OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: SUNG-IL KIM was born in Seoul in 1974. Despite his lifelong dream of writing fiction, he only got around to it in his forties. He writes science fiction, fantasy, horror, or some blend of those. In South Korea, he is known for Blood of the Old Kings, I Will Go to Earth to See You, and “The Knight of La Mancha,” the last of which earned him an Excellence Award at the Korean SF Awards in 2018. He spends most of his time in his downtown Seoul apartment with his wife and two cats.
FORMAT/INFO: Blood of the Old Kings was published in the US on October 8th, 2024 by Tor Books. It is 368 pages long and told in third person from the POVs of Loran, Cain and Arienne. It is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: In an Empire literally powered by the bodies of dead mages, three unconnected individuals begin journeys that could bring that empire to its knees. First there's a swordswoman out for revenge who is granted a magic sword by a dragon; in return, she vows to rise up, overthrow the empire, and become her homeland's king. Then there's a young man from the streets investigating his friend's murder and what it has to do with a secret resistance group in the capital. Lastly, there's a mage trying to escape the clutches of the empire, determined to avoid her fate of becoming just another battery to power the Empire's oppression. Their fates are intertwined, but will it be enough to destroy the Empire that conquered magic?
Despite a fascinating and unique premise, Blood of the Old Kings fails to deliver a memorable experience. To the book's credit, it starts out with its best foot forward. Each of the first three chapters starts in media res as our three POV characters are at a crucial juncture in their lives. We meet Loran, for instance, when she is already negotiating with a dragon for the sword that will give her the strength to battle the empire. I was immediately intrigued by all the storylines and couldn't wait to see where they went.
Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of substance to support the setup. Everything about the world-building felt very surface level, even as it tries to have complexity. There's different factions trying to overthrow the empire, for instance, each with different lengths they are willing to go to in order to win. But the leaders of those factions felt one dimensional, or sometimes barely appeared on the page at all.
Likewise, the plot and the characters felt very uneven. The story of Loran the swordswoman, for instance, would take sporadic time jumps. That wouldn't be bad itself if it didn't seem to also skip over things that felt like they should be big set pieces or sequences, like Loran's first fights with her new swords or a battle to take a key fort. And while a couple of the POVs do intersect with each other, two major storylines end up being largely separate from each other, resulting in a book that didn't feel like it had a cohesive narrative.
Loran did have the most interesting character arc as she wrestles with the notion of what it means to be king. When she starts the story, she feels like a fraud for declaring herself king because she has no royal blood. Her emotional journey of realizing what it means to assume responsibility for a people was one of the more compelling aspects of the story.
There are enough good pieces in this book that I thought I'd write a review recommending a flawed but interesting new entry in the epic fantasy space. I liked Cain's investigation into his friend's murder, especially as it runs him afoul of both an extremist group and the Empire's secret police. I liked Arienne's strange memory magic and watching her learn to warp reality around her.
Unfortunately, the ending of the book left me underwhelmed. At least two characters made some truly baffling decisions at major story points. The final chapter, which jumps forward in time and serves almost as an epilogue, felt like a poor attempt to tie a neat bow on the story. Perhaps the author was going for a realistic ending, but it left me deeply frustrated and unsatisfied.
CONCLUSION: Blood of the Old Kings reads like a book where the broad story beats have been laid out, but it really needed another writing pass to deepen the world and the relationships. I will still fully credit it for a creative idea for a premise, but unfortunately, that alone was not enough to hold my interest. At the end of the day, this sadly isn't a read that I recommend.
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