gave a different angle. I also liked the bits of world building I got to see early on, especially the familiarity of the empire’s religion incorporating and changing slightly the preexisting beliefs of conquered kingdoms, and the arcane magic possessed by all the Justices.

However, I soon grew tired of Helena as a narrator because she was so petulant and never focused on the events I wanted to follow as the reader – Helena herself notes the silliness of her youth, as she narrates the story from much further in the future, but for me that wasn’t enough of an excuse to put up with it. The unravelling of the mysteries also felt too slow, and overall it just felt like everyone was grey and miserable about everything all the time, with nothing interesting enough going on to justify that. As I often do when I DNF a book after giving it a decent percentage of reading, I skipped to the last couple of chapters to at least get some conclusion, and to be honest I didn’t feel like I missed much. Maybe this was just the wrong read at the wrong time, but I don’t think I’ll be revisit this, sadly. There are plenty of raving reviews, though, so do give the story a fair chance!

Thank you to Orbit and Nazia for giving me access to this wonderful novel!

The Justice of Kings is a fantastic, Elden-Ring style novel full of complexities, dark politics, and inspired by historical events. It’s a very good approach to taking inspiration from the politics of the Holy Roman Empire, and for me, the novel is good in many areas. Characters feel distinct from each other, thereby having their own agendas. I especially loved Vonvalt’s characterisation that was done by the narrator, who is a hot-headed young woman that wants to prove that she can do much more than law-keeping bureaucracy.

That being said, I would have wanted a glossary and a world map. It would have helped to reference some of the many numerous regions and sometimes the worldbuilding did go beyond and above. In parts, it helped to explain certain scenarios of prejudice, of corrupt characters, of corrupt clans hating the very idea of Vonvalt being the agent, or let’s say, part of the Emperor’s Voice. In other parts, sometimes it did refer to places that could have been mentioned in later parts of the story. Parts of the narrative explaining the backstory of Vonvalt could have been more in the climax rather than being so upfront. Foreshadowing would have been a better choice for some parts of the narrative. You can clearly see wherever Vonvalt goes, along with Helena and his companion, they clearly see the effects of war and corruption and while he upholds the Emperor’s Law, he begins to realise that being loyal to an empire that never considered him as a rightful citizen of their regime, despite the fact that he professed loyalty and killed his own countrymen for the Empire, it gave me very much Star Wars Vibes.

It is a slow-burn novel for me, as it took quite some time for me to get engrossed due to the various political factions that exist within this sprawling. It felt more like Matthew Ward’s Legacy trilogy in a sense, and I think the novel was packing a lot of content that could have been expanded further. There is a very deep story here that is set for multiple sequels of that I am confident. The writing is very good, and the characters are the strongest aspect of this novel. The Dark-Souls and Elden Ring style influences are present, along with the historical fantasy links. This is quite a good novel, and I would want a glossary and a world map. This novel has amazing writing, deep political intrigue and dark fantasy. Worth reading for sure.

Justice is coming, after all.

And it will involve the fall of empires and the rise of heroes and villains. That's what this novel is about.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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I really enjoyed The Justice of Kings. There's a lot to like: the magic system, storytelling, plot twists and compelling characters all wrapped in an amazingly rich setting.

Although I had my doubts in the beginning of the story, I quickly grew accustomed to and even became more immersed in the story every time Helena's POV came up. Her character provides a different insight into those of Vonvalt and Bressinger. All three main characters are really well developed in fact and their dynamics are richly portrayed.

Despite having simple prose rather than something overly flowery, this story's setting is detailed and a lot of time is dedicated to exploring the cultures and belief systems in it. Moral dilemmas and questions crop up often and are handled really well while giving more depth to our main characters.

Overall, this is a fantastic read and one of my favorites this year. I'm excited for the next one!

Rating: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Richard Swan’s The Justice of Kings is the first volume of an epic fantasy trilogy set in the Sovan Empire, a Middle Ages type fantasy empire. It is a story with multiple religions, complex main characters, a unique magic system, and tons of political intrigue that all play a key role in the plot. We are introduced to one of our main point of view characters, called Helena Sedanka. A nineteen-year-old orphan waif who Vonvalt rescues and sees in her a possible future Justice, or perhaps more. Helena is training to be an imperial clerk to our other main character Imperial Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt, and his companion Dubine Bressinger. Helena documents their trials and gives us a unique insight and perspective throughout the story, this insight especially from someone young and innocent gives a story depth and richness. Sir Konrad Vonvalt is among the most fabled of the justices. His legend includes being a great swordsman with a history of battles. Konrad examines heresy, murder, disappearances, corruption, treason, and the eternal battle of good vs. evil. However, by giving us Helena’s POV we find out some useful details, that Justice Vonvalt doesn’t always consider important, it works really well.

The narrative pace gradually builds and takes time to slowly develop and it's definitely worth it. There are some great dynamics between Helena, Vonvalt and Bressinger. This book has some really interesting themes; the study of morality, the rule of authority between religion and the law. Just how far you are willing to go to uphold personal and moral values, human nature and greed.

The prose is really easy to read and there is a richness to both the world and the characters. While it is a large world with a lot of complex political issues it feels very much like the story of Vonvalt, Helena and Bressinger and their relationships with each other and interactions with those around them. Utterly brilliant and already my favourite book of 2022!

The Justice of Kings was one of my anticipated reads of 2022 and so I was extremely grateful to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an eARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I enjoyed the mystery element to this book. I really appreciate when a book seamlessly blends together genres, and does it well, which I thought this book did. I was heavily invested in the story, the worldbuilding, and the characters. There was just so much intrigue, especially political intrigue, which is something I adore in fantasy, that made me fly through this book as quick as I did. With the core of this book being centred around a murder mystery, the pacing was just what I look for in a fantasy - fast enough that the plot progresses but not so fast that you're unable to take in what has been happening.

The fact this story was told in a narration style was very appealing to me. I liked the unique way in which we were shown events as they unfolded. However, that being said, I found the character whose perspective we see through – Helena – was not as interesting as the character who, by all definitions, was the main character of this story – Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt.

While I'm used to flowery, lyrical writing in my fantasy books, I really appreciated the basic way in which this was written - which is not a bad thing at all - because it allowed a world full of rich history and complex characters to be easily digested, and is the type of book I would recommend to people who are just starting out to read adult fantasy, in particular.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the romance. I found it quite contrived and unnecessary to the story. Despite this book being an ‘adult’ fantasy, the romance was very reminiscent of a YA fantasy (not that there’s anything wrong with that at all, but it wasn’t what I was personally expecting from this book.) There did seem to be an element of insta-love in there.

Overall, I think this was a solid fantasy debut. It was disappointing to me but I appreciated the elements included and would be interested in reading the sequel.

First, thanks to Netgalley and Orbit for the review copy.

So...well... this is awkward... The Justice of Kings was one of my most anticipated releases of this year, especially after seeing so many of my friends giving this 5 stars, which made me hella excited, but the truth at last is that I'm pretty dissapointed (and that makes so damn sad).

Let's just start with what I liked. Obviously the fact that the main theme is the law. Most of the moral debates I really enjoyed and the application of common law on itself I loved. And also because of this Vonvalt was the most interesting part of the book. The main focus on the story in this first one is a murder mystery, we also get some sneak peaks at what seems to be a good chunk of political intrigue but it not really explored in this one (something which I look forward to in the next books of the series). Furthermore I'm really looking forward to explore the world in general.

The memoir type of narration is one of my weak spots, I love it most of the times.

Also the goriness at the end, huge fan of that. Though i wouldn't call this grimdark it definitely has some dark fantasy undertones.

Now, for what I activaly disliked.... Why is Helena treated as a teeanger when she is 19? Like there is a huge diference between a 15 year old and a 19 year old. This leads me to the most unnecessary love story I've read in a long time. It came out of nowhere. Really, I'm someone who really doesn't like romance in general, but this one was terrible, at least have your characters spend sometime with eachother before they say they are in love. (honestly it made no sense, I even thought I missed a chapter). I'm happy that it didn't took over the entire book but it was still prominent enough at some parts.

The other thing that bother me a lot was that one character (keeping it spoiler free) had her mind severed from her body. And the MC just referred to her like a "mindless simpleton" wtf. Also, they decided to treat her like she was dead cause you know... simpleton. There were many ways to described that in a less ableist way.

In an overall summary The Justice of Kings left me pretty cold, also adding that my expectations were really high so now it is a major disappointment. Still, I will read the next books in a series because is a debut novel and with some fixes it can become a great series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Orbit for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

The Justice of Kings is exactly the kind of law based, epic character driven fantasy that I need in 2022. This is a world of morally grey characters preaching and trying to practise justice, clashing with a religion that was once only seen as a nuisance and the ambitions of lords. The highlight- and what made this story so different to others in the genre- is that the main POV is not the character mentioned in the synopsis, Sir Konrad Vonvalt but actually his clerk and justice in training, Helena. Using her as a main perspective allows for a greater view of the world that Richard Swan has built: here is a girl from the streets who is being trained, a little unwillingly, to dispense justice on people across the country. It isn't a life she wants or one she'd even choose for herself, but she finds herself staying with Vonvalt (and his companion Bressinger) out of loyalty and a desire to be something greater. Seeing her gradual realisation that the man she sees as her teacher and the living embodiment of justice is actually just a man was weaved together with her own story of trying to determine what she wants for herself.

Helena's perspective and character growth aside (she is writing this story as an old woman), I loved the mystery aspect of this book which starts out with the small town murder of a prominent woman and leads into the corrupt behaviours of rich men and religion across the entire country, aided (unintentionally) by the brash and arrogant actions of Vonvalt. These are characters with a deep history and morals, all of which are challenged throughout the 600 pages, and the ending especially speaks of greater things to come in the future. Richard Swan has written a thrilling mystery, with a fascinating magical and religious system, alongside characters who preach one message and act another. I'm so glad I read this book and I'm eager for the next two in the series!

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan was an amazing read. The work is well written and deep. The author managed to weave a a fantasy tale that has been littered with legal references that I found to be fascinating and completely relevant to the real world.

The novels main hero is Sir Konrad Vonvalt an Emperor of Justice (a sheriff) who is surprisingly kind, understanding and lenient in some regards. The entire story is told from his clerks point of view as they traverse towns. It is a unique point of view but I found it fascinating nonetheless.

The overall mix of legality with fantasy was what pulled me into this book and the universe that the author created. It was raw and real and utterly wonderful to read. The author did a wonderful job of bridging the gaps between law, fantasy and adventure. The fight scenes were well executed and the discussions surrounding movements from ole to new religions was amazing and relevant to human history.

I truly enjoyed reading this book and cannot wait to see what else the author has to deliver! A compelling tale indeed.

Book: The Justice of Kings
Author: Richard Swan
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2022

Special thanks to Orbit for giving me access to an e-arc of this on Netgalley in return for an honest review.

tJoK is written from the perspective of Helena Sedanka, clerk to the renowned Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt. She speaks directly to the reader about events she witnessed & played a part in, which ultimately led to some future catastrophe within the Empire of the Wolf. The Empire has grown rapidly in the past century, largely under the guidance of the current emperor. It is something akin to the Holy Roman Empire, in that its subsumed constituent territories still maintain some level of autonomous control. What they must all follow, theoretically, is the Empire’s common law, a legal system which has heretofore been administered predominantly by roaming Justices, though permanent courthouses are popping up in larger settlements.

When we meet Konrad, Helena & Konrad’s other attaché Dubine, they’re travelling through an innocuous village called Rill. They discover that the inhabitants are still openly practising a banned religion. This would be a simple matter of Konrad accepting their renouncing of the religion & a fine being paid were it not for the 4th member of their group, a young priest who has been following them around & getting on their nerves due to his naive zealotry. He seemingly accepts Konrad’s judgment but leaves the group, who carry on their rounds until they come to a city wherein there has been a high profile murder. From there, events in the Empire start to filter into their awareness, & the semi-comfortable state of operating which the Order of Justices have worked in starts to seem far less so.

In my day job I manage the business support staff to a large legal team. It is no way near as glamorous as following Sir Konrad Vonvalt around as his clerk, but it does mean that in this book I found the closest thing in fantasy so far to my real life & I loved it.

A new epic fantasy book with murder and political intrigue.

The first 50% of the book you are learning about the world, the different players in this game. How it it all comes together and the perilous place the world is in. All from a novice learning her trade.

I was gripped after 50% and did not want to put the book down. A murder investigated, leading to the use of powers beyond our understanding. Speaking to the dead and the messages that can pass through. A circumstance where nothing is clear, except that this world is changing. But will it remain with the justice? Or will it return to the religious house? A read which looks at the institutions universally known and questioning the morals and justice of humankind. I couldn’t put the book down, the tense scenes led me to want to find out more. I laugh, I cried and I was blown away by this book.

Highly recommend this read, I can see this will be a large and vast fantasy series that I am excited to read more about.

The characters are fascinating, and to each their own story and background we have only just begun to understand.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for sharing with me the e-ARC.

You know that feeling when you move on the second you finish your current read to your next read and forget almost everything that you read? Well. It kind of happened to me with The Justice of Kings. Not that I haven’t enjoyed my read, not at all, but that’s why I’ve been struggling to write this review. It’s finally time, and I will try my best.

The story was about a Justice named Sir Konrad Vonvalt, whose job was many roles at once: a jury, a judge and executioner of the Empire. Sworn to uphold the Law in the Empire, the story started with Vonvalt and his fellow companions, his taskman and warrior veteran Dubine Bressinger, and his apprentice and clerk, Helena, traveling in the whole Empire and going to the small villages to ensure that the Law was respected everywhere, when they were suddenly asked in Galen’s Vale, a merchant town, to investigate the murder of a noble and business man’s wife.

“All may be judged by the law, so all may uphold it; but all those who uphold the law may not judge it.”

I had some troubles connecting to the characters at first, but that could be easily explained by the original and honestly amazing choice of narration. The book was written from Helena’s first-person POV even though the main character of her story was definitely Sir Konrad Vonvalt. It was therefore a bit difficult to connect to Vonvalt and Dubine at first because we had to learn about them from a 19 years old girl’s perspective. But slowly through my reading, I started to like these characters, and I really enjoyed the complex and touching relationships Helena had with each character.

“Justice if not vengeance, and vengeance is not justice. But the two often overlap. The state is as capable of vengeance as any individual, for what is the state if not the people that comprise it?”

The best part of the book was definitely the plot and the murder mystery. I had not read a lot of fantasy stories with murder mystery intrigue before but I thought it worked really well together. The plot was pretty fast-paced from the start, alternating between intrigue and world-building information. While the plot felt fast-paced, the book was actually full of world-building, which was really interesting. I was fascinated from the start by the lore of this book, and while the plot didn’t feel like it was an epic fantasy story, the world of this new series felt definitely huge, complex and full of old history. Which is my favorite kind of world-building. As for the plot, well it was so intriguing, that at times I couldn’t put the book down. A lot of chapters were finishing on a little cliffhanger which kept me going until I was falling asleep from exhaustion. My interest in the story wasn’t at its peak during the whole read, but I was definitely intrigued for the most part of the book.

“No one is above the law.”

Unfortunately, I lost interest in the plot toward the last 100 pages of the book and it took me a while to finish it. The writing was also average, not bad but not exceptional either, and you know how I love my writings: poetic, lyrical, slow and enchanting, and it wasn’t the case here. What also annoyed me during my read was the immature insta-love romance that occurred and everything related to that part which I had found completely unrealistic and childish.

But overall, The Justice of Kings was a strong debut fantasy read that I would recommend. I enjoyed my reading, the murder mystery was intriguing and the characters were complex and interesting. The book will be released next February 22th, so definitely keep an eye on this one!

3.5 stars !

"The justice of kings" it's a fantasy, but it feels like it's just a mystery, without any fantasy tropes. The pacing was a little too slow for me, with a murder investigation. I really tried to read it and finish it, but i couldn't. The story is told very interesting though, through a thrid party, Helena, which was a nice change from the usual story. But that's all i found interesting. Even if it's a fantasy, i feel it's not for me. A lot of politic motives and religion discussions, a lot of details thrown at you and you get confused.

I really want to like this book, but unfortunately, it wasn't for me. I was not interested in the characters, in the plot, or in the mystery. It was too slow for me to give it a bigger rating.

Richard Swan’s The Justice of Kings is the first book in his Empire of the Wolf Series. It focusses on the story of Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt, a detective and prosecutor in the Sovan Empire’s Imperial Magesterium.

The story is told through the eyes of his now aged clerk, Helena, as she recounts events that occurred as she struggles with her role as clerk. From the outset you realise that this is an ominous tale of an Empire imploding as Helena begins the retelling of her story with

“It is a strange thing to think that the end of the Empire of the Wolf, and all the death and destruction that came with it, traced its long roots back to the tiny and insignificant village of Rill”

Her account begins with the Justice dealing with a remote village who extensively practice a pagan religion instead of the edicts set down by the Sovan Empire. However, instead of dealing with the matter as one of his companions, Patria Bartholomew Claver, a zealous priest in the religious order of the Empire, believes that he should. Mainly burning the inhabitants of Rill and razing the village to the ground as an example, Vonvalt uses his experience to deem that the only recompense should be that the inhabitants of Rill should be fined if they denounce their faith and follow the statutes set down in Sovan Law.

This seemingly innocuous event has far greater consequences than is first imagined.

We then follow the Magister and his retinue, which includes Vanvalt’s right hand man, Bressinger and Helena, as they travel the land. Meting out the Emperors Justice. When they reach the town of Galen’s Vale, they are then asked the murder of a noblewoman.

Armed with his resolve and the powers of a Justice, the Emperor’s voice (which can command people to tell the truth) and the power of Necromancy (in which the Justice can talk to the newly dead), Vanvalt investigates the murder which leads the group into a tale of intrigue, both politically and criminally.

Now, I have to say that I found this book to be a grower. I cannot say that I was immediately enamoured from the first page and it took me a while for the story to sink its teeth into me.

There are a number of plots and subplots occurring throughout the book, which Richard Swan carefully introduces throughout this slow burn, and it is not until you are about a quarter of the way through the book that you realise the ramifications of the initial lines in the tale as not only do the team face a web of conspiracy in the murder, there are some really serious political complexities happening in the sidelines.

The characters themselves are well written and again I found that they grew on me rather than me becoming immediately invested.

Vonvalt himself is a character that you would think that I would immediately drawn to, as the story seemingly revolves around the stoic magister. He reminds me of a combination of Umberto Eco’s William of Baskerville in his cold analytical method of dealing with every situation. However, at times, he can display rashness of character when his emotions come to the fore and he will kill perpetrators of a crime immediatley, sometimes bloodily.

Helena herself is a character that lives in the shadow of the Magister and what she is to become. As the story is told from her point of view, sometime in the future, there are two representations of her. One as an inexperienced clerk, learning how to be a justice, dealing with her insecurities as she fits into this role and whether she actually wants to be in this role. In her other aspect, we get inklings that she may be a justice or that she may even be something else entirely.

The book is peppered with interesting side characters, such as Bressinger, who whilst being present in the book, is on the sidelines of the main relationship between Vonvalt and Helena, and will mediate between the two.

Patria Claver is another interesting character, and when we meet him initially, we see him as the toothless zealot, but as the layers of the story are peeled away, we begin to see the threat that he poses and what impact his actions have on the downfall of the Empire.

The tale itself is set in a world that is equally dark and steeped in mystery. It appears to be something resembling The Black Forest of Bavaria and incorporates many german/saxon vernaculars. I always find this kind of setting to be quite oppressive and there is this menacing feeling to the environment which permeates through the story.

The Justice of Kings is a slow burn of a story, that slowly eases its claws into you as the tale grows into something quite different from the one that you first expect, full of twists and turns that keeps you turning the pages until the end.