Thanks, NetGalley and Publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
This was an amazing read! Awesome world-building, which feels a little sci-fi when it comes to the reality-shifting, great center characters - Elenai and Kyrkenall, whose communication with one another was something that made me re-read certain scenes few times in a row, epic adventure with really nice fight scenes along the way. A great story that has yet to reach its full potential in terms of the plot development, that was may be a step behind the action and character development, but this is book 1, so I can't wait to see what happens next.

The world setup was different from what I used to read so far so it was quiet refreshing.The characters also were so good, I loved the dynamic between the two main characters.The plot is centered around the sword of N’lahr, a fallen Altenerai who was the commander in the war. There is a prophecy that his sword will defeat the leader of the Naor.It's so interesting and captivating from the start till the end.There is action to keep your interest.

Honestly one of the best books I’ve read these past few years, and it was no wonder it got in my Top ’19 Books List. So much action, and intrigue, and suspense – not to mention the humor and the dialogues! Truly magnificent.

This first book in the Ring-Sworn series has everything a mature reader would appreciate. It makes your head spin and lock in place and your heart pumping – So. Many. Plot. Twists! The magic and the way it works is phenomenal. The world-building is seriously exquisite, and I enjoyed that little info about how it’s not a steady universe, but changes when energy storms occur. A world made up of shifting lands, where those storms I just mentioned altered more than mere landscapes – they altered reality itself.

But what really sells this story? The characters! First of all, I wanna warn you all – this is a book for mature readers. There are mentions of sex and other activities in here. Nothing too graphic in action, but even so, Kyrkenall in particular can be quite blunt about some of the human basic instincts. (and we love him for that) There is also LGBTQ representation in the book, and it comes so naturally, not just for the fun of it – let me fangirl again about Kyrkenall, the guy was soooo sweet even in his cynical ways when he talked to that married elder guy about the latter’s husband!

Kyrkenall, as you may have imagined, was a major favorite of mine. I just love sarcastic, cynical assholes who run their mouths and yet still try to save a world that is trying to bury them or worse. He was callous and at times caustic and blasphemous, but, considering his past, that only served to make him even more realistic – plus, he was hilarious! I shipped him with Elenai soooo hard – another favorite, although she was a bit slow to fully get why Kyrkenall was doing all that he did and way too much of a rule-follower. And let’s not forget the easy camaraderie between him and N’lahr – adorable, it made me cry!

By the way, I knew what Denaven thought was going on between Kyrkenall and Rialla was a misunderstanding! Priceless! Look at the mess he created, all because of a stupid assumption!

Another favorite pair – although not a romantic one – was Rylin and Varama. At first, I didn’t like Rylin. Thought he was just some extra, a pretty boy. But like Elenai, he proved to be so much more! If there was one person in this book that had the most growth, I’ll have to say it was Rylin! And Varama, don’t even get me started on her! Everyone was like “Oooh, Varama is so flighty and weird, and in her head all the time, she’s no danger” – but then the woman just ups and shows that not only does she know what’s happening in court around her, she’s also thinking five moves ahead of everyone else! That’s a Boss Bitch right there, and I bow to that woman and her brilliant mind!

All in all, this was a fantastic opening to a series. I sure hope to read of the adventures of the great Altenerai and their other friends. This was just a masterpiece and I can’t recommend it enough!

***I was given an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinion stated in this review is solely mine, and no compensation was given or taken to alter it.***

One thing I love in a book is good worldbuilding, and this one certainly has that. There's clearly a lot of thought put into the main characters and the world that they live in, which made the book even more engaging.
This is a must read for fantasy lovers, and I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.

The best thing about this book is the world-building, which the author has clearly put a great deal of care and thought into, at least for the central realm and its main characters. Especially in the beginning, it reminded me of Sherwood Smith’s wonderful Inda books with the sense of long-established institutions, complex relationships, and history. The opening sequence, with the discovery that a legendary sword is missing and a well-constructed forgery substituted in its place of honor, engaged me right away.

Gradually I became less enchanted with the story. Too many characters, especially the antagonists, did and said things that were ill-thought-out or downright incompetent. Denevan, who has risen to a position of power and authority as chief of the ultra-elite Alternen, has the emotional maturity of an adolescent, still nursing old petty jealousies. I much prefer villains on a more majestic scale, capable of greatness. Neither Denevan nor Mazakan, king of the invading Naor, fits the bill.

My favorite character was the brilliant, if somewhat distracted mage, Varama, who’s always a step ahead of everyone else but gets lost as other, less intelligent characters end up bashing their way through the violent climax. For me this was a major disappointment. Varama was akin to this world’s Sherlock Holmes, putting together otherwise-overlooked details to perceive patterns. I’m sure she would have come up with an elegant solution to Denevan’s power play and the invasion of the Naor. Speaking of the Naor, their only purpose in life seems to be to invade, pillage, and so forth, in order to make the central characters look noble. I never discerned any reason for their belligerence. In fact, it seemed at the opening that a mutually beneficial peace might lead to some interesting politics, jockeying for trade advantages and so forth. The only explanation seems to be because evil invaders (hint: “piles of skulls” = seriously nasty folks) are required for a big battle or three.

I wish the author had put as much thought into the causes of war and its creative resolution, and valuing science/intelligence over military prowess, as he did into the rest of the world-building. Such a rich world and array of characters might have served up a truly memorable story, but this one is only pretty good.

This is a definite must-read for fantasy lovers! I was drawn in from the first page and the action and intrigue never let up at all. This book has everything that appeals to me in a fantasy. I loved the plot, the characters, the world, all of it.

I will be impatiently waiting for the next book to see what happens next!

I was looking toward reading this book as I expected it to be epic with wonderful World buildings all together with lots of events and Great battles.
But here I am wondering what exactly had happened during that book beside lots of battles that were majority in it. It was definitely on the epic side when it comes to The style of writing. But rest was hidden behind lots of fights that would work much better with more plot going on.
Yet it had me intrigued what will happen in the next book and I hope There will be more plot/action besides fights

3.5☆
ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for a review. All of my opinions are my own, and are in no way affected by the exchange.

I was browsing Goodreads a while ago and saw one of my favorite authors, Mark Lawrence, review this book so I immediately requested an ARC of it. I really enjoyed this story. I did find the beginning
75 pages to be a little slow and it took me about that long to really get into the story but once I did, i was hooked. I tend to find High Fantasy names to be both difficult to pronounce as well as hard to wrap my brain around, but that's my own hangup. I liked the world once I got into the story and I enjoyed the characters even though I found the fact that they were new and untested to be shoved in my face the majority of the time. I like the dynamic between the two characters and the action sequences were well executed. The ending was satisfying but left an opening for the sequel.

This book had pretty much everything I love - a cast of characters that all have their own strengths and weaknesses and are all fun to read about; magic!; an innovative world setup that I haven't seen before; fight scenes on both small and large scales; and epic quests (or not so much as a quest as a fleeing from a recently discovered murdery conspiracy).

The first set of characters we are first introduced to are the Altenerai, an elite group of warriors tasked with protecting the realm. The story is set seven years after a peace treaty has been struck with a neighboring land, which followed an intense war. Many of the Altenerai died in the war or have gone missing while on other missions since then. Yet others have retired or left the service, so there are only a handful left to train new squires. One of my favorite things about this book was that at the beginning Elenai (one of the main characters) and the younger generations have just heard of these famed older Altenerai, and as the novel goes on we get to meet many of them. It is an interesting way to contrast how people get talked about and how others remember them with what they are actually like. Of course a lot of people's flaws aren't talked about when they are referred to as heroes, so I liked seeing those come out since it makes people more relatable and realistic.

I love the dynamic between the two main characters, Elenai and Kyrkenall. I haven't read Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker in a while, but their dynamic reminded me of Vasher and Vivenna from Warbreaker. At first Elenai is hesitant and unsure in her abilities, but as she travels with Kyrkenall she learns from him and is forced to develop her abilities with all the obstacles they encounter. Kyrkenall is sassy and crazy and dangerous and I like him a lot.

The world setup was very different than most I have seen before. In order to travel to different lands/kingdoms, you must travel across this odd borderland area that doesn't quite have a grounding in reality, and can undergo shifts where the entire reality/landscape around you can change. The main realms are large country-sized areas of 'reality' and within this borderland there are fragments/shards/slivers of land that are also grounded in reality. It's likened to crossing an ocean but obviously, it's much more treacherous. I really really like this concept! I hope it's explored more in the future novels. I will say I didn't really get a different feeling from the major realms other than the one we start in, and the land of the Naor, the enemies of the war (and with whom the peace treaty has been struck).

The plot is centered around the sword of N'lahr, a fallen Altenerai who was the commander in the war. There is a prophecy that his sword will defeat the leader of the Naor, the enemy that they were at war against. The sword is discovered to be a fake by Elenai's mentor, and Elenai and Krykenall are subsequently framed for murder and forced to flee the capital. They go in search of the real sword and are hunted along the way by those who don't want them to expose the fake sword and the true murderers. Pretty much my only complaint is that though the plot evolves into a much larger scale thing than just the discovery of the fake sword, I still thought it was lacking throughout the book. A lot happened, and there was a lot of fighting, but I still feel that the plot didn't advance very much.

Jones' writing style flows very well, and kept me reading through the whole day that I read this. I never wanted to stop! The chapters and points of view were well spaced to keep you on your toes while reading. The characters and world were well fleshed out for a first novel in a trilogy, and I can't wait to see the expansion of both in the next books.

Most of all, this was such a *fun* read. In my head it almost read like a movie, it was so easy to picture and there was a great balance of action and politics. I'm looking forward to the next two books! And mad that I'll have to wait so long for them 😂.

(This review will be posted on my blog, colourmeread.com on February 12th. For now I have posted a very brief review on Goodreads with a note that my full review will be up on the blog shortly. Thank you very much to St. Martin's Press for the eARC!)

If you like your action furious and your fantasy high this is a book you should seek out.. They have some similarities to Chronicles of Amber and The Three Musketeers and nod to Arthurian legend while maintaining its own originality and all of this makes for a great book! The two central characters, one a grizzled drunk and the other a new but promising recruit, foil each other beautifully.

Fight scenes dominate the book, so the plot could have used a little more attention. There's a lot of political scheming, so if you're into either of those things, this is the book for you!

4 out of 5 stars

My first ever serious book was The Count of Monte Cristo and ever since then - I have been obsessed with the works of Dumas. When I came upon this book - which the publisher compared to Nine Princes of Amber & the Three Musketeers - I just had to read it.

While the story itself is pretty good (you have your usual underestimated/untested MC), the world building is interesting, and the mystery is intriguing - I felt that overall the characters just felt shallow and two dimensional. I felt that more time was spent on writing fighting scenes than on developing characters. That being said - I did really enjoy the adventure, the ending was terrific and I will definitely pick up book 2.

So I really struggled with this one because the concept seemed So my style (it had The Three Musketeers cited in the synopsis as an influence and that's enough to sign me up).

I DNF'd this book around 58%, having skimmed a chapter and found myself just not caring enough to continue.

First of all, this book is very plot driven, and I tend to prefer books that are character driven, or at least have a Very strong voice and cast of characters, even while being technically driven by plot.

These characters never really felt anything other than 2D to me, and their reactions to things felt rather surface level. Their emotions aren't explored, despite the death and resurrection of important figures in their life surrounding the first half of the book.  I think part of their lack of depth had to do with the fact that their motivations and deep dark feelings aren't really discussed within their POV narrations, so every action just felt like an action without enough behind it to have me gripped.

Also, this leaves every relationship between characters feeling very surface level, as if they're just "around" each other. The narrator's first interaction with her companion begins with him saying something like "are you bewitching me" which would be KILLER if their dynamic evolved into something more interesting and dynamic, but they just felt like traveling companions.

There was an older man who was married to a man which I liked just as a bit of older LGBTQ fantasy rep because it's rare to see older men together, but he was killed off quickly.

The writing also felt a bit plain?? Which I think is another reason I DNF'd this despite being interested in the premise. It felt like quite a bit of showing rather than telling, and this made the plot (which could otherwise be interesting) feel like it dragged because it just wasn't told in a compelling way.  There was also a lot of telling things that didn't need to be told, like every day "and then this character walked from here to there" rather than just scene changing between them.

I honestly enjoyed the book enough to read half of it, and this review sounds rather harsh but that's because I was so so excited about this premise and just felt let down that it didn't meet my expectations!! I also know that these are personal reading preferences, so if you're someone who likes old-school plot-driven fantasy and doesn't mind straightforward writing then this could be a winner for you.

Great, could not put it down. Great characters, good plot, tempo kept it interesting and engaging. One of the best books I have read. Cannot wait for the next one.

For the Killing of Kings by Howard Andrew Jones. An intriguingly written book. The Heroes of the realm are old, lost or dead, and the magical sword missing. So when one Squire gets drawn into schemes that are way above her head, she get put upon the most unlikely of paths.

The book started off a bit slow but it slowly began to build into its own world. The narrators were a bit confusing but once you get into the book it sorts it’s self out. I think there was too many fight scenes and not enough storyline.

The publisher compared this book to the Nine Princes of Amber & the Three Musketeers. They do share many similarities, mainly in having heroic characters constantly fighting and cheating death, and the magic system here is somewhat reminiscent of Amber's shadow worlds. I suppose if you were a fan of those books, you'd very likely enjoy this as well.

There are several interesting characters, and lots of fighting scenes. I tend to skim those after around the thirty ninth sword slash, but I'm sure others will appreciate reading of every arrow shot.

I prefer the magic side of things, and I wasn't disappointed here. We got the usual low level trainee who learns and grows throughout the book, and levels up to a heroine. It was nicely done, well written, and while it's nothing new or special, I enjoyed the ride.

The first chapter or so was a bit slow - mostly old heroes celebrating and reminiscing on past victories, friends, and foes. It was a way of introducing us to certain past events, but it was a bit boring to read through. It picks up pace after that though.

Overall, I enjoyed the parts with the characters who were learning to find their places among the heroes they serve with, and reading about them becoming more powerful. There was also one extremely sharp female character that put me in mind of Sherlock Holmes in terms of brilliant deductions. Other than those parts, which were about fifty percent of the book, the rest was a bunch of fighting or interesting political scheming, or other stuff that didn't really hold my attention. It was interesting enough to warrant finishing, but I didn't feel it was that great. Again, it could be geared more towards fans of the aforementioned books. I feel they'd appreciate it a lot more.

I received a copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.