This story demonstrates that values and ideals can only survive if people see a reason to believe in them.

I enjoyed this book a lot, but I didn’t really care for Helena as a POV character. I felt like she had very little motivation as far as carrying the plot, and was age-appropriate but in the most annoying way. Also, I have a bit of a hard time with fantasy settings that don’t have magic in them except for *one particular thing*, because that one thing starts to feel very convenient.

I've been wanting to read this book for some time and had high expectations for it. It's met and exceeded them. Now that book 3 is almost out it was a good time to begin the trilogy.

Loved the core mystery of the book, the horror elements, and the zoomed-in feeling that soaked in the atmosphere and made the violence very visceral and high stakes.

The characters were also fantastic and had interesting backstories that were quickly told and the pacing of the whole book was perfect, definitely wanted to keep reading and see what would happen next. Excited to read the rest of the trilogy very soon.

I received an eARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley...

I didn't know what to expect going in, but I was more than pleasantly surprised by what I got. It appeared to be an epic fantasy with swords and battles and such, and while it was that it was so much more as well...

A mystery/whodunit which could be an homage to Sherlock Holmes set in a medieval world with a very elaborate political world setting.

What's not to love?

Engaging and fun. A fantastic fantasy book that cemented my love for the genre. It was an excellent debut. I look forward to rereading for many years into the future. Highly recommend and cannot wait for more. I would gladly read 10 more books. This was immersive and ticked all my boxes. It had a great writing style and fantastic world building. Pick up a copy and you will not regret it.

3/5 Stars

I have some mixed feelings about this book. I found that I was intrigued by the concept of this book. However, I felt a little bored while reading and kept getting pulled out of the story and putting the book down. This is very much a me issue as I found it a little slow and didn't mesh with the writing. I will say there is very much an audience for this. I can absolutely see people loving this book, so I recommend if interested giving it a read.

This book was fine. When I read it I was not pleased with the way that the main character, and narrator, seemed to be a prop to tell the story of this brilliant man. The qualities, usually feminine, the main character had were exaggerated to the point of caricature. At points it was very hard to forget that this is a man writing a book, writing a female protagonist, telling her story about knowing a man.

Vonvalt is the emperor’s Justice. That means he was detective, judge, and executioner. He arrives with his companions to a town to investigate the murder of a noble woman and finds himself in the middle of a web of lies and political conspiracy.
Loved it. Such a great debut novel. Can’t wait to read the sequel.

There really is nothing better than a fantasy story that is heavy on the adventure and mischief!

This book has a really high rating on Goodreads and it's very easy to see why. There is a lot of character development and "table setting" that I believe sets the story up really well for the sequels to come.

If there was one thing I would have liked more of, it would have been actual magic and a more fleshed out magic system. I felt the story was lacking in that area, but again, this being the first novel in the series makes me believe that we will get a bit more of that in the future. Fingers crossed!

I admit, it took me far too long to read The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan. Fantasy is not a genre I can read often. Do I enjoy it? Absolutely, but I must pace myself, or I will mix up stories’ details. Was that imaginary religion in book A, or did book A feature the magical creature in the woods? That being said, I’ve been sitting on The Justice of Kings for over a year. I’ll be honest: At this point, I hesitate to try new fantasy authors. Often, I do not like how the female characters are portrayed, or I worry the language will be too strong. With The Justice of Kings, I have eaten my own words, as it is one of the best fantasy novels I have read in the recent past.

Is there language? Yes, but it is not on every page. I felt no need to skip every other word. The Justice of Kings reads like the first book of a series. Swan introduces his world and his characters flawlessly. Everything seems simple enough: Someone murdered a man’s wife, and Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt takes it on himself to investigate. With Dubine Bressinger and Helena Sedanka at his side, he works to solve the mystery…and uncovers much more as the story continues. The Justice of Kings starts slow but ends dramatically, and I loved every minute of it. Vonvalt, Bressinger, and Helena all change throughout the novel. Character development is important to me, and Swan does not disappoint.

Bravo. The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan was a fantastic debut. Sophisticated and thorough, Swan answers every question a reader might have about his world. He does so, however, without blatantly explaining anything. It is not as if you’re sitting in a classroom, listening to a lecture. Rather, you’re studying a sculpture. You look at it from one angle, and you think you have the entire picture, but then you approach it from a different angle and discover something new. I loved how the novel was from Helena’s view, looking back on her younger days…and I cannot wait to experience more of her story.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for giving me a copy of this book. I CANNOT believe that I took so long to read this. But I thought with the second book weeks away, now was the perfect time to finally get around to this story. And OH MY GOD, this was amazing. I honestly should have read this months and months ago.

The Justice of Kings is told from the perspective of Helena Sedanka- the clerk who was rescued from a life of poverty by Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt as she follows him and his sort of swordsman and hired protector, Dubine Bressinger. I will admit that going in to this story I was a bit surprised that it was told from a point of view different than the title had originally led me to believe. However, it was done brilliantly. I can't even imagine a world in which Vonvalt himself could have told it better. If I was being super critical, there are some times in the story when Helena drove me absolutely crazy. Bear in mind however that when she's talking about events as they are happening, she's only nineteen years old. So while the insta-love and the temper tantrums aren't enjoyable, they also aren't entirely out of the realm of possibility due to the age and the sort of sheltered nature and lifestyle of the narrator. It is also really refreshing to see how Helena herself is almost annoyed by her behavior in her younger years just as much as I was. She makes a couple offhand remarks and subtle jabs where she pokes fun at herself which makes her whiny behavior a bit more bearable.

The Justice of Kings is definitely a fantasy story, but it is also a bit of a murder mystery as well. Vonvalt, Helena, and Bressinger travel the country going town to town to listen to grievances and administer the justice of the Emperor as Vonvalt sees fit in accordance with the law. After a slightly hostile parting of ways with a religious fanatic, the three reach the next stop on their journey where they learn about the murder of a Lord's wife. From there, the trio must work to solve the crime while a larger conspiracy that could led to the downfall of the empire is simultaneously occurring and perhaps even connected. For the most part, I personally found the mystery element of this book to drag a bit at times, but I can definitely see the importance that this investigation played in the overall outcome of the story. I think I am just being super picky because I LOVED the ending so much and I wish that we could have spent more time on the political and military aspects of the story. It was definitely a great ending and set up for what I hope to be an even better second book in this trilogy.

I would absolutely recommend this book and I can't wait to get my hands on The Tyranny of Faith next month!

The Justice of Kings is the *best* fantasy I've read in a long time. It's epic, filled with political intrigue, cutting tension, and moral dilemmas.. And it does all of this in such an elegant and beautifully vivid way that lingers long after the final page is turned.

4 stars

Wow, this was such an interesting read. I honestly can't wait to see how the story and world develops in the next book.

One of my favorite reads of 2022. The story pulled me in and I enjoyed how the telling is a recounting by one of the characters later in her life. I enjoyed the moral struggles that the characters went through during the story and I look forward to seeing how they further develop through the series.

What a great book, and awesome story! I really enjoyed getting into the world that Richard Swan has created. This book was very difficult to put down (hard to stop reading at the end of the chapter as you want to find out what happens next). Swan's writing is excelling and he really makes his world/story come alive. Looking forward to reading the next book in this series. It will be at the top of my To Read pile as soon as it comes out!


Thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing a copy for me to review.

Ah I absolutely love when a book completely wrecks my heart and soul, that’s what I look for whenever a pick up a new book.

The absolute hold that this book had over me, especially the last half, it felt impossible to put down. I had to know what was going to happen next, I was constantly left on the edge of my seat, well bed since that’s where I read. I spent a lot of time physically talking to this book, a lot of “no please” or “your lying, tell me your lying” “no not him why, why would you do this to me” and my favorite ” I swear Mr Swan I will be very angry with you if you kill him”. Which of course promptly left me a crying mess, because Mr Swan said “haha screw you Alyssa I will destroy your heart” He has since told me that The Tyranny of Faith, book 2, will “wreck my ass” so I am looking forward to that. Now I do have to say not all the moments I was crying where tears of sadness, there was a moment of pure happy tears, Swan got me good, and I have never been so happy, though I do fear for the direction of this characters story, I hadn’t realized how much they meant to me.

This is one of the few books where I genuinely loved every character (well not Claver, or Westenholtz screw them guys) but the main cast, Helena, Vonvalt, Bressinger, gah I just love them all for so many reasons. I loved the father like vibes both Vonvalt and Bressinger had with Helena, but then there was also the mentor/apprentice vibes they had with her too. But then Vonvalt was also Helena’s boss so there was that dynamic, and Bressinger had that co-worker vibe with Helena since he too was employed by Vonvalt. So many different kinds of dynamics was displayed between these three and it really helped bring them to life. The three of them just worked so well with each other. Even though the story is a recounting from Helena’s own mouth Swan managed to give depth to the other characters through Helena’s recounting. I even enjoyed how Swan touched on Helena being confused about whether she was attracted to Vonvalt, and even possibly jealous at times. I felt he did a really good job with portraying Helena and her feelings. This book also has one of the few instances of “insta-love” where I didn’t get angry, because of how Helena herself presented it. (Also in case you care there is a jab at the “one bed trope” and I thought it was hilarious, because I hate that trope lol)

Helena was a great narrator for this story, she managed to give life to everyone around her. She also had moments of reminding us she was recounting the events that she was involved in. I loved how she would would take moments to speak directly to us and she even let us know the outcome of a certain character, which I’m grateful for not having to wait multiple books to know the final outcome of said character, although it did break my heart leave me a crying mess. She breathed life into the events and the world around her, while also expressing how depressing this world honestly sounds. It’s a struggle between a religious order and the Emperor’s order. One kind of religious construct was pushed out and another put in its place that not surprisingly sounds an awful lot like the one that was removed. I love plot lines that have a religious man that is definitely a fanatic and goes to insane lengths to get what he wants. Do I like them burning an entire town to the ground after they have been rightfully judged, no, but I have this desire to see Claver become more crazy and unhinged in his quest, I want and hope that he will, I love seeing people who think they are right just completely lose themselves. Just like how I’m getting to see Vonvalt’s descent into anger I want to see Claver’s descent into chaos and madness.

The Magic was one of my favorite elements. The minute Vonvalt used the Emperor’s Voice I was like “more, yes more please”. The way Swan described how the magic of the Emperor’s Voice worked made it truly horrifying if you were on the receiving end. But it was also how Vonvalt chose to utilize it, he didn’t rely on it and used it only when necessary (or when he was livid) and it made the feel of it more frightening, while also making you yearn for it more, he didn’t just sling it around like so many other books with magic. And the same can be said for his necromancy magic, the less the magic was used the more I yearned for it. The information we got on how the magic is dealt out to each Justice was intriguing and I hope we get to see more Justices in later installments who have a wide range of magic, I’m interested to see what Swan comes up with.

The Justice of Kings was a book that by 12% I knew was going to be a 5 star read for me, and I have this feeling the trilogy is going to be a favorite of mine once it’s complete. When I think about it, I have zero negative thoughts about this book, it was absolutely amazing from start to finish. I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes next.

Thank you Netgalley and Orbit for providing me with an arc, all opinions are my own.

This book is a really good start to this series. Richard Swan tells an
intriguing story of mystery, political struggles, and a world that we still have more to know about. His writing is very atmospheric, and the coldness and the dampness of the setting is very palpable. Moreover, his world building is slow and meticulous, and he gives info as required, which I really liked. I also especially love the aspects of the story in which law and law procedures are discussed, and paired with the mystery aspect of the book, it all produced a gripping narrative.

My only gripe with the book is that the narrative framing doesn’t really create full tension required for a scene. The book is told by a character looking into their past, and sometimes there was a lot of too much telling than showing that I found to dampen the book’s intrigue.

Overall, there is clearly more to come, and I am excited for the next book!

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This was a great story to fill that political fantasy itch I get every so often. The story was engaging although not wholly unique. The characters are what really makes the story as they are complex and flawed, which are my favorite kind. A great start to a new series.

This was a solid fantasy/historical fiction book. It had a very interesting plot, as well as cool characters. I’m glad their is a sequel coming out too!

This was a really well written and descriptive book, but for some reason, it didn't hold my attention. I actually picked it up several times, to read a chapter or two, then switch to something else. I think perhaps it's that the MC, though she was at the heart of events, wasn't the MC of the story, or that she was reliving her past/ recounting history, which she'd say something like 'little did I know what the next day would bring' something like that, so though there was a lot of action and plot movement, it felt a bit jilted to me, because of randomly getting pulled back into the narrator's present mind.

Overall, this took me months to read. I was only able to finish it when I finally borrowed the audiobook from the library for the last 20% or so.