The Heron Kings by Eric Lewis – Review
Heron Kings starts out with potential in the first chapter, but ultimately went downhill from there. Our main character is Alessia, a sister at a convent temple in a land torn in half by war. There are two main factions, but their grip on their land is unsure, and towns fluctuate from one sides grip to the other, leaving the people unsure who to support (or purport to support) for safety. To make things worse, readers find out the conflict between the Argovani and the Bergovans has already dragged on for several years and there is no end in sight. Supplies are low, food is scares and the people are helpless.
Alessia’s convent temple is a sanctuary where wounded from any side may come for healing. However, the temple’s refusal to pick a side makes them a target, and after bandaging many wounded soldiers, mostly from the Argovani faction, a troop of Bergovans invade the temple and kill the men Alessia was trying to heal. Refusing to accept this brutality as inevitable. Alessia departs the temple to try and do something. And this is where the story breaks down.
Upon leaving the temple, with little food and bow she doesn’t know how to use, Alessia meets Ulnoth, a man who has lost everything but has a willingness to kill. Needless to say, this is the start of our merry band of rag-tag heroes who eventually style themselves the Heron Kings. Ulnoth and Alessia have the makings of interesting characters, but their impact is dulled by a full cast of supporting characters who I could not keep straight. I could barely keep track of what faction’s generals had what names. There isn’t enough substance to many of the supporting characters to keep the memorable. Ulnoth might be the character with the most interesting motives, and I don’t even like him that much (he seems to enjoy bloodshed entirely too much). Overall, an underwhelming book that started with some potential. 1.5 stars.

This book surprised im in a very good way. It was just my kind of a story. It shows us the world at war, but our protagonists aren't nobles or soldiers, but peasants, who don't agree to take sides and decide to form their own army of rebels who take revenge for wrongs done to them.

There is no shortage of violence in the book. It probably will put off some people but I didn't mind. It was a world at war, and deeds done there were apt for that kind of situation.

What I liked the most were characters. There's plenty of them we meet, and I wouldn't say any of them was a lawful good. Maybe Alessia (our main character) tried to be, but even she failed sometimes saitsfied that bad people got what they deserved. Other characters worth of attention were Ulnoth (a farmer who lost his family and now wants every soldier to pay for that), Corren (a deserter who couldn' take a violence done by soldiers) and many other side characters who also had great potential. But my personal favourite was Vinian, a spymistress called a Burned Bitch because of scars from fire. She wasn't one of the peasant's, but the loyal servant of one of the sides, yet she played a big role in the story and I'd be glad to know more of her.

I think the book was very good, but not without issues.

My first complaint is for technical detail that can be easily fixed: in my copy of book the spaces between paragraphs were too small and often I felt confused what was going on because I didn't catch that the scenery changed.

Also, I'd liked the book to be longer. I rarely complain that something is too short, but here we have characters with so much potential and not time to explore it. I'd like to see more interactions between protagonists and side characters, see how they bonded, because we can see they became close but the process of developing this friendship is kinda rushed.

And the last thing - the ending. It also felt rushed. As I said earlier - this book could be about a 100 pages longer to let us fully enjoy the setting, the plot and the characters.

Thank you Flame Tree Press for giving me an electronic copy via Netgalley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to enjoy this book, the premise was good and the book description caught my eye. I was frustrated with the stuttering and the characters uming and uhing a lot of times. I felt that the first part of the book was more of a backstory and the actual storyline started with part two. What kept me going through the book was Vinian's character and the action of the war.

I wanted to love The Heron Kings, let's get that out of the way from the get go.

The world Lewis has created is fascinating, from the dueling crowns at the top to the day-to-day struggles of the little guy at the bottom. It is easy to believe in Bergovny and Argovan, thanks to Lewis’ deep dive into the history of the struggle between the lands, and “boots on the ground” approach to POV characters.

Characters are not the problem with The Heron Kings, as we’re introduced to Alessia - a former novice turned physic/bandit, Ulnoth - a peasant farmer terribly wronged, Corren - our military tactician and Vinian - spy mistress, overall badass.

One absolute strength of the text is the flexibility of those characters and their moral alignments. It is not as easy to place Alessia into a lawful good category, when her arrows fly true and her moral compass is constantly being tested. Nor is it a simple matter to place Ulnoth into a chaotic role when he is a) one of our underdog protagonists and b) struggling to recover from severe trauma. His heart is in the right place, his mind however…

The way Lewis fleshes out their struggles and has the characters overcome, or even fail, at the obstacles in their paths is wholly believable and it is in these moments that the work shines. Giving his characters realistic struggles, temptations and leanings towards evil creates an interesting conflict within their POV chapters, allowing the reader to relate moreso to their struggles. Our heroes are cast in grayscale, and even the character one can most easily assign the designation of “Big Bad Evil Guy” even offers up a solid argument for his actions (even if his execution is gruesome).

Where the book lost me was in it’s lack of ultimate dedication to these excellent characters, their own plots weakened by the introduction of minor actors taking major plot points (example: a love story that could be altogether erased, or re-assigned to Alessia and the object of her affection). Backstories are brushed over, or shared as a last minute device to introduce a key player in the third act, minimizing their impact on the whole to the character they attempt to build out.

Vinian, for example, I felt deserved more exploration. A common-born spymistress trusted by a queen, respected by a general, and feared by her contemporaries. We, as readers, were given many hints as to her past, current aches and woes, yet when the backstory was finally revealed it seemed to hold little weight with the character’s current positioning within the world, as she herself brushed over the facts of her past. Yes - explanation as to how a common born woman rose to high positioning is justified and interesting, but give us more. How exactly did she become held in such high regard by a general and a fellow spymaster - beyond the obvious cast of her innate and trained skills? What, exactly, lead her to make the choices she did? Lean in to the relationships that set her on this path.

As with Vinian, we are also treated to a few abandoned plot-lines that I felt deserved more exploration. Mystery illnesses and unrequited lust - not that a medical diagnosis and a love scene are wholly necessary, but they would help to add a sense of completion to their respective character arcs.

On the whole, The Heron Kings is a fine entry into the greater grimdark lexicon. An interesting plot populated with engaging characters always makes for a solid read. Some tightening of arcs and voice is needed for this book to make the jump from Fine to Good, and deeper exploration of drives, desires and demands moving forward along the peninsula could take the book from Good to Great.

I look forward to reading more from the author, as his work has solid bones and he clearly puts deep thought and critical concern where it counts.

Besides, at the end of the day, who doesn’t love a good ‘rogue bandits versus the crown’ storyline?

3.5 star rating.

This review is going to be like coming home after a long vacation - very difficult to unpack.

I have some conflicting thoughts and feelings about the Heron Kings. Objectively, it's a well-written adult fantasy depicting the uprising of a peasant rebel army against the violent oppression of two political monarchs at war. Alessia is an ex-temple priestess horrified by the brutality of war who seeks to put her medical prowess to proper use regardless of political allegiances. Ulnoth is a grain farmer who has his world upended when his wife and daughter are slaughtered by reavers in the name of the rebel queen. Both are helpless and wandering in the war-torn remains of their former lives, seeking out a means of retribution by whatever ill=begotten means necessary.

When their paths align, the strength of their ambitions acts as the impetus for a powerful movement of rebel villagers to stand against the invasion of dual armies. Much of the book is centered around the culmination of various groups of oppressed commonfolk deciding to join the Heron Kings, as they call themselves, and the group entering the political arena and engaging in similar bloodshed for a seemingly higher purpose of ending the war.

The bones of the story in Heron Kings works much to its advantage. I found the premise unique, engaging, and was very rarely bored. Realistic battle scenes are peppered generously throughout the story and are probably equal in number to the scenes where there is downtime. The politics and culture of the world are expertly woven and give a level of cultural depth that many fantasy novels strive for and fail to provide. The focus of the plight of the common villagers, victims of heinous atrocities of war, rather than highlighting the royalty, was a refreshing narrative to explore.

My issues with how the story itself was conveyed relate to the choice to make the story very heavily dialogued. I feel like 80% of the book had to be dialogue, and a lot of it was political exposition that didn't make sense until the reader was acclimated to the plot. There was very little descriptive articulation of contextual scenery or characters. I barely had any inkling of an idea what these characters looked like or visually what was going on in scenes. It was hard for my mind's eye to get a grasp on the events as they unfolded because it was described so minimally. All of it was kind of up to the interpretation of the reader. There was also a tendency for there to be changes in POVs within the same chapter, with nothing to hint that there was a change except a paragraph break. Sometimes I would have to backtrack and figure out through context clues who was speaking and where we were in the story. But most of the time the characters sounded the same (except when some had thick accents which made me have to slow down and decipher what they were saying.) And because the focus was more on the politics of war rather than characterization, I really felt like most of the characters sounded the same. It almost felt like the story distanced the reader from the characters, focusing more on the group's actions as a political device rather than getting caught up in the individual traits that made them up. I probably couldn't tell you one discerning character trait that against one another. If this was the intention, then it makes sense because the focus is on a grander political scale but it's just not something that I personally resonated with.

It should also be said that there were some pretty gruesome scenes that could be triggering (including attempted and implied rape, torture, dismemberment). I typically am pretty resilient against these kinds of things, but there was one particular scene involving violence against a pregnant woman that will probably haunt me for a little bit. Squeamish readers should probably avoid.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Warnings: attempted rape, implied rape, violence, gore, language

Rating 4.5 stars: Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free arc in return for an honest review.

The Heron Kings is definitely a different type of book. It takes place during a war between the red and green. It’s bleak and vicious. There is no mercy nor is there any glossing over events. I really appreciated that. So many books seem to make things less than. Less fighting. Less swearing. Less pillaging. Less whatever. The Heron Kong’s explores it all. It truly feels like this is what a war would be; it’s very believable in that aspect. There were a few things that I didn’t love, but they were more minor. This book is told in the third person with multiple points of views. There aren’t any clear breaks, at least not in e-format, between characters/settings. It made things hard to follow at points. Luckily, names were given early with new chapters and passages, so you could figure out which part of the story you’re in. I also didn’t care for how some of the characters wanted others to be people they weren’t. I get this is fiction and fantasy. It’s not real, and even if it was, people want others to change all the time. But, before teaming up, certain characters made it very clear what they stood for. Yet, again and again, they would clash because of those beliefs. It just kind of annoyed me, like “you knew this about them before everything started. Get over it or split up.!” At least, that’s what I think in my head towards a few. However, it does lessen as the books go on. That’s why I said minor issues. Overall, I love the rawness of the book and the twist at the end. Great read.!!