mythical elements

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons – Book Review

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The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons – Book Cover

Exciting Opening with a Talking Dragon

Jenn Lyons’ book The Ruin of Kings begins with an exciting premise: we have a hero who isn’t going to save the world, but rather tear it apart like a kid with a piñata. At least, if the prophecies are to be believed. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; if we’re counting correctly, this won’t happen until about 2100 pages later. Assuming the next two volumes turn out to be similarly hefty bricks. (Yep, exactly that.)

You’ll notice from the very first pages that the story in The Ruin of Kings is densely woven, as is typical of high fantasy, with an incredibly detailed background world. Almost every page includes some integral piece of background information seamlessly integrated into the text. The story is teeming with gods, mages, demons, and dragons, but fortunately, Jenn Lyons’ writing doesn’t suffer from any excessive magical antics. Magic is barely used, and the author’s commendable restraint ensures that the result doesn’t come off as ridiculous.

Oh, and there’s a talking dragon too. Yes, those don’t always turn out well. Somehow, though, it doesn’t come across as a major issue here.

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The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang – Book – Review

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The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang - Book - Cover

China a few thousand years ahead in the future? In a military academy-style fantasy? Sort of. Mythical emperors, superhuman warlords, shamanism? Yes, in the second half of The Poppy War. In the first half, you’re at school. The characters are teenagers, so it’s young adult fantasy, but fortunately, it SEEMS to be of the better kind.

Rivalries, a jerk of a teacher, and rotten classmates, all checked, but nothing’s overdone. The focus is on training: martial arts, tactics, strategy, and the like. Love and sex at ZERO level. It’s not that R. F. Kuang is prudish, but both are completely absent, as if nobody had ever heard of them. The strongest emotion between characters is lukewarm friendship. So, those of romantic disposition will struggle with a strong sense of lack.

Some very cautious criticism of the system can also be observed from R. F. Kuang regarding present-day China: if you strive for excessive uniformity in everything, you give up a lot of useful things. In the case of The Poppy War, this useful thing is shamanism.

In the second half of the book, the tiny Mugen Federation (exerting strong Japanese influence) attacks the mighty Nikan (China) for the third time within a few decades. And R. F. Kuang’s story collapses in on itself. Numerous mythical creatures emerge, a bunch of shamans, lots of hysteria and sensitivity break out, and Kuang, who previously constantly alluded to every strategist’s grandfather, Sun Tzu, is unable to describe a military maneuver without it being childishly simple.

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