A super fun read! Though I do see some people bouncing of this early on.

The author holds a lot of information back at the beginning and while I pushed through (and it paid off) I can see people being frustrated with it.

However the world he build was immersive enough and Anji as a character (and more so Hawk!) were so thrilling to read about.
There were some surprises at the end that I never saw coming. However while I really had a fun time with this book I felt like something was missing. The emotional impact I feel the author was going for missed a bit with me.

A super fun read and one I’d recommend !

Anji Kills A King is the first book in the dark epic fantasy series The Rising Tide, written by Evan Leikam, published by Titan Books. A strong debut, fast paced with a carefully crafted imaginery, that uses its world to question about goverment systems, injustice and how far you can go for a cause, while giving us a cast of memorable characters along the journey.

A raw and gritty story that starts with Anji, a orphaned laundress, taking the opportunity when it appears and assassinating the king; with the chaos, she tries to flee from Linuria, with a big bounty over her head. Even the legendary Menagerie, a group of mercenaries whose magical masks give them poweres, are behind Anji's trail; it's the Hawk who finds Anji, starting a journey to take her reward, while at the same time having her own reasons to keep Anji away from the rest of the Menagerie. Together, they will have to form an unlikely alliance while driving Anji to her own death, avoiding the rest of the Menagerie and maybe learning a few of things on the road.

Anji is a conflictive character by herself; she's impulsive, bordering the stupidity at many points, and we will see her fighting and screaming to the Hawk many times. She becomes annoying at many points, but also, when you take into account that she's being directed to her execution, it is understandable at many points; and once we learn about her background, you relatively get along of why all happened.
The second part of our duo, the Hawk, is a older woman, part of the legendary Menagerie, but who also has her own reasons to act as she's trying; to be fair, I feel she's extremely patient with Anji. A character that slowly grows into the reader, from that cold bounty hunter, to a more human version that we start to guess alongside the road, somebody that actually cares about changing things and acts for that, with the time that still has.
The rest of the secondary cast doesn't shine as much as our two main characters, but it is interesting to know the rest of the Menagerie and discover their tortuous relationship with religion; it also serves as a distinction between what the stories tell about heroes and what the "heroes" really are.

While this is a really gritty novel (and there are plenty of dark moments sprinkled here and there), Leikam has also put much care behind crafting a world that feels complete, not only describing the power structures, but also presenting us the alternatives. The verbal confrontations between Hawk and Anji are the perfect excuse to give us that glimpse into the Tide, a rebel group, what really means the assassination of the King, and their backgrounds; it feels really organic, helping also to introduce difficult themes such as drug addiction and inequality.
As previously said, this is a fast-paced book, with plenty of action, but it is true that the first 40-50% can be a bit repetitive, especially in terms of structure; all is explained at the end, and I can say that probably the final section is the most impactful in emotional terms, but it can be rough to reach.

Anji Kills a King is a great debut novel, perfect for those that look for a gritty dark fantasy novel, which can be read as an standalone story that continues into a series; if you are an Abercrombie fan, definitely give this one a try. Leikam is a voice with potential, and honestly, I wonder how this series will continue!

My first read from this author but definitely not my last. Full of intrigue, intensity and mystery, this was a truly fascinating read and has made me want to read more from this author.

Anji Kills a King is a fresh and exciting debut, and was a thoroughly enjoyable read! All the way through it stays fast-paced and action-packed, while not shying away from the gnarly and violent side of fantasy.

This book has one of the best and punchiest opening pages I’ve read in the last few years - this book does not mess about at the start, and absolutely hits the ground running! I really like how the story teaches you about the world on the fly, without slowing down the start of the book with tons of exposition. All the way through the flashbacks are short and sharp, giving you an indication of pasty events without slowing the book down at all. It was excellently crafted, especially for a debut novel!

I really enjoyed the development of Anji’s character alongside her captive, the Hawk. They are both morally grey and reprehensible characters forced together by circumstance, and it's quite unclear the whole way through the story how their predicament is going to pan out. Without spoiling anything, I really respected how neither characters’ personality starts to degrade over the book; this is not a world where it makes sense for enemies to become close friends, and I’m glad Anji Kills A King didn’t fall for this trap.

Anji Kills a King was an interesting read, particularly since the title gives away most of the main plot point. I did find some parts a little tough to believe, mostly the quickness with which Anji is able to escape but I can forgive that.

I did enjoy the book overall and the writing and world building was well developed and delivered. I do think I would have liked a bit more about Anji in the past and her training. Perhaps this will be covered more in book 2? But I feel like it might have helped the novel to have it in there. Overall this was a good fantasy novel and mostly enjoyable to read throughout.

I am thankful to NetGalley, Tor and the author for my ARC of this book - Below are my honest thoughts on the same


“I won before I lost”

Anji Kills a King starts promisingly with Anji killing the king in the first few paragraphs of the book itself. The story that follows deals with the consequences specifically for Anji, who is on the run, and in general for a kingdom that was ruled by an unpopular, weak puppet of a king. Anji’s on-the-run life is a fairly hard, grimy, gritty few weeks interspersed with her interactions with the members of the Menagerie, a legendary band of bounty hunters dispatched to bring Anji back to her execution. Anji is put through the wringer mentally and physically as each member of the Menagerie has their idiosyncrasies and their own brand of crazy, keeping the narrative compelling and engrossing

“If I’m an assassin after killing one man - one who deserved it, I might add - what does that make you”

AKAK is a journey book that follows Anji after the titular incident. Even as she tries to make her way across the countryside, we get glimpses of the state of the nation - a sense of civil unrest, talks of a rebellion, the distaste for the ruling classes, and a general sense of unrest permeating through the countryside. Barely a couple of days into the escape, Anji is captured by Hawk of the Menagerie, seemingly acting on her own without the support or knowledge of the Menagerie. Anti’s travels (and travails) with the Hawk take up a good chunk of the book and help establish a bit of the antagonistic mentor-mentee relationship.

“I did it… for the money of course. Assuming the price was right”

Each member of the Menagerie has a magical animal-shaped mask that gives them superpowers, but it also takes a toll on them, and each member copes with the madness in their own way. Hawk is a crotchety, grumpy old woman who is also possibly addicted and has a harsh way of looking at things. However, she is not unkind and has her motivations on why she wants to capture & make Anji face justice. While she doesn’t hesitate to kill anyone who threatens to thwart her objective, her interactions with Anji keep evolving through the course of the story - from treating her as just an asset & payday to working together with Anji as they face multiple threats, internal and external. The book does ratchet up once other members of the Menagerie get hold of Anji - the level of brutality and cruelty on display helps frame the Hawk-Anji relationship even further

“If you want real change, the kind that lasts, you have to accept that you’re a small part of the larger whole. That out of many one force may yet overcome. We are the many. The lowborn, the common. The labourers and the farmers and the fishermen. One act like the one you committed will not dismantle years of oppression and greed. One murder, regardless of its rank, will grant the many their due”

The journey element also allows for significant time to reflect, and this is where the “Consequences” piece comes home to roost. This ties in the strongest element of the book - Anji as a character. We see this kid who killed the king and fled, but piece by piece, Anji gets disassembled. We examine why she was where she was to do the deed she did - and it took an exceedingly painful personal set of incidents for her to be there. We see the family history, the sense of a collapse of the society, the crushing of dissent, and Anti’s own training for higher things in life before life (through the king) unceremoniously dumps her into being a castle servant. The book also deals with decisions that people in power make and the myriad ways of affecting the small folk. While the decisions may not be personal to the people in power, for the folks affected, it seems highly personal and can foment hatred and distrust, seeming parallels to the world we live in. In a way, it also examines what a revolution is all about and the ideologies behind a revolution - sometimes a revolution isn’t about cutting off the head of the snake. Like Hydra, it may sprout other heads. A revolution requires systemic change, and that is the aspect that firebrands don’t spend enough time thinking about. Anji was simply at the right place at the right moment, but her actions came not with the history of revolution but as a result of her loss and trauma, and on such small things, revolutions are likely to hinge.

“Couldn’t I be in trouble for something more exciting?

You already are, and you’re about to be executed for it. ”

The flashes of world-building that the author sketches in this world are also quite interesting. The magic is called Maxia and does take a toll on the user. There is also a question of who has access to that magic and how it is frowned upon for the common populace to have access to it. There is also a massive drug and addiction problem pervading the land, and what this addiction mutates into - a theme that gets explored a lot in the second half of the book. It is also a weird land that the story is situated in - there are blood-thirsty spiders, monstrous mutated scorpions, and other creatures that call the desolate pathways their home. There is also a Senate that holds the real power and a Religious order that is quite shady and nefarious, twisting righteous motivations into a self-serving play for power and control. All these are fabulously teased out seamlessly in the narrative.

“Futility bores me. Who gets to eat what? Who dies when? Who shits where? Do all you like. Set fires in all the places you deem necessary. It’s all the same in the end. Some people have things, other don’t. No amount of protest will make it any different. The revolution ends, and people are still starving somewhere”

The journey element is the key element of the book, but the book needed to end strongly as well. In a way, the book ends well, but there is an element of predictability to it as well. At around the midpoint of the book, you conclude that this will go either of two ways - and the book does go down that path. The book stretches that inevitable so that when it happens, it doesn’t overstay its welcome and has a solid impact. The ending, while predictable, is suitably satisfying and poetic.

“If you’re willing to kill for a cause, you should be ready to die for one too”

Anji Kills a King is a very promising debut. It is quite well written and revels in some of the ground-level grittiness and griminess associated with a revolution through the eyes of a spunky, desperate, fatalistic survivor in the form of the titular Anji. This is also a book that lives for the journey and has a chase element to it, with several bounty hunters in search of the Macguffin. The Macguffin in question is Anji, but we see this Macguffin evolve from a blank canvas to a compelling character of agency. Anji Kills a King is a debut to remember from Evan Leikam

Rating - 4 Bounty Hunters on 5

-3.5 stars-

while I enjoyed the book - the world building was good, the characters had depth and were relatable, there was a good message about radicalization and rebellion, the writing was good - the ending felt rushed to me. we'd spent so long on the road with these characters but the revelations and backstories that were being told didn't feel thoroughly explored

there were some good circular moments near the end and I look forward to seeing what happens next

Anji is a tad impulsive. She's just killed the king, and now she's on the run - with the elite mercenaries known as the menagerie in hot pursuit. It doesn't take long for the Hawk to catch up to her, and a long trek back to the city begins, so that Anji can be executed for regicide...

This was an impressive debut: eminently readable, with a really strong beginning, and an ending I did not see coming and that has me looking forward to the next Rising Tide book. The middle was fine but nothing groundbreaking: as they travel, a lot of things happen on the way, many of them dark and gory. It's a very action-heavy book, and while I really enjoyed the characters (bonus points for badass older women) I would have liked to see them develop a bit more along the way. The relationships between the characters were interesting, the banter top-notch, and the political commentary a tad depressing but spot on. Considering this was only his first published book, I'm excited to see what Leikam comes up with next!

Many thanks to Titan Books for letting me read a Netgalley ARC of this prior to publication - all opinions are my own.

3.5⭐️. As the name suggests, Anji Kills a King opens with Anji, a young, orphaned palace servant, killing the King. It takes some time for the reader to understand the motivation behind the murder, but it becomes clear from early on that Anji lives in a land divided, where a religious sect is slowly taking control and the people are suffering.

Sent to hunt and retrieve Anji are a group called The Menagerie - the Hawk, Goat, Ox, Bear and Lynx - fabled, masked mercenaries with incredible skill and strength. Initially discovered by the Hawk, the unlikely pair start a journey back to the city, where Anji will have to face her fate. Along the way they encounter monsters, including Dredgers (users of a drug called Rail, which eventually turns users into a literal monster), people who would capture Anji to win for themselves the bounty on her head, and other members of the Menagerie.

I thought this was a well written book, which gripped me right at the start and introduced a world with lots of potential. However, the majority of the book is focused on Anji and the Hawk’s journey and I tend to find books with this set up end up feeling a little slower and more repetitive than I would like. There are definitely some moments that packed a punch and made an impact, but I would’ve liked more of these, and I also found that the two characters I warmed to most quickly and felt most invested in were only in it for a very short period of time. I also felt like I needed more of the politics - I wanted to better understand why the various groups/sects were acting as they were.

Overall, a good read with a lot of promise and an interesting segue way into book 2, but I wanted more (more world building, more politics, more character development) to make it a great read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc of this book.

So I think I need to call it. I have found myself kind of struggling to pick this up the last few weeks and I think that kind of says it all. I have been really picky with fantasy lately and books in general, I find I really need characters to be fleshed out with a lot of development. If I can’t get attached to the characters especially in a fantasy book, it falls flat for me. I’m not sure why I couldn’t immerse myself further but it’s been nearly half the book I’ve struggled with.. I am also reading 4 other books one being an insanely immersive fantasy story that has me literally on the edge of my seat following those characters journey and maybe that didn’t help as I was finding myself comparing my love for the other characters to the characters here and feeling a disconnect.. possibly a wrong time type of scenario, I’ll try to pick this up in the future again.

Thank you for the early copy in exchange for a review!

While the premise ofthis book grabbed .e, somewhere along the way, the story lost its grip. The pacing felt uneven, with some sections dragging while others rushed through potentially interesting developments. I just didnt connect with the characters, they felt somewhat one-dimensional. Ultimately, I found myself less and less inclined to pick it up. While I'm sure some readers will really enjoy this story, it unfortunately wasn't the right fit for me.

There’s a lot to like about this book but unfortunately I found that I just ran out of energy. It had a great start and the ending was excellent, but the main body of it was endless and it felt like it was a bit repetitive. It was lots of travelling, fighting and a bit of character development, hardly any world building and lots of people we didn’t get a chance to know better. Although I will say that the descriptive elements were really well done, and painted a dramatic backdrop. Especially the sense of hopelessness and poverty.
It’d be interesting to see where the author goes next with this, especially as it’s a debut, there’s definitely a lot of potential for brilliance.

I was excited for this book, sad to say Anji was just not a compelling character for me. Excited to see more crom this author and see how the writing develops!

When Anji Kills a King made its way onto my radar I was very excited for this release. However, it fell short, and I ended up DNF’ing at 55%.

Anji Kills a king has a lot of potential but I feel like it was lacking on character development which just caused me to lose interest to the point I found myself skim reading before deciding to DNF.

The plot was there and partnered with some top-notch world building, the plot was solid and would have been kept me reading if I’d had a reason to care about the main character. The author is trying to drip feed in Anji’s backstory which can work if done correctly, I feel like this back story was being built too slowly causing me to be totally uninvested in I the character.

This is where the plot the fails because I don’t care what happens to Anji. The book effectively just became the story of a journey where things happened. I’ve been told that shortly after the point I DNF’d something big occurs and it still didn’t care enough to want to pick the book back up.

I also have issues with believing that Anji manages to kill a king and run away without being noticed. This isn’t a spoiler it’s the premise of the whole book. She was from a poor family, trained for a few weeks by her aunt before becoming a homeless orphan. Yet managed to kill and fully grown man and slip out of the castle unnoticed. I just can’t buy into that. I think had we had more depth in her backstory and the training she received I could have bought into that.

To finish on a positive the writing is great it’s well done and again the world building is high quality. The prose is a little more purple(ish) than I thought it would be I was expecting something a bit grimmer, but it works well enough.

4.5/5

This was a solid debut novel, the worldbuilding is very interesting and immersive. Initially we know very little about the world, characters and motives but as the story progresses you learn more. I do think this may put some people off reading it and does hamper emotional connection with the characters somewhat, but I liked how it was done and didn't hinder my enjoyment.

A really fun, fast paced read with constant action and chapter lengths were ideal! Can't wait to see where the next book takes us!

Thank you to Titan Books and Netgalley for this eARC to review.

This was a great debut, and one with an ending that makes me excited to see what's next in store!

There was plenty of action to be had, which was all really descriptive and well-written. I would say at times I would've liked some more emotional moments from Anji and Hawk, gotten to know them a bit better and the world around them - though there is great set up for the next book.

Overall I enjoyed this book, and would recommend to anyone looking for an action packed travel based fantasy novel. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book was really interesting, some of the ideas I enjoyed but the execution was quite predictable.

No idea where the comparisons to Joe Ambercrombie come from, there is nothing Grimdark about this.

I think there is a lot to enjoy in this debut. Leikam has a strong voice that is fast-paced with strong imagery, character-building, and fight scenes. The main reason this is a three-star read and not higher is because I found almost every plot beat to be predictable. With every moving piece introduced, I felt like I knew exactly where it was going to end up. The only thing that felt new and fresh was the very last reveal during the final few pages of the book. This leads me into the second reason this is a three-star read for me: Anji Kills a King feels like the first act/half in a much longer book. I feel like I was only just being introduced to the interesting world before the book ended, but without leaving me longing for more. If the more conventional/predictable set-up was in service of a twist half way through a larger book before having the second half explore a very fresh perspective, then I would have appreciated the generic nature much more. Nevertheless, I think fans of fast-paced, action-oriented, travel fantasy will find a lot to enjoy. I will be interested to see the direction of the series moving forward and wouldn't be surprised to find the next entry be a couple of hundred pages longer.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a copy of Anji Kills a King.

This was an excellent debut novel that perfectly sets up the opportunity for an even better series.

The characters in this novel are amazing and completely stand out against other fantasy novels in the best way and have more realistic flaws in their decision making that make you love to hate them.

The story throughout is great and well paced and it definitely feels like the first in a series where there’s lots more to uncover. The premise is fab and well introduced, with a great and explosive ending in a really rich and immersive world.

I wasn't the biggest fan of this book.

The positives:

It had a strong start and strong ending. The action really kicked off at the beginning of the book. It jumped right in to Anji killing the king. There was no lead up, so you're just immediately dumped into the plot.

However, the pacing was quite slow throughout the rest of the book as it was quite repetitive. Because it was a travel book, they were basically going from Point A to Point B with lots of things going wrong in between.

The characters were also not very likeable, so I wasn't invested in them. I didn't really care what happened. I found Anji to be selfish. She whined and moaned too much. She was obnoxious and annoying. Kit was sullen and had few redeeming qualities.

2.75 stars rounded up