I enjoyed this a lot, a slight twist on the usual debut fantasy novel. Narrated by Helena Sedanka who is a young clerk to Konrad Vonvalt who is an “Emperor’s Justice”, empowered to deliver justice across the realm. The focus in this is both views of young Helena but also of Konrad, their interactions and reactions with the situation they find themselves in.
As part of their long circuit of the realm they come across a recent murder and decide to stay and ensure justice is delivered. So a kind of murder mystery but against a developing backdrop of something big that gradually unfolds and that will eventually change them all.
A lot of good balance here, very strong and relatable characters, an interesting justice system and conflict between justice, religion and the people. There is a degree of dark magic involved and at times the author does not pull his punches which does very much keep you on your toes.
This feels like the start of something very good.

I DNFed this book and because I wouldn't want to give an overtly negative review, I won't be posting a review on my blog.. The writing style and overall plot really wasn't for me.
It's written too dry & formal in a wat that I felt disconnected from the characters. Richard Swan doesn't give much description of the characters and their surroundings. This coupled with a lot of dialogue, made the book so to the point that I couldn't picture myself in this world. The frequent switching between 1st and 3rd person also made it frustrating to read and pulled me from the story. I felt the hand of the author in the way it was written that I was always reminded I was reading a book.
I also don’t really like detective/mystery stories so I wasn't immersed in the plot, namely solving a murder, making heretics renounce their faith and such. I did like the world and what I learned about other cultures and kingdoms and about the history of the Soven Empire. I feel the author put a lot of thought and care into the worldbuilding. I'm certain a lot of people will like this book but I'm not one of them. It just didn't allign with my reading taste.

A tenor de lo que se puede leer en reseñas y comentarios en las redes sociales todo indica que este puede terminar por ser uno de los libros del año. Con su salida en inglés prevista para febrero de 2022 y una traducción al castellano ya anunciada en Gamon para finales del mismo año, no pude sino acercarme a conocer lo que Richard Swan propone para lo que supone su debut en el mundo de la fantasía.

Como spoiler rápido de mi propia reseña ya adelanto que he salido bastante decepcionado de la propuesta. Pero vamos primero con un muy breve repaso a lo que podréis encontrar argumentalmente.

La historia sigue el periplo de Sir Konrad Vonvalt, un magistrado designado por el emperador del mundo donde se sitúa la historia para investigar y juzgar los casos que sucedan en los pueblos y ciudades que encuentre a su paso y, posteriormente, encargarse de ejecutar dichas sentencias. Durante uno de esos casos, además, empiezan a llegarle rumores de una conspiración para derrocar el imperio tal y como es conocido en ese momento. Esto le obligara a dividir sus fuerzas en dos frentes y poner todo en riesgo.

Esto viene a ser la sinopsis oficial resumida, la cual resultaba interesante a priori. Sin embargo, hay dos aspectos que ahí no se mencionan y que para mi gusto echan abajo la novela.

Por un lado, la novela al completo se cuenta desde el punto de vista de la secretaria que lo acompaña tanto a él y a un guardaespaldas. Ella es uno de los pocos personajes femeninos que aparecerán durante la historia y cuya aportación durante gran parte de la narración se basa en simplemente relatar lo que ella va viendo en cuanto al comportamiento de Vonvalt a la hora de interrogar sospechosos, entablar relaciones con los poderes de las poblaciones y el proceso de llevar a su fin los juicios y ejecuciones requeridas.

Existe la esperanza durante buena parte de la novela de que su punto de vista termine por ser clave en el devenir de los acontecimientos o que aporte algo más que dos o tres acciones anecdóticas, una trama romántica y descripción de manual de lo que va viendo. Lamentablemente no es así y enfocar el texto desde este punto de vista es una decisión que, para mi gusto, lastra la lectura una vez superados los capítulos iniciales de descubrimiento.

Por otro lado, uno de los componentes fantásticos más importantes de la novela son los poderes que atesora Vonvalt, el magistrado protagonista. Dos, principalmente. Por un lado, la nigromancia, la cual le permite establecer contacto con personajes ya fallecidos para intentar descubrir quién ha acabado con su vida o de qué fue testigo en vida. Algo bastante útil, por cierto, cuando quieres resolver casos criminales. Por otro, una especie de voz que obliga a quien recibe una pregunta por su parte a responder con toda la verdad y no poder mentir o irse por las ramas.

Vonvalt hace uso de estos poderes de manera muy aleatoria. En ocasiones los usa rápidamente y obtiene toda la información (ok) mientras que en otras parece olvidarse de ellos o, mejor aún, hay un momento donde dice que no lo va a usar para no cansar físicamente a quien recibiría la pregunta (?). Sinceramente, no me ha convencido el uso de estos poderes y por momentos me sacaba de quicio en cuanto a su uso ocasional.

Además de la obvia influencia de The Witcher (a muchos niveles) en este libro, hay una que a los lectores en castellano les va a sonar mucho: El Arcano y el Jilguero, de Ferran Varela. Viento The Justice of Kings y la inversión realizada, me hubiera gustado ver qué hubiera pasado si la novela de Varela hubiera caído en manos de Orbit. Una pena porque es una novela muy superior a la de Swan.

Supongo que si pasas por alto estos problemas que he tenido leyendo The Justice of Kings, la lectura pueda ser divertida. Para ser completamente sincero, leí la novela bastante rápido porque tenía curiosidad por ver cómo terminaba todo este embrollo y tiene buen ritmo. Es bastante autoconclusiva aunque está anunciada como trilogía y por ello tiene algunos cabos abiertos al final de donde tirar en la siguiente entrega. Una entrega a la que no tengo intención de acercarme salvo que alguien de confianza me la recomiende especialmente.

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan is fine, if you can tolerate the utter lack of diversity

Mistakes were made

A lot of people are going to really dig this book. A lot of people are going to find in this the exact sort of thing they read fantasy for, with all the character archetypes and plot twists and cool moments and fantasy worldbuilding they want to see in their stories. For me, however, there are several fundamentals that make up a good fantasy novel that are missing from this one, and I need to talk about them before I start talking about anything else:

I don't like fantasy books with "man" as the default gender, and The Justice of Kings is very. VERY. full of men. Men who are soldiers, men who are nobles, men as senior political figures, men as religious leaders, men who are fathers or sons (no living mothers here), men as villains and assassins. There are a few women, fewer still who wield any sort of power and aren't there to be mad, servants, or dead. One is an antagonist who plays one specific role and then is never seen again. Yes, the narrator and sort-of protagonist is a woman, but that doesn't excuse the rest of the representation. The most mentioned category of women in this book is "whore" - but, of course, there's no sex workers with names or dialogue (silly me for even bringing that up as an option!).
Related to 1: I do not like fantasy books which kill off their most interesting or powerful woman to further man pain: a technique known as "fridging". Guess what happens here. Yeah, sorry. Bonus negative points for "dead family" being the entire backstory of a second man as well.
I don't like fantasy books where everyone is cisgender and heterosexual with no mentioned exceptions. In The Justice of Kings, the concept of homosexuality is brought up once, to assure us that the main character is not a homosexual.
I don't like fantasy books where everyone is white. In The Justice of Kings, the existence of people of colour is brought up once, to explain to us that one of the main characters from a specific part of Fantasy Not!Europe is just a bit tanned, not actually a person of colour. As the setting here is very much "conservative backwater frontier of fantasy Not!Europe", I'm more inclined to let this one go from a worldbuilding perspective, because not many people choose to migrate to conservative backwaters. But it's still a choice and I'm still not into it.
I don't like fantasy books without disability representation, and, yay! The Justice of Kings has some on-page disability rep, and includes mobility aids! Sure, they're minor characters, but that means it's not a total wipeout, right?
So, uh, what can you do when you've got through a book like this, written on purpose in the year of our Zag 2022? If you're still here, either you're waiting for a comment section so you can explain to me how wrong my criteria are (sorry, we don't have one, but you can go collect a free block on Twitter if you like), or you're wondering why I'm bothering to talk about this book at all. So, let's talk about why I tolerated the above and came out still feeling somewhat entertained, I guess?

The Justice of Kings is, technically, the story of Helena Sedanka, an orphan from a conquered territory who is now a legal clerk to one of the Emperor's Justices, a sort of itinerant lawyer/judge/executioner. Helena's narration is told as a memoir, as she looks back on the events from the perspective of an old woman and occasionally gives ominous proclamations about how bad things are going to get, and significantly more charming proclamations about how dense her nineteen-year-old self is. Helena's account is dry, and it takes time for her to open up about herself or talk about the emotional state of other characters, and its through this style of narration that we get to know the real star of the show (and the front cover): Sir Konrad Vonvalt.

(Adri, you read a book with a protagonist called "Sir Konrad Vonvalt" and you were SURPRISED you got almost zero diversity? Yeah, look, I already said mistakes were made. I'll know better next time.)

Sir Konrad, as Emperor's Justice, is tasked with wandering around mainly in the frontiers of the Empire - in territories it often just finished conquering a couple of decades ago, in the "Reichskrieg" - and dispensing justice according to the Empire's Common Law system. With the weight of the emperor's authority, Vonvalt is empowered to hand down sentences from one penny fines up to and including death, with the only real oversight being his own conscience and his accountability to the Order of Justices. As part of his training, he has access to two magical arts, one which allows him to compel the truth from anyone he asks a question of, and one which allows him to speak to the dead, though both come with a high price tag. He's also a talented swordfighter. And handsome! At the point we first meet him, Vonvalt is portrayed as a fair and upstanding person, willing to overlook the letter of the law if he can dispense justice with a minimum of bloodshed. By the end of the book's events, he's done a lot more sword-waggling than fine-levying, and Helena's ominous older self makes it clear that that's the trajectory of things to come.

With its magistrate protagonist, The Justice of Kings wants to be taken seriously as a story of political upheaval through the lens of order and justice. My expectations when it comes to stories dealing with the rule of law are super high, particularly when it comes to administration of colonised places, but I think this story hits a lot of the right notes even if there's a lot more to be explored. There's a lot of showing how the law is inconsistently applied, particularly when it bumps up against the military strength of the church and local nobility, but we see less discussion of the enforcement of "Common Law" as a whole, and how that works in places recently acquired by an expansionist, assimilationist empire.

In particular, we never see Vonvalt or Helena really grapple with the implications of legal events of Rill, the first location in the book, where Vonvalt uncovers widespread "draedism" (i.e. religious heresy), and goes to great lengths to avoid having to record it as a serious crime, instead levying minor fines for villagers to "renounce" their heresy and avoiding any major charges towards the Lord and Lady who are clearly also involved in the old religion. It's transparently the right thing to do: the reader knows it, all the characters except the shitty Empire religious leader know it, and the village itself is reluctantly grateful for being given just enough room to back down without total capitulation. But it's a case of Vonvalt bending the law as far as it will go to ensure justice, and it gives rise to a lot of questions about just how fair and universal this Empire's common law is, and also how far Vonvalt really deserves the characterisation of "upstanding lawman guided by impartial justice and not by his own whims" at the start of the book, and calls into question how much he really changes over the course of events. Of course, we only have Helena's analysis that he has changed, and while her narration is dry and detached in a way that makes it feel trustworthy overall, there's also a strong sense that her judgement around Vonvalt isn't exactly... unbiased. If there are aspects of Vonvalt's behaviour that are being de-emphasised or glossed over in Helena's chronicle, that sets the series up for some interesting potential twists later, but for now that's just one potential direction in a series that's still, as of the end of this book, setting the scene.

Am I going to be back to see this play out? See points 1 - 5 above: that is to say, probably not. Life's too short to read annoying books, and while I see a ton of potential in The Justice of Kings, I just don't think anyone in 2022 writes about this many straight white dudes by accident, you know? I'm sad to have to let go of a series with such an unusual focus on law, but I'm sure there will be plenty more to pique my interest, and I won't have to play "mad, dead or unimportant" bingo with the handful of women in them.

Justice of Kings is a grim dark fantasy I wet into with zero expectations and it still ended up being mediocre. There was a point where I thought it could turn out amazing as the book had a lot of things I usually like including a murder mystery and political intrigue. But ultimately it failed in making me feel anything for any of the characters and had me skipping and skimming the pages just to finish it. I gave it 3 stars.

Incredibly well written, The Justice of Kings is a thrilling beginning to what promises to be an addictive epic fantasy trilogy that explores the lines between law, morality, and justice. Swan cleverly blends a murder mystery into empire defining politics, and this helps to keep a good pace in an otherwise ruminative novel.

So what is it about?
Sir Konrad Vonvalt is an Emperor's Justice- a travelling detective, judge, and executioner, whose power is only second to the Emperor himself. Armed with his sharp blade, a sharper wit, magic, retainers, and a strong belief that no man is above the law, Sir Konrad sets out to solve a noblewoman's murder in a small town, located at the edge of the empire. But dark secrets lurk beneath the surface, and they might just bring the empire crashing down, along with the common law that he holds dear.

While the blurb may lead you to think that the main character is Konrad. But while this is definitely his story in a way, the main character whose first-person POV we follow is his clerk, Helena Sedanka. If I'm being completely honest, I was not the biggest fan of this choice at the beginning, because it was so obvious that Vonvalt is the main character. It was he who was in the centre of this story and who had the agency to make choices. But Helena was able to add a much needed emotional component, and she herself is a feisty heroine.

All the main characters were very well fleshed out, with their personal histories adding depth to their character. But I did feel that emotional beats were not well handled as they could have been. While Helena's romance was necessary for the plot, it would have added more angst if it was not so completely plot serving.

While it's a fantasy, there's very little magic to the world except for the Justices' powers. The worldbuilding is a derivative of the medieval times and the tale itself is more political than magical. But there's promise and the the fantasy elements that were present made sense.

Overall, a very good novel!

Thanks to Netgalley for an E ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes you read a book and it drives you just a bit insane. Okay, maybe here we’re talking more than a little bit. Maybe we’re talking a lot. Maybe so much that, come February, I will be all but begging everyone I know to read this book.

I have totally normal feelings about it haha.

I mean, I feel so totally normal about it that I started this review, stopped when I realised I couldn’t put into words all the feelings, and then only came back to it two weeks later, to realise that I still can’t put it into words.

This could be interesting.

At its heart, The Justice of Kings is about a man, an idealist, who is confronted with the reality that not everyone holds those ideals in the same esteem that he does. And that those people are even actively working against them. This isn’t from his point of view, but from his apprentice’s (and, as such, I have some suspicions about how this will go by the end of the series). It’s probably one of the most compelling fantasies I’ve read recently, and it’s definitely one of the best by a new author I’ve tried.

This is, primarily, a character-driven novel, as the description above might suggest. Yes, of course, there are big events, world-changing events, but it’s about the characters first and foremost. None of what happens would happen without them. And they’re deeply compelling characters to read about. The narrator captures your attention first (partly because she’s telling it in the past and dropping hints as she goes along), but every other character is equally attention grabbing. To use a cliche, they jump off the page. They are fully-realised, the kind of character you just want to keep reading about. If I have one regret about reading this book, it’s that I read it so early I have a good 2-3 years minimum before I can find out how it all ends.

On the face of it, this seems to be a fantasy murder mystery, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about idealism and power and everything in between. It’s a fascinating journey watching how everything unravels in this book alone, and I cannot wait to see where it all leads to in the sequels. I have my suspicions, of course, but I’m sure I will be surprised by whatever it is that Richard Swan does (the ending of this book is testament to that).

In the end, I think it’s probably a vast understatement to say I loved this book. I am in awe of this book. I think anyone who says they are a fan of adult fantasy must read this book. I’m not sure anything much else I read this year will top this.

The Justice of Kings is the debut fantasy novel by Richard Swan, from his planned Empire of the Wolf trilogy.

Sir Konrad Volvalt is an Emperor’s Justice—a magister who travels from town to town hearing complaints, making judgements, and where applicable, delivering justice as executioner.

Like other Justices, Vonvalt has some special powers at his disposal, first and foremost being the Emperor’s Voice, with which he can compel people to speak their truth.

These powers are quite interesting—each Justice has different powers and it’s made clear that each will only possess one or two, three only in rare cases.

The Emperor’s Voice seems a bit obvious for a magister, but the limitations of the power, in particular the cost of using it, are well shown and restricts its use, so Vonvalt isn’t able to just go around compelling everyone to tell the truth.

Vonvalt is highlighted as the main character of this book, and it’s told in a first-person narrative. It’s not his narration though, but rather that of his 19-year-old clerk Helena.

I quite liked Helena, and I think she’s a more interesting choice of narrator than Vonvalt would be, and not just for the inclusion of key events that Vonvalt was not involved in. With Helena, we get to see the powers of an Emperor’s Justice from the point of view of an onlooker, showing us the scope of the power, and the feeling of awe at witnessing it.

I also didn’t much like Vonvalt, so I was pleased to find a fair portion of the narration ignored him in favour of other, more interesting characters.

The pacing was a bit slow for me, with a murder investigation at the centre of the story, but with other events pulling us away from the usual detective’s hunt for clues and questioning witnesses.

Overall, it was an interesting read with the Justice’s powers a definite highlight. Sadly though, that wasn’t enough me and I found it dragged a bit too much in too many places.

The Justice of Kings by @richardswanauthor ⚔️

Out February 24th with @orbitbooks_uk 🔥

This is fantasy at its absolute finest. The Justice of Kings is everything you want in a fantasy novel - it’s full of intrigue, new magic systems, complex religious tones and good old fashioned battle scenes.

I cannot put into words just how much I loved this book. I devoured it in a 24 hour period. The writing is evocative and engaging. The plot is new and full of twists that you won’t expect.

Helena, Vonvalt and Bressinger are our main trio. I love each of these characters. They bring into question the lawful good, chaotic good and neutral good debate in all the best ways. Sometimes morally grey, but always in the way of the law.

Religion plays a big part in this book, and drives the narrative in the most interesting ways. The division between religion and power is touched heavily upon, as well as the struggle for balance.

A true fantasy book at its heart, with influences from modern day tales - this is the best kind of debut novel. Unputdownable.

This book is the start of a series, and I cannot wait for the next one. I can’t praise this book enough, and I would highly recommend picking this up next month👏🏻

While I was initially not that excited about this book I have to say it exceeded all my expectations and offered a fresh spin on the adult fantasy genre.

The Justice of Kings follows Sir Konrad Vonvalt, the Emperor's Justice who is basically detective, judge and executioner all in one as he travels through the Empire to dish out justice. Justices have arcane powers they can use to solve crimes, by any means necessary. The book is narrated however by his young clerk, Helena Sedanka. The group also involves Dubine Bressinger, Sir Konrad's taskman. When they investigate a noblewoman's murder, they discover secrets which will shake the Empire's very foundations and change their lives forever.

Now this had the murder mystery vibes of Sherlock Holmes with the dark atmosphere of The Witcher series. The writing was quite straightforward but had a subtle humor which I enjoyed. Having the story told by Helena as she looks back on her adventures with Sir Konrad as an old woman was an intriguing narrative choice. By having Helena tell her story in hindsight, there were some reflections on the events and petitions to the reader. Normally, I would not have liked that but in this case, I really liked how the author employed that.

The narration also gave us the more relatable perspective of Helena and an outside view of Sir Konrad which made the narration very distinctive and the book itself that much more interesting. One of the highlights of the book was Helena's relationship to Sir Konrad. It is very complex and she views him, as she herself puts it, as a father, uncle, brother and husband all in one. Despite that, she is wary about becoming a Justice herself as she watches the toll it has on her mentor. Her conflict was very understandable and while she sometimes seemed naive, it made since given her age.

The main motif of the book was "No one is above the law" and the themes of justice, vengeance and what differentiates the two were prevalent throughout the book. The worldbuilding itself was interesting as well. In the Reichskrieg, the Empire of the Wolf has slowly conquered all the surrounding countries and forced its way of life on the people living there. That happened some years ago and Helena and Bressinger are actually from two of those countries.

If I had to criticize anything, I would say that the pacing was very slow at times and I had a hard time keeping track of all the different characters and institutions. A glossary would have been very helpful here.

All in all, The Justice of Kings was a brilliant beginning to the series and I gave it 5/5 stars.

Helena Sedanka is clerk to the travelling Justice Vonvalt, ranging the far wilds of the Empire bringing the emperor’s justice. But when they stop to investigate the mysterious death of a local lord’s wife, they will be forced to make choices that will change their view of the empire, and of themselves, forever.

This book is part epic fantasy prequel, part memoir, and part police procedural. It has an easy-to-read, accessible writing style and does an excellent job of slowly building the readers’ understanding of the world, the scale of the empire, and the political wheels that are turning around our protagonists.

Helena recounts the story from her own memories and the endless notes she took at the time, and often pauses to note how the actions would reflect and echo in the future, or how irritated she feels with the actions of her 19-year-old self. This memoir-esque style lends a gravitas to the book, and helps significantly with the pacing. It also puts a nice spin on the classic fantasy world that the book otherwise evokes.

Genre: Fantasy, epic fantasy, crime
Trigger Warnings: Fantasy violence, amputation, threat of rape
Would I recommend this? Yes
Would I read a sequel? Yes

I was lucky enough to get this ARC (advanced reader copy/review copy) from Orbit books through Netgalley and I requested it because I had heard a lot of hype from other select reviewers I follow about it. I didn’t know what to expect from it but like Mike Shackle (author of We Are The Dead/A Fool’s Hope by Gollancz), I kind of thought I’d get a Judge Dredd story but with swords instead of guns. How wrong I was. This is an intelligent story that is about the law, doggedness, finding out the turth and unsurprisingly, dishing out justice.

“No one is above the law.”

The first thing I should tell you about this book is that it is a retelling of the events through the eyes of another person. You see while we ‘follow’ Sir Konrad Vonvalt, we are listening to the words of Helena Sedanka, Konrad’s clerk-in-training. This is a unique way of telling the story but something that I really liked and wished more books would do. It makes this a first person retelling but a third person focus since the story is focusing primarily on Konrad and his fight against the unjust.

“One cannot uphold the law if one does not follow it. He who comes before the bench must do so with clean hands.”

The role of Sir Konrad Vonvalt is that of Justice. He is the prosecutor, the policeman and in most cases the judge, when dealing with those who have sought to break the law. He is second only to the Emperor of the land and for that reason carries a high level of authority with him. The problem is the world is changing and his authority is being challenged by anyone who thinks they can win. He is dogged and sometimes inhuman as he lets nothing stand in his way of getting to the truth but his personality is most definitely human as bursts of irritability, frustration or anger slip through. From the way Richard has written him you can almost feel the annoyance when things don’t go his way because most of the time he is trying to make the world a better place and you would want the same thing if you were there.

“The story of Sir Konrad Vonvalt, after all, is the story of the rise and fall of the Sovan Empire.”

His clerk, Helena Sedanka, has come from a poor background, herself trying to steal from him when she was younger but instead of finding herself punished, she was employed in his service. She is travelling with Sir Konrad, effectively training to be a Justice like him but whether she wants to become one is a question yet answered.

“The wise man arms himself with knowledge before a sword.”

Helena couldn’t be more opposite from her liege. As the protégé of the Justice you might think she would share the same viewpoints but she is very much her own unique person, displaying opinions that challenge the Justice and she occasionally breaks social norms to satisfy her own curiosity whether for personal or professional gain. She is a compliment to the Justice though and without her I doubt that he would have been so interesting to follow (There are some other characters that are involved in this story but I don’t want to reveal them here, leaving you more people to look forward to.)

“Power does things to a man’s mind. It unlocks his baser instincts which the process of civilisation has before occluded.”

Now, the worldbuilding in this book is limited and by that I mean that we don’t see sprawling cities or underground caverns. This is very much a story told in a world not so unlike ours a few hundred years ago however, it does enough to set the scene for the story. In fact, if this has moved away from the one town it focuses on I think the story would have lost its continuity and the high stakes would have falled a little. Do not fear though, the worldbuilding that is provided is more than enough to give you a visual for the events as they unfold and the fact that this is an Orbit published fantasy trilogy means that books two and three should feed the hunger of those of you out there who love LOTR style giant worlds as Sir Konrad continues in his mission.

“All may be judged by the law, so all may uphold it; but all those who uphold the law may not judge it.”

There is magic in this book but it isn’t the normal kind of magic you might think of when you think fantasy. There aren’t wands or hands controlling ice and this actually adds to the grounded realism that this is a story about the law but set in a different world, not too dissimilar to ours. It is a special kind of magic, akin to magical skills more than magical spells. Sir Konrad has two magical abilities that we are made aware of. The first is called the Emperor’s Voice and allows him to compel a person to speak the truth by commanding them. Think of it like a verbal version of Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth. The second is the power of necromancy. This is not raising skeletons from the dead as if you’re playing Diablo II but a more tactful use of the power. For example, Sir Konrad might come across a newly murdered man and has the ability to use his power to talk to the recently deceased man to find out who his killer was. It’s an interesting take on the magical abilities because Richard has taken a verbal power and the necromancy one and turned them into tools of the law. I really liked them and thought the uses of both of these in the story were well placed, providing exciting moments to see what truth could be gained from various people. There are some other powers that we see but again I don’t want to reveal them in this review.

“The law is the law; the day we abandon it for the sake of bloodshed is the day we abandon ourselves.”

This isn’t the first time I’ve read a story about lawkeepers as Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn era 2 features them however this is definitely the first time the law has been at the front of the story in this way and for that it is very unique. It’s a really cool concept and has been delivered extremely well. I expect that Richard’s experience as a solicitor helped tremendously in the forming of this book and I’d love to know how this influenced his work.

“Bad tidings and wise counsel are as easily ignored as one another.”

Rating 4.5/5 – The Justice of Kings is an excellent fantasy story that takes something so ingrained in our own society and brings it the front of the story, carried by fantastic characters who feel real, finding their way in a sometimes lawless world. This is an interesting and thought provoking read providing page-turning situations, pacey events and a mystery that unravels itself as quickly as you can turn the pages. I am already excited for the second book in this series and I highly recommend you get on this trilogy as soon as you can as I expect this trilogy to be well loved by all who read it.

This is a phenomenal start to series! 5 stars character development was fascinating to read, political plot was spot on, you will not want to miss this book, it takes a simply crime and it makes it into the most unbelievable political upsurpe in the most wonderful way! It was refreshing to read from a womans point of view and was very emotional in parts, the whole cast of characters will make you laugh, cry and scream along with fantastic tale. I need book 2 immediately!

Terminado. Me sorprende (para mal) tantas reseñas tan positivas para este libro. Es poco imaginativo y repetitivo hasta decir basta, la frescura que puede aportar el prólogo se esfuma en cuanto el primer capítulo resulta ser más de lo mismo. Un juez, su ayudante y su aprendiz van de pueblo en pueblo ayudando a resolver misterios, herejías o asesinatos que no contienen la más mínima tensión narrativa. Todo el peso recae en diálogos pesadísimos sobre moral, ética, justicia, etc, que, a mí, no me han interesado en lo más mínimo.

Pero es que lo peor es lo que decía al principio, la falta de originalidad e imaginación. Es un libro muy irregular, con un estilo narrativo pobre y plano, y una historia falta de gancho. EL mundo es una mezcla de la britania romana (o algo por el estilo), aunque con un tono mucho más medieval.

Sin duda la referencia está ahí: The Witcher. Pero sin nada de lo que la saga del brujero nos presenta. Únicamente las turritas sobre moralidad. The Justice of Kings es un libro de fantasía porque el juez, (en modo deus ex descaradísimo) puede obligar a la gente a decir la verdad, entre otras cosas. Método que usa continuamente para solucionar encuentros (si no todos, casi todos). También intenta hacer cosas que ya hemos visto bien hechas en otro libro: EL arcano y el jilguero, de Ferran Varela, pero evidentemente con mucho menos éxito.

Y eso ya por no comentar lo irritantes que son todos los personajes. Todos continuamente se quejan del tiempo, de los demás, se mandan callar continuamente y están siempre de mal humor. Lo he terminado por tozudez, y porque me extrañaba ver puntuaciones tan altas. Pero no lo recomiendo para nada.

The Justice of Kings is a triumph, a marvel that has placed courtrooms and wordplay as epic a battle as legions of men versus beasts ever were; with intrigue laced into every word of Helena’s tell-all tale of justice, and the lengths a single man will go to mete it out, the Justice of Kings is a tale above them all. When I say I enjoyed this book, it is the biggest understatement I’ve made this year.

Okay, I couldn’t wait for the release to talk about this book. As for the rating, well, David started it? If there’s a book I would afford a ‘break-the-ceiling’ rating each year, The Justice of Kings is my pick for my 2021 reads.

The only way I can describe it accurately in comparisons is the Witcher X War for the Rose Throne. Vonvalt is deadly in his own right, powerful as Geralt, but with the confident, commanding aura of Tomas Piety. It may not quite fit, but these are the two characters that came to mind when I first met Konrad, before I realised he was a force of nature all on his own.

Konrad Vonvalt is such a presence to behold, and it speaks of the writing when this presence is a miasma that seeps out of each page. He’s charismatic, magnetic, and undeniable. There’s also the mystery that this type of first-person narrative creates where it’s told from a character that follows the main character. It’s so brilliantly done here and so right, for to know what is going on in Vonvalt’s head exact would be to spoil a good meal by having eaten right before it. The first-person narrative here which acts as a third-person narrative for Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt is a work of genius, it shows you just enough about the man to intrigue you, but then he’s gone again and separated from Helena when you want to know more.

This also plays into the character development between Helena and Konrad as the story progresses; where we see Helena rise to the challenge, chose a path for herself, and get into the thick of what it means to skirt the straight lines of justice in the Empire of the Wolf, we see Konrad’s as much of a descent. Into what, I will leave the rest for you until you read the book as it is certainly not a development to be spoiled. But the point here is that it allows itself to muddy the waters of what character development is and create a distance between the reader and the main character that otherwise isn’t there in narratives that follow direct first or third POV.

Worldbuilding in this book is something of a delight – Séances, necromancy, entanglement, and chains of causation, this novel is full of food for thought, of horror and intrigue. It walks between deep philosophical writings and histories that stretch eons behind the prose that’s written in the books, to downright horror involving Aegraxes and demons, and the Neman Pantheon of Gods. One particular story that gripped me, despite the pages and words it was afforded was the Great Plague of Gvòrod and Justice Kane, who formed the orthodoxy for the Order. Given the depth it breathes into the world at that point, and the ramifications of the story, it is a tale of tremendous magnitude. It sets the story on an entirely different path or moves the characters in a different direction. Now that, given how brief it was, is worldbuilding supreme.

All in all, I cannot recommend this book enough; I cannot give it a higher rating. I cannot really put into words how much I love it … it is just my hope that what is down here encourages you to read it. Heck, if you’ve enjoyed the book, please speak to me about it.

This is a good book, well written with interesting characters and world building, I have no qualms in recommending it

Joining the Justice of Kings bandwagon with a thumbs up.

Roaming noble-minded judge solves crimes, dispenses justice, and spars philosophy with his clerk in a low magic, gritty, unkind empire. Shades of Baru Cormorant (moral complexity and wider politics) and cadfael (murder mystery feel at the start).

It's excessively well written, tightly plotted, thematic and musing, intelligent and thoughtful and sad, with plenty of action/adventure and ferocious battles.

I also want to give a nod to the author for not allowing sexual assault to follow through. Obviously it exists and is there in the world but the character isn't made to endure it for the sake of furthering the plot and it is never in page. Honestly this is a big deal to me.

ARC provided by the publisher—Orbit—in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5 stars

The Justice of Kings was totally addictive. A truly riveting tale about law, war, morality, and justice.

“Empires are built and maintained with words. Swords are a mere precedent to the quill.”



Pitched as Judge Dredd meet The Witcher, The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan went into my TBR pile after Orbit Books sent a limited ARC to me. Judging from the premise, I had a feeling that I would be reminded of reading War for the Rose Throne series by Peter McLean, and I’m not mistaken on this. Empire of the Wolf isn’t a gangster fantasy series, but there’s still a lot of things to love here if you loved War for the Rose Throne. Honestly speaking, though, although I’ve been interested in reading The Justice of Kings for a while, it didn’t jump to the top of my TBR pile until I saw the stunning cover art done by Martina Fackova. I pre-ordered the novel immediately after I heard Martina Fackova will be doing the cover art, and I’m not disappointed. Both the artist and designer—Lauren Panepinto—did a wonderful job on the cover art, but can the book live up to it? Yes, it can.

“The Autun makes no distinction between a man and a woman in legal matters. ‘All may be judged by the law, so all may uphold it.’”



No man is above the law. This is one of the main themes of the novel, and the story follows Sir Konrad Vonvalt, the most feared Justice from the Order of Justices who stands in the way of chaos in The Empire of the Wolf. Rebellion, heretics, and powerful patricians challenge the power of the imperial throne, and Konrad Vonvalt determines to uphold the law by way of his sharp mind, arcane powers, and skill as a swordsman. But he’s not alone on his missions. Sir Konrad Vonvalt is accompanied by Helena Sedanka—an orphan, his clerk, and protégé. When the pair investigate the murder of a provincial aristocrat, they unearth a conspiracy that stretches to the very top of Imperial society. As the stakes rise and become ever more personal, Vonvalt must make a choice: will he abandon the laws he's sworn to uphold in order to protect the empire?

“You cannot kill another human being and fail to be affected by it, even if they are an enemy.”



The official premise may lead you into thinking that this is Justice Konrad Vonvalt’s story, and in a way, it is true. However, Vonvalt is not the main POV character; he doesn’t even have any POV chapter. The entire story in The Justice of Kings is told through the first-person perspective of Helena Sedanka. We’re reading Helena’s writing and recount of the past. This storytelling style is akin to reading Fitz’s narration in The Farseer trilogy mixed with Akil’s narration in The Bloodsounder’s Arc trilogy by Jeff Salyards; more similar to the latter. In The Bloodsounder’s Arc, we follow the tale of Akil as he writes his journey as he follows Braylar Killcoin. In The Justice of Kings, we’re reading Helena Sedanka’s intertwining lives with Konrad Vonvalt and many other individuals. The murder mystery element in a fantasy world filled with great character development, plus the thought-provoking discussions regarding law—whether it’s better to absolutely uphold the law or neglect it—and the decline in morality made The Justice of Kings a compelling read.

“Few things in life can be guaranteed with greater certainty than the incredible contrivances men will go to generate money from nothing at all.”—PHILOSOPHER AND JURIST FRANCIS GERECHT



Konrad Vonvalt’s intimidating presence and actions will likely stay with readers. But I have to give the praises towards using Helena Sedanka as the main narrator. I was slightly worried about this initially. All the premises and advertisements for The Justice of Kings so far pointed towards Vonvalt, and I wasn’t sure Helena could win my expectations of wanting the story to be told from Vonvalt’s POV chapters; I won’t lie, I even feel tricked. However, it all worked out for the better. After reading The Justice of Kings, I’m quite confident that having Helena as the main narrator actually formed a superior narrative, and now I’m not so sure the novel would be as strong if it’s told through Vonvalt’s narration. Also, I’ve mentioned Vonvalt and Helena constantly in this review so far, but there’s another important character: Dubine Bressinger. The trio and dynamic between Vonvalt, Helena, and Bressinger were simply colorful and engaging. I never felt bored reading their interactions with each other; we get to gradually witness the background and personality of the trio. And once again, the three of them gave a lot of food for thoughts regarding justice and laws; I loved it.

“I was a soldier in the Reichskrieg, Helena… I have seen what the world is like without the rules.”



It’s worth noting that the world-building in The Justice of Kings aren’t full of magic or fantastical creatures. The world in The Empire of the Wolf felt similar to our own, and Vonvalt does have two magickal abilities on his arsenal, but that’s about it. A few other magical abilities were displayed, but they’re not focused upon, at least for this book, anyway; the sequels might have more magical usage. But I do think the two soft-magic frequently exhibited in this novel was enough to give variety to the way the plot plays out. First, there’s The Emperor's Voice, which is more or less the ability to command people to tell you the truth; a bit similar Lelouch's Geass from Code Geass if you’re familiar with the anime. The second one is the power of necromancy; this isn’t resurrection per se, but Vonvalt and other Justices could use this power to speak with the dead. Seeing how Swan utilized these two powers in Helena and Vonvalt’s investigations was intriguing to me, and I really loved how it’s emphasized that these powers can’t be used carelessly. Most of the time, it is shown that being smart tends to be more helpful and safe than using Justice’s magical powers.

“’The wise man arms himself with knowledge before a sword.’”



As you can probably guess, having access to these types of special powers blurs the line between good and bad with ease. No matter the intention, no matter how good a person is, owning too much power will transform a person completely. I loved reading how Swan combined all the elements in his book to continuously discuss this topic and theme, both subtly and explicitly. Books that inflict “one more chapter syndrome” on me are books I enjoy reading; The Justice of Kings achieved that relatively fast. It did take me about a quarter of the book to feel fully immersed in, but everything after that felt like I flew through the book with haste. I am also a fan of epigraphs in fantasy novels; authors can use this space for multiple purposes such as creating mysteries, giving revelations, world-building exploration, or maybe putting philosophical passages. And the latter one is dominant in The Justice of Kings; here’s a few more of my favorites:

“Power does things to a man’s mind. It unlocks his baser instincts which the process of civilization has before occluded. Powerful men are closer in mind to wild beasts than they are to their supposed human inferiors.”—SIR WILLIAM THE HONEST


“Even the eyes of the owl do not catch everything.”—OLD SOVAN PROVERB



“It is impossible to impress upon a man the severity of a situation until the point of its remedy is long past. ‘Tis something to do with the nature of a human being, that ingrained idiocy. The gods must shake their heads at us in disbelief.”—JUSTICE SOPHIA JURAS



In comparison, I don’t think I’ve read many fantasy novels where the persons of authority are the main characters; usually, it’s the other way around, especially in stories revolving around rebellion. Should the law be upheld completely, Or should it be abolished? What kind of rules should be set upon for society to truly work together? Is that even possible? Battle scenes are indeed rare in The Justice of Kings, but the grey morality and Vonvalt’s magickal applications were sufficient to make sure that the narrative remains captivating to read. This novel is still three months away from being published, 2022 isn’t even here yet, and The Justice of Kings has become one of my favorite reads of the year. Life has been super busy for me the past few weeks, and finding the time to read has been a challenge on its own. The Justice of Kings, however, felt effortless to read, an exhilarating first book of a series, and I definitely look forward to reading the sequel. Once again, and as expected, Orbit Books has landed a gem in both the cover art and story department.

“Justice is not vengeance, and vengeance is not justice. But the two often overlap. The state is as capable of vengeance as any individual, for what is the state if not the people that comprise us?”—SIR RANDALL KORMONDOLT



Official release date: 22nd February 2022 (US) & 24th February 2022 (UK)

You can pre-order the book from: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Blackwells (Free International shipping)

The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions | I also have a Booktube channel