King's Folly

 I just finished King's Folly last night, and at 560 pages, it took me a bit to get through! Jill Williamson's epic fantasy release was an enjoyable, complex read.

There is a lot going on in this book, but I will try to summarize the core plot as concisely as possible--

The five realms are coming apart- earthquakes and volcanoes, gigantic sinkholes and the sea rising to overtake the land. Natural disaster are absolutely destroying their continent. In Armania, the throne is looking for its next heir, tearing apart the royal family and the people. Wilek and Trevn, two of the kings sons do their best to investigate the destruction of their kingdom and keep their corrupt brother Janek from being declared heir.    

This book is pretty dark in some places. The author paints a picture of a very evil, idolatrous culture. There are a lot of similarities to the Old Testament, child sacrifice, rampant sexuality, concubines, worshiping false gods and more. The author never takes it to a super graphic place or glorifies these things, instead she gives us a picture of a people who have lost their way.

There are a lot of characters in this book. However, given its size I felt like the author had a lot of time to develop and give most of them complexity. There were a few characters that I felt were a little one note and not very interesting, in particular Wilek's betrothed Lady Zeroah. I wish the author had done more with her. On a whole though, the characters were interesting. The court drama and politics of the book could have gotten really boring if the characters had been lacking.

The book is full of mystery and it was fun to try and figure out what was going to happen. I would say this book is a great read for fans of epic fantasy. Be prepared for a few mature themes, but the author took care to address those things appropriately. If you love books with complicated and intricate storylines like me, this won will keep your interest. There is a sequel to this book coming out sometimes next year. I hope to read the next in the series and discover what happens next.  

I received this book in exchange for my honest review.