1. The Spirit Engineer - A.J.West - 7/10
2. The Lost Man - Jane Harper - 8/10
3. The Fall of Babel – Josiah Bancroft - 5/10
4. The Forest – Michaelbrent Collings – 3/10
5. Black River – Will Dean – 7/10
6. Winter is Coming – Garry Kasparov – 9/10
7. Archangel – Robert Harris – 8/10
8. The Justice of Kings – Richard Swan - 8/10
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The Justice of Kings – Richard Swan
It was good to get back into my favourite genre, fantasy, with this excellent debut from Richard Swan. He’s a lawyer, which makes sense when you find out that the protagonist, Sir Konrad Vonvalt, is a wandering magistrate who has license to act as judge, jury and executioner in the name of the Emperor. The story is told through the words of his 19-year-old clerk, Helena, and it’s really well written, Helena’s character doing a nice job of fleshing the story out as she tells us about events that happened many years ago. Whilst not in the Joe Abercrombie/Scott Lynch league, I thought most of the characters were well-defined and seeing Vonvalt change through the eyes of Helena was one of the major themes of this book. The two take on a case in a small town, but it’s clear that this is the introduction to a larger events about to happen in their world. What I liked about this book is that it didn’t get bogged down in explaining everything about the world. The author continually dropped things into the mix and left you to draw your own conclusions about some of them. Most of the book is dialogue/actions concerning the twists and turns in the legal case, but it’s easy to follow and when the short action sequences occur, they are nicely realised, and in some cases, shocking. A promising debut and I look forward to the next in the series, which is set up nicely as this book draws to a close.