I enjoyed this Dark Fantasy. It was written in a multiple POV when I say multiple I mean many. However, for me, I enjoyed this. I often enjoy multiple povs as it helps build the story by seeing the things that occur through different characters eyes, so to speak.

Interesting concept of good versus evil, powers versus curses and I enjoyed it.

"What the gods give with one hand, they take away with the other, for if you are gifted, you shall also be cursed.' I really enjoyed reading this book, it was a great Gods story and I loved this line so much. The link in the description was what caused me to request this.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the e arc.

I wish I had enjoyed this book but I didn’t get along with the writing style but it has promise. I personally didn’t read on after the first 5 chapters but I hope other readers had different opinions to me.

There were a lot of POV's that would switch around in the middle of a chapter a little to much for me personally but we are able to see some of the aftermath of certain scenes which was cool. I loved the idea that their powers were also a curse, that there is a give and a take involved. I had a few genuine laughs from Maya and Taran as their relationship evolved a little to quickly but also sweet and fluffy as they are on the run from the king. There was a lot death thanks to Kala's who is savagely brutal and a little overpowered because of the demon but he does still have some humanity in there. The witch king was gearing up to start another war and hunting down those who possess any magical ability while siphoning life from the land and his people's despair. For me this book landed between a 3 & 4 stars.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

Kings and Daemons is classic dark fantasy. It’s told in multiple points of view including Maya, a girl with the magical ability to heal a dying earth; Taran, a somewhat klutzy strong man who bumbles into situations without thinking things through; Rakan, whose innate hatred makes him an ideal soldier; plus Kallas and Daleth, both inhabited by daemons who drive their hatred and thirst for blood and vengeance. Though the book is dark, there is hope that Maya’s abilities will save their world. I enjoyed the system of magic—each gift also has a cost.

The pacing is occasionally off with some parts quite slow and some quite repetitive. I’m not sure if it is the writing or the formatting of the ARC, but there were places where sentences were incomprehensible. Overall the plot is a standard fantasy good vs evil without much to set it apart from others in the genre.

What the gods give one hand, take away with the other, if you are gifted, you shall also be cursed.

I enjoyed this book, mainly Maya’s and Taran’s side of it. It is broken into multiple pov’s which I love. Some parts were slow, but an interesting storyline kept me reading. It has kept me intrigued enough to wonder what will happen in the next book. If you like magic and fantasy worlds, you will like this book.

Kings and Daemons is a character driven dark fantasy set in a world devastated by one of the Kings from the title, Daleth the Witch King, who gains strength and longevity through sucking the life out of the lands and people he conquers.

Each of the characters we meet in this story is fully fleshed out and we are given their back stories and feel like we know them and understand their motives, however dark.

Daleth is pure evil, a typical fantasy villain and yet when we hear of his childhood backstory we maybe even feel a little sympathy for him. He collects people with magical gifts and either puts them to use in his evil campaign to overrun as many lands as possible, or has them killed. He himself has the gift of spirit walking; he is able to travel the spirit pathways while sleeping and visit anywhere he has previously set foot to spy on his lands. He is also able to spirit talk to his overseers miles away from him and keeps receiving the prophetic message ‘Kalas is coming’ without knowing who or what Kalas is.

Daleth’s army are ruthless and relentless, all compassion and empathy taken from them the minute they are given an amulet which denotes their allegiance to the Witch King and contains a small piece of ‘soul stone’:

“These stones deadened the soul, enhancing base emotions such as hatred and cruelty while suppressing others such as kindness or remorse, making whosoever wore them ruthless and cold.”

Rakan is another member of the Witch King’s army and therefore a merciless killer. He is a captain in the army and made Taran a corporal to save his life.

“Rakan’s eyes looked misty, ‘I can’t wait,’ he said, ‘I just can’t wait. The slaughter, the blood, the pleas for mercy, it makes you feel so alive!’ “

Over the course of the novel, however, Rakan’s character completely transforms. Once he stops wearing the amulet he becomes more human again and begins to see the error of his ways. He is now capable of empathy and becomes like a father to Taran by the end of the story. Taran and Maya’s love story is very sweet and a small ray of sunshine in a dark land. They give Rakan hope for the future, just as Maya spreads a trail of hope by her very footsteps in a land full of despair and sickness.

Taran is one of the heroes of this story and Maya’s love interest. He is gifted with the ability to read minds and tap into memories. He gets conscripted to the Witch King’s army by Rakan against his wishes. He never loses fights since, by using his gift, he can tell what his opponent’s next moves will be.

Taran is given the amulet which makes him bloodthirsty and uncaring. Luckily he recognizes its effects on him and removes the stone so he can continue wearing the amulet without having to suffer it’s effects.

Maya is gifted with magic healing abilities. She can create gardens and bring forth life where only dust and dirt has been before. She is also able to spirit walk and visit others in her sleep. The Witch King is aware of these gifts since she visited him in her sleep and he saw her. Now he wants her captured and brought to him.

Daleth sucks the life from the land by conquering it. As such he is the opposite of Maya, who brings forth life everywhere she goes. He had hoped to be able to use her gift so she could replenish lands he drained and then he could sustain himself from those lands once more, but he finds he is unable to drain lands she has brought back to life. She therefore becomes useless to him and he decides she must die.

Kalas is a very interesting character. He is possessed by one of the daemons of the title, as is Alano, his fellow soldier from fifty years ago. They were each possessed by a minor daemon brought forth from the nine hells via a portal opened by King Anders’ magi in a bid to protect himself and his legion of elite royal guard against the invading armies:

“The magi had believed they would gain the strength of the hell-born, the speed, the inexhaustible stamina and they were right, but they hadn’t known that they would share their minds, their thoughts and that the daemons would try to twist them to their wills and ways.”

Kalas receives renewed youth and strength after feeding on soldiers from the Witch King’s army, who murdered his wife and child. He struggles to keep the daemon under control now it has been reawakened after 50 years laying dormant. He is driven to fulfill the vow he made all those years ago, to kill the Witch King, or die trying, but now there are a hundred thousand soldiers on the Witch King’s side, getting ready to invade the Freestates.

The scenes with the daemons, driven only by bloodlust and hunger to kill are very dark and filled with gore and could just as easily belong in the horror fiction genre.

Marcus Lee is talented at describing his locations so that you can see them before you. From the opulence of the Freestates reigned over by King Tristan, to the sick and dying lands reigned over by the Witch King and the wonderful areas of beauty and regrowth brought about by Maya’s gift, everything is richly depicted and easily visualised.

“Long banners and tapestries hung on the walls, depicting not famous battles or heroic deaths, but rather the god of greed. Gold and jewels dripped from between his fingers, raining down upon the Freestates in approval of their pursuit of wealth, the noblest pursuit of them all.”

As can be expected in a tale of Kings, there are also plenty of political machinations in this book which lend depth and intrigue to the story. Anthrain is Tristan’s bodyguard, yet he plans to overthrow Tristan and become king instead.
Oh and did I mention, there are also giants! The elder of the giants sums up the premise for the trilogy’s title The Gifted and the Cursed nicely in the following exchange with Taran:

“Everyone who is gifted, young Taran, is also cursed. Mark my words. Look to your chosen one beside you. When she uses her gift to heal others, she ages herself. This Daleth the Witch-King as you call him, lives for hundreds of years, yet has no heirs and likely suffers from being unable to sire children. Kalas, your new comrade, would seem to have been gifted with extraordinary speed and skill, but was then possessed by a daemon.”

I read the second half of the book in one day, which is quite a rare thing for me to do, but I was completely gripped. Most of the second half of the book seems to be leading up to an epic battle between the two Kings and their armies, so I am excited to see that in the next instalment, Tristan’s Folly, which I am very much looking forward to reading soon.

In this book, we get to see a lot of characters’ POV and at times it was confusing (or maybe the ARC formatting was). In the many POVs, the “main characters” are Astren, Maya, Taran, Rakan, Kalas, and the Witch King - Daleth.

In the Kingdom of the Witch King, previously Ember Kingdom, there are some that have gifts that are sought out after to serve the king. Those who can hide their gifts, do so. Maya and Taran are two of such gifted people that are hidden from the king and live hard lives. Their paths cross when Maya is discovered and Taran is forced to join the king’s army under Rakan’s supervision.

While Kala’s doesn’t have a gift per se, he does have a secret that makes him different from everyone else. Kalas was a royal guard for the king of the Ember Kingdom and is one of the last survivors from Daleth’s invasion.

Daleth had a rough start to life until he discovered he had a gift. Once he began to use and hone that gift, he went from a shunned boy to the ruthless ruler he now is. That gift doesn’t allow for Daleth to be in one place forever and so he has to continuously campaign against other territories in order to “survive”.

Astren is a seer that works for the king of the Freestates, Daleth’s next target. Astren uses his gift to help coordinate the defense of the Freestates. In his spiritual travels, he meets Maya (who doesn’t fully understand her gift) and tries to educate her as much as time permits.

Maya is taken prisoner and transported to the king. Taran and Rakan’s unit is tasked with securing Maya. Taran finds it difficult to accept the way the rest of the soldiers treat Maya and so he uses his gift to help her within his limitations. Along the way the king finds that he no longer wants Maya and orders her to be killed and Taran & Rakan (begrudgingly) defend her and escape with her. They run towards the only safe place they know, the Freestates, but it’s a very hard journey.

All kinds of plans and plots are in motion in book 1 which sets up the story for the two others in the series. There’s definitely a lot of details to keep track of in order to follow the story.

This was an amazing read with a multi-perspective set in an intriguing land combining all the best things about fantasy. I loved the dark themes and the Witch-King's thirst for power. Marcus Lee's ability to weave a complex novel and make me love the characters I once hated is brilliant.

This story of an evil king and the small band of characters who eventually band together to oppose him is nearly unreadable. Flat characters, predictable plot, poorly written.

Honestly just an overall enjoyable high fantasy! If you have run out of fantasy to read, then here you are because its fun, intriguing, fast paced, and overall a great read

In order for life to bloom, death must also exist. But when all is taken and nothing is returned, the ultimate fight for survival begins. This story is breathtakingly beautiful! It held me captive with it's vivid details, action packed suspense, and heart wrenching moments! You couldn't ask for a better book to satiate a love for fantasy!