Book Review was telling us Jenn Lyons was up to bat and pointing beyond the back wall. In fact, if you haven’t read it, stop reading this, go read that and we can continue this conversation later.īook Review wasn’t just telling us that Jenn Lyons is in the ballpark with those other great writers. I cannot adequately express or overstate how good that series is. When you name drop Rothfuss you are bringing The Kingkiller Chronicles into the conversation. When you read a Sanderson book you know the character development is going to be first class and you know (without a shadow of a doubt) the magic system is going to be new and intriguing. Sanderson, whose body of work contains The Mistborn Saga, The Stormlight Archives, and Elantris as well as the last three books of The Wheel of Time, is enjoying a stretch of writing that I don’t think will be challenged by anyone soon. If you’re a fan of the fantasy genre, Sanderson and Rothfuss are two unimpeachable names.

In this one sentence Book Review raised the bar to unimaginable heights. “With the scope and sense of fatality of Patrick Rothfuss, and well-choreographed action sense of Brandon Sanderson, Lyons leaps into the big leagues of epic fantasy and sticks the landing.” It had good reviews by The New York Times, The L.A. It had a blurb by Glen Cook (aka the Godfather of Grimdarks).

Tor was pushing this book like they’d just found out they had free rein in Hamsterdam and Marlo was nowhere in sight. Now, to be perfectly honest, I went into The Ruin of Kings excited. For example, have you ever had a lukewarm bath ruined by a leaky tub that you don’t quite fit into? Have you ever grabbed some french fries from your least favorite fast food restaurant and they were over cooked? Have you even been so hungry/daring that you decided to buy gas station “pizza” and it was cold? Well…do I have the book for you! The Ruin of Kings You know how sometimes a mediocre thing is made even more mediocre. Now buckle up, we are in for a bumpy ride and it’s almost all downhill from here. I read Ruin of Kings so you didn’t have to.

The ruin of kings book series