Anji Kills A King is quite action packed; we spend most of the book wondering why, and by the end question if it was the right thing to do or not. Anji is cheeky and spirited while Hawk (the bounty hunter after Anji) is gruff and determined. A lot of the story is spent traveling between places with short chapter, and very fast pacing. I felt like it was a bit predictable.

Please note the book is rather gory and full of bodily fluids and it made it hard to read at times. I really wanted to know and understand the characters more in this story, and I wish they had been fleshed out more. However, it was still very well written and I, for the most part, really enjoyed it and appreciated the advanced copy!

I really wanted to like Anji Kills a King, but it is not a story for me. The story starts off incredibly fast paced, with the title mentioned King dead before the end of the first page. Unfortunately the story slows down after that and I started to lose interest in what was happening. While I enjoy morally grey and vaguely unpleasant characters, I just could not get interested in these characters. I do think that there is an audience for this book, it was simply not for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book enough to want to finish the book, but it wasn't amazing for me. I do think there is an audience for this book and I will be recommending it for the people that I think are a good fit for it.

I really enjoyed the beginning and the end, but the book really slowed down and I lost interest in the middle of the book.

I love the characters. Anji was spunky and fierce. The Hawk seemed ruthless, but you can tell it is in a protective, "this is for your own good" kind of way.

I also enjoyed how the book started after Anji had already killed a king and she was on the run. I thought that was different and creative.

This book was, honestly, a disappointment. There is also a matter of reader manipulation by the author, where he familiarizes us with the horse that accompanies Anji and The Hawk, gives the horse a name, and then kills it HORRIBLY in the next chapter. And just to ass insult to injury, the following chapter relates the tragic death of a cat from Anji's childhood. I'm curious what the point of that was.
There is a larger issue of Anji's annoying characteristics, which, in a better written fantasy novel, could have been forgiven. I found, however, for Anji Kills a King to be lacking in its worldbuilding.
I really have come to expect more from Tor.

Easy 4.5 stars! What a solid debut! Intriguing premise, fantastic character work, accessible writing style, timely social commentary, manageable length - there's nothing not to like here!

I love that readers are thrown right into the action from the start and then the story unravels as a somewhat backwards progression as more and more of the history and backstory is revealed about each of our primary characters. I didn't expect this book to be as character-driven as it was, but now that I've read it I really can't imagine it any other way. Journey stories are notoriously difficult to pull off, but the emphasis on the characters' growth and evolving dynamic made the occasionally slower pacing more palatable.

Leikam's writing style is a real treat and I'm already eager to see what he writes next. It's not simple or dumbed down, but is still written using language that feels comfortable and easy to take in. Combine that with an average length and you've got a great read for fantasy readers who are newer to the genre or are intimidated by 800 page monstrosities. It's nice to find something quick and easy to read that still has some substance.

I found this read super fun and I already can't wait to get my hands on the sequel. Leikam is definitely an author I'll be keeping my eye on moving forward.

Special thanks to Tor for sending me an advance copy!

The title of Evan Leikam’s new novel, Anji Kills a King, isn’t a spoiler. The king is dead by the end of the first paragraph. This story is all about what happens after Anji kills the king of her miserable, economically depressed, and religiously oppressed country. Who is going to change things for the better in the middle of a power vacuum? And is Anji going to survive being chased down by the deadliest bounty hunters in the nation?

Anji doesn’t get far from the capital before she is captured by the Hawk, an acerbic member of the Menagerie. There’s no one to rescue her. She wasn’t working with rebels against the king’s punishing rule. But when another member of the Menagerie finds Hawk and Anji, Hawk kills him rather than allow him to help escort Anji back for torture and execution. Hawk won’t turn Anji free, however. She is adamant that she needs the reward Anji will bring. Anji Kills a King swiftly transforms from thriller to journey and back to thriller as Anji and Hawk battle the elements, the other members of the Menagerie, and each other.

I almost gave up on this novel. The beginning was rough going for me due to a little too much telling and not quite enough showing. (There’s also a ludicrously labeled creature at one point in the novel.) This style of exposition makes it hard for me to really imagine the world Anji and the other characters inhabit; there are places where this book reads more like set dressing rather than lived-in worldbuilding. Hawk won me over. I stuck around to find out what she was really up to and I’m glad I did because the last third of the book introduced some interesting consequences for the murder Anji committed. With the king dead and no alternative to the hopelessly corrupt and oppressive institutions, things for ordinary people might be even worse than if the king were still alive.

Anji Kills a King is the first novel in a planned series. Based on how this book ended, I expect that the next books in the series are going to be an exciting tangle of politics and bloodshed with Anji in the middle. Will she try to make life better for the people being ground down by the current regime? Will she light out for the territories? Will there be more creatures with silly names? We’ll have to wait for the next installment to find out.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available for my review.

Relentlessly dark and dystopian, events in this book make things more and more difficult for Anji. The vast majority of the population is suffering under the hands of religious zealots and unprincipled government officials, and Anji is being hunted for the assassination of the king. Since this is the first book in an anticipated series, things might look up. Eventually.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the ARC!

3.75/5 stars

This was a well written, fun, interesting, and engaging story. It had all the makings of an amazing fantasy, but I can't say that it felt incredibly unique. But regardless, it was a lot of fun to read and I really did enjoy the story and the characters. I loved the concept of a group of bounty hunters in the persona of animals, employed by the government and make into folk heroes to the masses.....who are also just people that become twisted by power and begin to enjoy the pain they inflict. It was fascinating to read and watch develop, especially when entwined with the poignant commentary on corruption in power and religion.

But my favorite part was how Anji became an assassin and perpetrator of regicide - basically by accident. She is brash and stubborn and annoyingly unwilling to change or listen most of the book, but she's an interesting FMC that just sort of stumbles into the history books - I really enjoyed wondering what she would do next.

This is an amazing debut and while it wasn't perfect, you can bet I'll read whatever Leikam puts out next - every epic fantasy lover needs to check this out!

I love this cover, it's one of the more inventive covers I've seen in a long time, you can tell a lot of effort went into it. As far as the book goes, I think it was good, I just with there were a little more depth to the characters. I will also say the violent acts were more akin to a darker fantasy than the air that this one had.

3.5

A really good debut. Very easy to read fantasy story hitting lots of tropes, which isn't a bad thing. I felt like the characters were just a bit shallow and like I've seen other reviews say, the Hawks character arc seemed really out of place.
I am excited to see Anji take on a new role in life though and will check out the sequel!

So look. Anji Kills a King is basically a long, tortuous road trip with so much blood and other gross bodily fluids that it was tough for me to finish! Basically you've got Anji, who (yes) kills the tyrant king of her country and then goes on the lam. She's quickly picked up by a bounty hunter, the Hawk, and then the rest of the book is them on the road back to the capital where Anji is to be tortured and executed for her crime. And I'm not talking about an Immortals After Dark "Torture Island" road trip that, while tortuous, is also sexy. The Hawk takes a lot of time bringing Anji to the capital city, and the encounter a lot of different people on the roads who want to separate them so they can get the money for her capture themselves. We will eventually discover why Anji killed the king, why the Hawk is so single-minded about collecting the bounty, and what the consequences will be for both of them if Anji escapes, but it takes a lot of miles traveled, blood spilled, and black saliva spit to get there.

If you like fantasy road trips but wish there was less romance and lots more blood than LOTR, this is the book for you. This is the first in a series, but I don't know if my stomach is strong enough to continue, despite my interest in the continued plot (assuming Anji gets off the road)!

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the audiobook.

This is a quick read, especially for a fantasy book. Anji is on the run after killing the king and her sense of urgency propels the reader through the narrative. She is pursued by the Menagerie, a famous band of bounty hunters, but not all is as it seems. This book raises a lot of interesting questions about rebellions and their pitfalls. I found it a bit heavy handed at times and inconclusive at others, but there's a plot twist at the end that caught me by surprise and really added a lot of depth to the narrative.

Anji kills a king.... which may or may not have been the right decision. He's a tyrant, so it had to be right, right? She's on the run, with a large bounty on her head. She thinks she's in the clear until a mercenary soldier known as the Hawk finds her to bring her in. But the bounty is high, there are others after Anji (who may have been poisoned by the Hawk), and their adventure back to the palace is challenging on physical and emotional levels.

I loved the tone of this fantasy novel! It's quippy and adventurous, even as it touches on unfairness of empires and wealth distribution. The worldbuilding exists in the margins of the story - it's character driven so we learn a lot about the way the government functions through critical conversations between Anji and the Hawk. They discover they come from similar backgrounds, with the religious Order of Inheritance providing food in exchange for sermons (and indoctrination).

Anji is young still, and her actions are inexperienced, but we see the implications of this on page as she struggles to learn nuance in her highly charged political world. Even as she discovers the Hawk's goals and believes them to be on the same side, she learns that being against the king isn't the same as having the same goal.

CW: drug use and drug addiction to a fantasy drug are prevalent in the story.

My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this fantasy book that begins with a jolt, and never lets up, with surprises, twists, and lots of great world building and even better intriguing characters.

Fantasy books have a style, a way set down from on high, from the master of High Fantasy one could say. One meets a character, that character seems weak/poor/lost in the world. This character learns that they are capable of great things, the world is build, usually there is a bit of walking or riding, and other things happen. This book has no time for this. Few books start right from the first sentence, like this one. To quote Max von Sydow's character King Osric in the movie Conan the Barbarian: "What daring! What outrageousness! What insolence! What arrogance! I salute you.". This book goes for it, with ideas that are fresh and different, some not really covered in a fantasy setting, with characters that one really comes to care for. And is a heck of a lot of fun to read. Anji Kills a King is a debut novel by podcaster and writer by Evan Leikam and the title pretty well sums up what happens in the beginning, but one that goes to many, many dark places as the novel goes on.

The title is the spoiler so I am not ruining any plot here. Anji is a woman who has lost everything, including her freedom, working as a laundry woman for the King. A king who Anji dispatches with a letter opener. Anji escapes into the night with only a metal coin a remnant of her dead mother and a dagger from her murdered father. Anji makes her escape, but like most criminals has concentrated more on the crime, than the evasion. Anji needing money stops at a tavern, has too much to drink and is captured by Hawk, a member of the Menagerie. The Menagerie are a group of bounty hunter assassins, all with masks showing a particular animal, and part of the enforcement wing of a group of sun worshippers. Sun worshippers who have gained a lot of power in the realm. Hawk binds dark magic Anji to her, also informing Anji that Hawk has poisoned her, and an antidote must be given every 24 hours. Anji getting over her shock of capture is informed that her bounty is the highest bounty ever offered, and that a long torturous death is to be expected. However Hawk seems in no rush to turn in Anji, in fact doing her best to avoid, or eliminate others from taking her prize. A prize that is beginning to feel there is a lot more going on than she understands.

This is the kind of fantasy that I can really get behind. A plot that seems simple, but gets more complex and deeper as the book goes on. A world that gradually unfolds, one that is also much darker than one expects. The characters seem real, doing dumb things that make sense at the time, and having to deal with the consequences as they come. There are a lot of consequences. Add in drugs that make creatures super fast, super strong and demons. Political subterfuge, twists turns and a lot of wow we are really doing this. A really fun story, with a lot going on.

This is the start of a series, one that I think will be quite good, and one I am looking forward to. People wanting a little more caffeine in their fantasy will enjoy this, as will role players looking for fresh ideas and new ways to incorporate magic and how to get an adventure moving. I really can't wait for more books in this series.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for this arc!

4/5 stars

This was a really solid debut fantasy! This book begins with a bang as Anji is literally killing the king, and it truly doesn't stop from there. From being apprehended by the Hawk, one of the Menagerie of bounty hunters and assassins in this land, Anji is thrust into a very long and very painful journey (both physically and emotionally lol). I did find this to be a little bit predictable, but also not in the ways I was expecting or predicted from the beginning. A little tropey, but in a good way. Like I said, really solid debut novel and I'm looking forward to the next installment!

This was a great debut novel. This book immediately starts out with Anji killing a king and the story continues from there. This was a fast paced and captivating fantasy. I really liked Anji’s character and her development throughout the story. If you are looking for a high stakes fantasy, you may want to check this one out when it’s released on May 13.

Thank you to Tor Books for the gifted arc.

This was one of my highly anticipated reads for 2025, and it did not disappoint. From the very first page, I knew this would be a winner. What a stellar debut!

While Anji's country is falling into the hands of an evil religious cult, she is presented with an opportunity to kill the King she holds responsible for the death of her parents. She is no trained assassin but her story reveals a history and a destiny that will surprise and endear her to readers. Enter the fabled mercenaries of the Menagerie, especially the Hawk an aging swordswoman who is surly, perhaps due to the drug she is addicted to but who has her own reasons for keeping Anji alive and out of the hands of her fellow bounty hunters, if only long enough to collect the reward herself.
With the rest of the Menagerie hot on their trail an unlikely alliance begins and a race against death that will decide not only Anji's fate, and but that of a kingdom.

Simply put I loved this book and there is a " but " coming. While the story is engrossing, the characters well fleshed out and the world building immersive, the detail of the violent acts is excessive. It is clear early on that Anji's captors have no regard for her well being other then she be alive for the bounty yet every time she is mistreated or a fight breaks out (which is often yet enjoyable), much of the extreme maiming, wounding and bleeding, frequently to just this side of death was for me gratuitous.

Anji Kills a King wastes absolutely no time. With a title like that there’s no reason to beat around the bush, but Evan Leikam doesn’t even bother with setting the scene before we’re watching Anji coping with cleanup and escape. It’s bold, it’s striking, and it makes for a pulse-pounding introduction to the land of Yem, where all is very much not well.

The pace never really slackens from there. Anji goes from hunted to more hunted as the news spreads of her defiant act, and of the staggering bounty on her head. The country’s impoverished masses are desperate for the cash, the zealots of a growing new religion are eager for the glory, and the Menagerie, the most famous bounty hunters in the land, have as many reasons as members for wanting Anji caught.

The Menagerie are all on the spectrum between zealot and sadist, and their pursuit of Anji makes for a truly propulsive narrative. I read this book largely over the course of two days, thrilled to be pulled into such a relentless plot. The character work is also excellent: Anji and the Hawk, the bounty hunter who captures Anji first and has the most complex motivations for bringing her in, are quite the duo. Their mutual mistrust only feeds their mutual curiosity, and it was as exciting to get tidbits of insight into their tragic pasts as it was to see them encounter new dangers.

It’s a book driven as much by concepts as by characters, though. Don’t get me wrong, Anji and the Hawk are both very well drawn, and I appreciated the care and attention Leikam took in attending to both Anji’s traumas and her resilience. Despite her nightmares, her fury, and her anguish, Anji retains a fierce capacity to care, especially for animals. She also keeps her snark, and the combination of the two made her very easy to root for. I also appreciated the minor characters peopling the journey. Jared and Berip are a welcome source of joy, and even characters we never meet, like some of Anji’s friends in the castle, are interesting and enrich the world.

Overall, though, this book’s main curiosity is as much with the concept of regicide as it is with Anji’s particular crime. I think it’s a concept SFF has avoided for too long, and desperately needs to reckon with: what do desperate quests and singular heroes actually achieve? When the Dark Lord falls, what happens next?

The opener actually sets the tone quite well: the king doesn’t matter at all, only the consequences of his death. It’s such a welcome departure from fantasy tropes that make everything about the lead-up to the confrontation with a wicked ruler, whose death will automatically fix everything. Here, Anji and the Hawk get to reckon with the aftermath of political violence. There are few systems in place to replace the king—no leadership, no infrastructure, and therefore, just a power vacuum that’s ripe for a new despot.


Anji Kills a King is ultimately about the high cost of rebellions and the low value of despots. Tyrants are nothing without the infrastructure that supports them or the zealots who obey them. The willingness of ordinary people to commit horrors, or do nothing as others commit them, is the real focus of this book.

Leikam does a great job thinking through how rebellion—rather than assassination—functions and where it can succeed or fail. He also does a compelling job of describing the compromises and risks individuals take on, and how those contribute to overall systems failing. The depiction of religious fervor are particularly bleak, although I’m not sure the theology makes as much of an impact as it could have.

Full disclosure: I have a master’s in religious studies, so I am far more attentive and interested than your average reader. Now, with that said, I think Anji Kills a King could have done more to describe the religions at work in the world. One of those religions is in decline, presumably because it doesn’t really meet the needs of the people—it features a pantheon that’s quite literally absent. However, adherents seem to be nice, and focused mainly on feeding the hungry. It seems reasonable that a religion of simple kindness might not enough in a time of strife, but is that the case?

The new religion on the rise is also vague in both its tenets and its appeal. Leikam is definitely critiquing the intolerance and hypocrisy of religion in our world, but does so without enough specificity in Anji’s world. Literally every adherent of this religion seems horrible, so what’s the appeal? I think a deeper mythos or theology would have helped flesh out the world and the motivations of the antagonists.

Outside of my likely-just-personal questions about religion, there were also some slight discrepancies of tone. Early on, Anji gets wildly drunk while on the run, which is so boneheaded I was expecting the narrative to be a little lighter than it ended up being. Instead, if it’s not outright grimdark, it’s certainly in the neighborhood. Children face harm and death in several poignant scenes, and there’s no shortage of suffering for adult, either. Anji’s journey is one of exhaustion, emotional devastation, and near-starvation, all of it a reminder of the dire condition of the country.

Anji Kills a King stays messy and morally complex until the bitter end. I loved that there were no easy answers for interpersonal or international issues. I will say that the penultimate confrontation was a bit odd, so much so that even Anji herself questioned it. This fight would have solved a surprising number of problems—or could have, had there been more focus on it rather than on whether Anji would be delivered to the authorities. The final reveal also felt a little forced. It made the Hawk’s motivations murkier even as it cleared up a few final logistical questions. However, I think those issues are less important than the overall ending, which was very satisfying and still left room for more. Leikam’s willingness to let things be complicated, rather than uniformly grim or perfectly tied up in a bow, shows a nice confidence in the characters and the narrative.

I look forward to picking up the next book as soon as it’s available. But for now, Anji Kills a King will be published May 13, 2025.

Thank you for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I might be in the minority here but...

I feel really bad for this one because I was kindly gifted the e-arc for a review.
*minor spoilers ahead*

But I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the book once I set it down. It felt like such a drag to get through. In the first 30% there’s the inciting incident (which we don’t get a bunch of detail about) and then Anji is on the run…only to stop in a small town, get wasted and get captured by the Hawk.
I’m sorry but if she had planned to kill the king and worked her way to that point without any suspicion, it felt wrong for her to have been captured so easily...I get that you could read into it as she is flawed...blah blah but I just didn't believe it.

Additionally she talks big talk against the Hawk when we have little to no background on how she could possibly back up her claims of being able to beat the Hawk if given the chance…

It just felt unbelievable and I was bored of their constant bickering and the slow “travel.”

In the end, I just didn’t feel attached to either of them to continue on.