i did not know this was the second one in a series, and read a comment by the author that said you could read it as a standalone. i mean, you can (i did!)... but i do not recommend it. i enjoyed it enough - the writing is really good, the themes brought up regarding trust were compelling and i loved the mythology! however, i feel like i would've enjoyed it a whole lot more had i read it in the series order. so definitely pick up the first book before this one.

Neythan is a young assassin who has been summoned to Súnam. He assumes that he will be asked to help find an enemy but he winds up confronting his past. An ancient scroll that he's long carried with him is somehow quite important to what is about to come.

The Five Lands have been at peace for some time but a new, nameless enemy is at the borders and they appear to have supernatural powers. These "Lost Gods" threaten the peace and Neythan may be the only one who holds the key to stopping them, but he has to learn about the powers he holds and there may not be time.

As with the first book in the series, I really like the African tone to the story and the use of a mythology that I'm otherwise unfamiliar with. For this alone I give good marks because I like being challenged with new ideas and concepts and mythologies.

But also like the first book, I felt that this moved too slowly for me. A story with powerful lost gods and an assassin with a heretofore lost ability should be a page-turning exciting read, but it's not. Neythan gets caught up in reflection which slows down the action, which has this reader saying, "Get on with it!"

The story and the action do pick up some just after half-way through, but for the most part, I was already checked out from really being involved. However, this is one of the rare books (pair of books, actually) that I'm putting in my re-read collection of books. There is enough here that appeals to me that I can't help but wonder if I read this again I'll enjoy it more as I'll already have the familiarity with the setting and culture and can focus more on the story. The balance here is hard to maintain on one reading.

But for now, based on one reading, this only strikes me as an average read.

Looking for a good book? Pale Kings by Micah Yongo has some interesting concepts but the story moves too slowly to be truly engaging.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I enjoyed this fantasy sequel less than the first book in the series, Lost Gods. For a long time the different plot threads felt scattered and disparate, and it took me a very long time to get into it. Thankfully the end made up for it, with all the threads finally coming together and starting to make more sense, and I still maintain that this is a very underrated African-inspired fantasy. I'll be interested to see how the series continues.

The Pale Kings picks right up from the cliffhanger ending from the Lost Gods! I have a love-hate relationship with cliffhangers. The Lost Gods series is one of the story that just kind of grows on you. The more you read the more you appreciate it for what it is. You just need to give it a try and stick with through all the slow bits.

An enjoyable and refreshing story that is slow to start but worth sticking with. I look forward to more works from this author.

3.5 / 5 ✪

I read Lost Gods earlier this year as an intro to Micah Yongo’s world. But Pale Kings leaves a much better impression, acts like a much better series debut. Nothing to do about it, though, other than to read it.

First off, and most importantly, technically Pale Kings is the sequel to Lost Gods. The character progression, the timeline—makes sense. Other things—like the story—seem completely different. You do not—NOT—have to read Lost Gods for Pale Kings to make sense. I read them both, and Lost Gods still doesn’t make complete sense to me. But, some debuts are just like that.

Speaking of the Shedaím, it is stated in the prologue that there are but four surviving members of the Brotherhood left: Josef, Neythan, Arianna, and Daneel. And yet over the course of the text, we run into other Shedaím all the bloody time. Even in this same prologue, it’s mentioned that Daneel is being hunted by the remnants of the Shedaím.

I didn't find the story terribly realistic. I didn't want to ramble on about it too much, but I'll probably do so on my blog if anyone's terribly curious as to what my particular issues were. Short of it: just... not very plausible.

I enjoyed the story a lot more than Lost Gods. Sure, I found fault in Pale Kings, but on the whole, it was quite a bit better than the first one. We’ve ditched the whole “noble assassin” thing, and the frame-up/revenge thing, and I’m firmly of the mind that that’s for the better. I complained that the first story was one giant cliché, something that I cannot say about the second. While the plot had its flaws, it really was much better. Minus the Epilogue. If I’d’ve written this thing, I would’ve done a much worse job. But—BUT—I probably would’ve skipped the Epilogue as it really does nothing helpful. Left a bit of a sour taste, to be honest.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book—and not just the ones that controlled POV chapters. Actually, the whole world seems to have fleshed out quite a bit. Yongo's always been fastidious in his description, but now it led me to picture a deep, vibrant world filled with interesting, unique people—instead of the detailed world filled with hollow sacks of flesh that Lost Gods displayed. Another problem I had with Lost Gods was its pacing. In general, this is another aspect that Pale Kings improves upon with the classic slow build, hook, and sprint to the finish—with the exception of Neythan. His chapters continued their unevenness, with random and often confusing changes in pace.

TL;DR — I quite enjoyed Pale Kings despite its flaws. It was much better than the previous installment, which you really don’t need to read in order to understand #2. With a clear and detailed world, inhabited by unique and interesting characters and a story all but bereft of cliché, Pale Kings is a marked improvement upon Yongo’s debut. One I’d recommend reading if you need to buy it, even. It’s not perfect, with a less than believable story and a disappointing ending, but all in all, provides an entertaining adventure and raises my hopes for the third installment.

https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2019/08/26/

I’m a little torn on this book, because I enjoyed the first one quite a bit (even given the rather problematic killing of a disabled character as motivation for the MC.). But this one, just didn’t hold my attention that well. Especially given it’s one of those rare sequels where I actually read it immediately after the first one.

There are aspects that are still interesting to me, like I think the worldbuilding is fantastic, and there's clearly a lot of depth to it. But I didn’t connect with any of the characters much. Like, it should’ve been sitting on the edge of my seat, biting my nails, especially given that ending, but I just didn’t care enough. Not sure where the disconnect was, but yeah, that’s about where I stand on this one. Great ending, should have held my attention, didn't for some reason!

But even so, the ending was solid enough that I'll definitely read the next one!

I’ll still recommend that anyone who loves epic fantasy try this one out, it’s got the political intrigue and high stakes that so many people enjoy, and I suspect others will connect with the characters more.

Pale Kings is the second epic fantasy novel from author Micah Yongo, after 2018's Lost Gods. It's also the sequel to Lost Gods - a fact that is not necessarily clear on online marketplaces: Both Amazon and B&N online for example don't have the book listed as a sequel and the blurb says "From the Author of Lost Gods." I haven't read Lost Gods despite me having bookmarked it a while back - none of my libraries have a copy and I was hoping they'd follow on my suggestion to acquire it, but so far no good. So I was coming into this book a bit behind a reader of the first book, so keep that in mind.

And does Pale Kings work as a starting point for a new reader in this series? It kind of does, in that I was able to follow things as they occurred, and I grew to care about the world and some of the characters and their fates. On the other hand, the book is definitely building upon setup and character work done in the prior novel, so I wouldn't recommend trying to start here, even if you won't be totally lost if you try. Overall though, Pale Kings is an intriguing epic fantasy novel which definitely works, and I will be trying to pick up Lost Gods to get a more complete understanding of the story before the next book's release.
--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
The Surviving members of the Brotherhood of the Shedaim's last sharim - Neythan, Arianna, Josef, and Daneel - are scattered across the Five Lands, having been betrayed by their elders....and the fate of everything lies in their hands. Neythan, Arianna, and their comrade Caleb go south to decipher the mysterious magi scroll they have obtained. Daneel runs from his former comrades with a young boy he was once sent to kill, a boy who might be less ordinary than he appears. And Josef remains with the remnants of the Brotherhood, guarding Sidon, the young Sharif (king) of the Sovereignty of the Five Lands.

Their paths may have diverged for now, but disaster is coming to the Lands. Already, the city of Geled has mysteriously been destroyed, and now a lost son of the last Sharif is working with the nomad tribesman displaced by his ancestors to bring back the Father of the Gods to wreak havoc upon the land and restore him to his birthright. As the four go forward, they will find more to themselves, and the world, than they truly knew, and that beings known as Pale Kings have been making their influence around the world for hundreds of years, and that their plans are nearing fruition......

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Pale Kings begins with a cryptic prologue that sort of sets the stage for our four most prominent heroes - which helped me, cryptic as it was, since I hadn't read Lost Gods first - and then it throws you into the stories of the major characters. Each chapter is written from the point of view of various characters: Neythan, Sidon (followed by Josef), Daneel and Noah, as well as that of Joram, one of the central antagonists (sort of).

And this story structure allows for the point of view characters to really shine and develop throughout. The story for the most part keeps each of the point of view characters separate from the others until the very end (and even then), so each set of characters essentially has their own journey, each incidentally related to the other. And the point of view characters are pretty good - Neythan as the seeming chosen one, Daneel as the guy trying to do what's right and help out Noah and figure out what Noah's importance is, Sidon as the young ruler trying to claim his birthright among a bunch of sharks with their own agendas, etc. Even Joram, the point of view character helping the antagonist is interesting in his motives and insecurities - he's most definitely evil in his actions mind you and pretty horrifying in what he does, but he's understandable and not cackling evil, with his journey never feeling like it's a fait accompli either.

The non-point of view characters are a bit more hit or miss, with the lack of knowledge from the first book definitely hurting me here. This is especially the case for Neythan's companions, one of whom (Arianna) is supposed to be of significant plot importance but just seems a hanger-on due to her lack of perspective here with little to actually do other than note what is happening around Neythan. Similarly, the plot agendas of some of the characters, most notably Neythan, are a little less clear without the first book's guidance. Still it all generally flows pretty well, with the exception of one point in which a set of characters returns to a town off-screen where one of their number is being held hostage and just leaves with the hostage back in tow without any issue ENTIRELY off-screen, which just felt extremely jarring considering the attitude of that town earlier in the book.

I'm being extremely generic in this review so far, for which I apologize, since it's really not as helpful as I could be Essentially the book has four parties - one trying to discover the secret history of Neythan and decipher the truth behind the past and a magical scroll, one of the young king dealing with nobles who seem to be plotting to remove him from rule, one of an assassin on the run after betraying his guild to save a kid and discovering the powers of the young kid, and one the antagonist following the whispers of the sealed-away evil God as he attempts to gain power to lead that god's rebirth into the world. Even without the background of the first book, these plots generally are pretty interesting, and the book concludes them all in intriguing, if cliffhangery places. Yeah this book ends in a cliffhanger, so you shouldn't expect a satisfying resolution here.

But overall, Pale Kings is a satisfying epic fantasy story from a different viewpoint, so if you're willing to read a trilogy to get max enjoyment out of it, it's worth your time.

I'm happy requested this ARC and discovered this new to me series.
I liked this book, it's engrossing and entertaining and made me turn pages as fast as I could.
It's well written, the world building is fascinating and there's an interesting character development.
It's the first I read in this series but it surely won't be the last as this was a very satisfying reading experience.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I went into this having high expectations but I didn't love it. I found the setting up of scenes a little confusing but the writing generally cleared up any major issues but there were a few chapters that I was permanently confused throughout. I liked the characters for the most part but I did find Neythan a little bit weak when he was in a scene with other characters. This could have been a great book but the overall feel was just a bit mediocre and left me questioning why I read it all the way and did not give up with it sooner.

Today I finished reading Pale Kings, the second book of Micah Yongo's Lost Gods series and the first of his books that I've read. The two things that really jumped out at me about the book are:

1) I really like how Yongo writes. Really like it. His prose reminded me of Guy Gavriel Kay in terms of its ability to feel weighty and beautiful, yet human and a bit sly - but where as GGK does it with soaring emotions and drama, there's something of a slow burn to the way Yongo's revelations come.

2) I was really confused as to what was going on.

Now, those playing along at home will notice that a possible reason for that. It took me a long time to twig it was the second book - for some reason I didn't notice it when requesting it on NetGalley - and I think it probably did contribute but it's not the only reason. The problem was largely down to a huge cast of characters that ran into each other; never before have I read a book that so clearly illustrated why authors like Jim Butcher give their characters 'tags'. It might be annoying reading about braid twitching for the 50th time, but it beats taking half a book to distinguish between Neythan, Daneel, Joram and Sidon.

But I kept reading it despite that confusion because most scenes were worth it in and of themselves. And as I started to understand the unraveling plot and which character was which, I got sucked into the story as well. I have a soft spot for metaphysical mysteries - that is to say, fantasies that has characters delving deep into the nature of their secondary worlds, particularly their magic and divinity - and that is something Pale Kings does really well. Yongo does more than pander to my preferences though; he weaves a wonderful tale of deceit, betrayal, intrigue and assassins. It could afford to be heavier on the assassins, but that's just the neanderthal in me.

I would normally be giving a combination of enthralling prose and my favourite type of plot (if it takes a while to recognise) a very high score and as much praise as I can give out without feeling like I'm embarrassing the author. The problem here is the characterisation; maybe I read straight past it, but I still struggle to say what defines Neythan. Maybe that would have been fixed if I'd read Book 1. And despite the wealth of description, I'd struggle to tell you what the cities of the Sovreignity are like too. Yongo gives too many small details and not enough ones that stick.

And it doesn't help that what characterisation I did get, I didn't always like. Joram falls into the category of fantasy characters where I wish they'd fall down some stairs, break their neck, and never be mentioned again; narcissistic, callous and unimpressive. Neythan and Sidon both had moments where I wanted to shout at them for being too dumb to live.

Ultimately though, that is the only real reason I can think of why someone mightn't like this book. In all other regards, even people who don't love the prose or the nature of the plot the way I do should at least like it, by and large. Pale Kings is ambitious Epic Fantasy of the sort of scale and complexity shown in Daniel Abraham's work, executed with gorgeous prose and a powerful imagination. I don't know whether the first book in the series is worth reading, but the second definitely is.

(I got a copy of this book through NetGalley from Angry Robot in exchange for an honest review - thanks peeps)

Pale Kings starts off slowly, picking up where Lost Gods left off. Yongo takes his time to orient you: The Shedaim Brotherhood is broken, magic is stirring once again, dark beasts have arisen… and gods now walk the land. Strange visions come upon Neythan, Sidon must navigate his way through court intrigue and betrayal, and Daneel and Josef wrestle with the choices that pull them in opposite directions. The slow-build and the changing POVs are slightly disingenuous though. As revelations build, so does the tension, until you’re gripped by the events unfolding before you.

If there were an overarching theme to Pale Kings, it’s trust and betrayal. Nothing is as it seems—and that’s the beauty of this novel. As layer upon layer of history and the hidden past are revealed, Neythan soon discovers that everything he once believed in may not be the truth—and the things he thought were myth and children’s stories may prove truer than fact. Visions and prophecies don’t add clarity either, muddying perceptions of what is to come. When everyone and every faction is working to their own purposes, hiding secrets from each other, each new piece of information necessarily forces a fresh evaluation of who can and should be trusted.

There’s so much more to be unpacked in this epic about the gods who once walked the land and seek to do so once again. And that ending sets up so much excitement for things to come!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Angry Robot via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I enjoyed this, but unfortunately for me didn’t realise it was the second in the series, I felt a bit lost at times, but the writing was good and characters interesting, so not going to mark down for my lack of paying attention, enjoyable read, better if I had read the first.


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I was honestly pretty bored for the first half to two thirds of this book but then it got realllll good- all of the somewhat random elements of the first two books that had been building up finally came together. I’ll definitely be reading the next one when it comes out, and I hope that it keeps up the momentum of the last third of this book.

I requested this book without realizing it was a book 2 in the series. So I ended up getting the first book to be able to read it. I was actually excited because the covers are stunning and it being African inspired fantasy is great. But this book did not work for me and I had to DNF it.

One of the things that threw me from the start was reason. We got a deaf side character. He was good friends with our main character and there was use of sign language. Inclusive to a point. And yet it was just this character that got killed around page 30. It felt all kinds of icky to me and it took so much enjoyment out of the story because I was expecting the rep to be there throughout the book. It should have been there. Instead the character gets tossed away for the sake of our main characters revenge.

At that point my interest already wavered and I didn't get it back. While I think the world is great I could never refind my interest in any of the characters or the plot. I think the writing was also a bit on the dry side. And at this point I realized it was better for me to stop reading this book. Better to say this isn't for me and give the author another chance with a new series/book in the future.

I am very sorry I won't be able to read and review this book. Wishing the author a lot of luck with his release of this one.

It was interesting to advance from the first to the second book. All I can say is that it is very imaginative as a whole plot and I loved that

I unfortunately couldn't get into this book very much. I really enjoyed the world building and character development though! The actual writing dove deep into lore and descriptions, so you never really felt lost as to what was going on. My main problem was just that I wasn't too invested in the actual story. It was interesting enough for me to read, but by the end I was neither here nor there. I thought it was good, but just not for me. I'm sure there will be many people who will love this though. For me? It's just not it.

A book deep in lore that I found quite appealing as some books nowadays merely touch the surface, I will admit I had not read the previous book but I certainly will be now, I liked the character development and the world building and was fully immersed from start to finish, a damn good read!