Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan

21 reviews

seforana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bookaholic_in_wonderland's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol

godfrina's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"Vonvalt tended to deal with entirely alone, on account of my inexperience and relative youth. And as an impertinent young woman, I resented this."

The language used in this book carried the story telling so well. I will be reading the rest of the series and possibly more from this author for sure. The gore and violence is strong at times, as is expected in a story about justice, conflict and empires, but it fits the narrative.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Torture, Vomit, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Rape, and Sexual assault

fran's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Sexism, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

ta_jenks7's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

_qwert's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Racism

kingcrookback's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This took a bit to get into. It's is an interesting consideration of justice, morality, and power. As a lawyer, Swan is clearly invested in the exploration of these themes. The conceit of the story being told via the recollections of the protagonist in the distant future was an interesting choice in that it prompts curiosity as to what happens in this book that warrants keeping a record of it. But I found that sometimes that compulsion to keep reading was offset by wondering, "To what end?" Transcription and the recording of events is a running motif in the plot, but the fact that I kept getting distracted by what might be happening outside of the story - by what possible event, outside of the story we're actively following, prompted Helena to commit everything to paper - detracted from my engagement with the actual story. Even when I was engaged with the story, though, I found myself feeling somewhat detached from the main cast of characters, though that may just be an effect of the temporal distance of the older Helena's recollections.

I'll pick up the sequel because I'm curious as to where this all goes, but I'm not dying to find out.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Grief, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Child death, Rape, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping

blacksphinx's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Fatphobia, Torture, Xenophobia, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, and Colonisation

Minor: Child death, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

wishbea's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Starts out as a murder mystery, which quickly becomes an empire ending threat. Justice Konrad is a very mysterious character and as the story is told from the POV of his apprentice/clerk Helena as an older woman we get to see his character shift and what seems to be the start of a moral decline from an outside POV. Helena herself is very dull and a victim of insta-love unfortunately, she has no idea what she wants in life, her streetrat orphan background is barely relevant to her character, and for some reason older Helena stands by her insta-love as her "first true love". Sir Radomir develops into a wonderfully charismatic character by the end of the book and the climax makes for a compelling start to this trilogy. I will be reading the sequel and hoping for better characterisation for Helena.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

ohmage_resistance's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Rape, and Alcohol