The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan ★ ★ ★ 1/2

Richard Swan’s The Justice of Kings was an entertaining, 3.5 star book, yet it had the potential to be an outstanding five stars, which makes my final rating somewhat disappointing. In the interest of saving you time (in case you’re busy), this is a good medieval low-fantasy book with decent worldbuilding, interesting characterization, and a surprisingly robust and fleshed out fictional justice system. However, the story is limited by the first person point of view, the shallow fight scenes, and off-kilter pacing, which is why I would suggest reading this book without any expectations for groundbreaking concepts or heartpounding action. With that out of the way, I will go into greater detail in the succeeding paragraphs.

The book quickly introduces the three most important characters: Helena (the PoV character), Sir Konrad Vonvalt, and Bressinger. Helena is the clerk to Sir Vonvalt who, in his role as Justice, acts as an investigator, judge, jury, and executioner on behalf of the Emperor himself. Justices answer only to the Emperor, which means they wield a great deal of authority as they travel throughout the outskirts of the empire, visiting villages and towns to see if there are any crimes that need to be judged. I thought this concept was a breath of fresh air from typical medieval fantasies, and author Richard Swan does not disappoint by adding more layers to this position throughout the rest of the book. The character of Vonvalt is especially interesting, because prior to his role as the Emperor’s Justice, he was a soldier on the opposite of a war, which makes his adherence and dedication to the justice system (or the Common Law, as they call it) incredibly compelling. Unfortunately, this is undercut by the fact that this is all being told from the perspective of Helena, whose passivity throughout most of the book is liable to make you forget that she is the point of view character. From the beginning, it’s established that we are supposedly reading the journal entries of a much older Helena, and I understand that it would be unrealistic if she was too active or overbearing in this first book. However, her passivity or deference to Vonvalt and Bressinger made me think that it would have been better if the author (Richard Swan) would have been better off writing the book from a third person limited perspective while interspersing it with first person journal entries from the future Helena.

Her lack of interest or involvement in some scenes can be quite jarring, and the fact that Vonvalt is a much more active and engaging character further serves to push Helena into the background as a supporting character. The concept of writing a book as if they are the journal entries or memoirs of the protagonist is not new. In fact, a recent example would be Anthony Ryan’s The Covenant of Steel trilogy, and while that employs the same style, it avoids the pitfalls of The Justice of King by making its protagonist (Alwyn Scribe) an active, engaging protagonist, even when his role is to record other, seemingly more “interesting” characters like Deckin Scarl or Evadine. Anyway, enough about the Covenant of Steel. I will review those books later.

As a Justice, Vonvalt is afforded certain magical abilities that previously belonged to the Neman Church. The main ability that Vonvalt shows off throughout the book is The Emperor’s Voice, which allows him to command people - specifically, weak minded people - to answer his questions with the truth as they know it. His secondary - and much darker - ability is necromancy, allowing him to communicate with the deceased to find out information about any crimes that he wants to solve. I thought this magic system suited the low-fantasy setting, and I also thought that it was interesting that there was a severe lack of information given about the limitations or the training of this ability. Even after more than 400 pages, it’s still unclear if the user can use the Emperor’s Voice to exert full control over a person’s actions, and it’s also unclear if anyone can use this ability as long as they receive the training, or if there’s a measure of luck and natural talent involved in this.

Unfortunately, that is where the unique and interesting things end with the book. The prose was good throughout the book, and I liked the philosophical musings about the role of a Justice, and the complicated relationship with the law, but this book simply didn’t have the right spark to elevate it beyond 3.5 stars. Additionally, any action sequences in this book relied far too much on “telling” rather than showing, and the author describes the severing of limbs as if it’s the same as cutting butter. While some authors succeed in imbueing the reader with adrenaline through the descriptions of battle or combat, Richard Swan discusses these moments of life-and-death with a detached, analytical voice, which significantly lowered the stakes.

This was a good book, but I’m not sure if there’s enough here that has made me want to buy the second book in the series. If you’ve read this review, and disagree with everything I’ve said, that’s perfectly fine. Let me know if you’ve read this book, and if we agree on anything!