lood of the Old Kings has a lot of makings of an epic fantasy: a few POVs, people trying to overthrow an empire, battles, political intrigues, sorcerers, and, oh yeah, dragons.

We hit the ground running with each of the three main characters' introductory chapters. Cain is well-connected in the city and trying to use those connections to find out what caused the death of his mentor and closest friend. Arienne is disillusioned with the magical academy that she's grown up at, knowing that it's all to train her so that her corpse can continue to power the Empire, and is sneaking into the secret chambers of the academy and making a break for it. And Loran, well, Loran is waking a dragon and getting a magical sword, all in the name of vengeance for her family and taking back her homeland from the Empire. So, a lot going on from the first three chapters!

All three POVs were engaging and unique from one another - however, I'm not sure if the latter was because of unique voices or rather because each POV character had a distinct plot. This was, to me, a book focused more on plot than on characters, but I mean this in a kind of odd way. I don't feel like the characters were at all interchangeable and I feel like they did all drive their own plots - plot didn't just happen to them - but I don't feel that any of Cain, Arienne, or Loran really had personalities outside of their plotlines. They were distinct characters and had thought put into them, but I don't think they were particularly complex characters.

Another highlight for this book was the magic. Between Loran's use of her dragon-enchanted sword, Warmuth, and the Empire being powered by the corpses (!) of sorcerers (!!) as power generators, this was a very cool concept of magic.

I know this is the first book in a series, but I did like that it stands on its own - it doesn't end on a cliffhanger, you could read it as a standalone. It's great when books in a series have actual self-contained plots, although it's easy to see how this world can be further explored in sequels. So this is a plus for me! However, it did make Cain's plot feel a bit . . . pointless, compared to Loran and Arienne. It was very isolated, in its way, instead of the more grand plots of the other two POV characters.

Another part of the plot that didn't quite work for me was that I felt that it went from scene to scene so quickly, without any time to breathe. You could have definitely stretched Loran's plot over a couple of books with more development for her. Maybe I wouldn't feel that way if I saw what her plot in later books was going to be, but as it is, while I'm not against reading other books in this series, I also don't feel a huge draw to do so, since this was wrapped up pretty nicely.

If you're looking for a fast-paced high fantasy book with motivated characters, strong worldbuilding, a unique magic system, and a dragon, then look no further, and you'll probably have a fun time with this one!

3.5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher, Orbit, and to NetGalley for the ARC.

From the get-go the world of this book really stuck out to me, the body’s of dead sorcerers being Power Generators for the Empire was so fascinating and really sums up how the fantasy and sci-fi elements of this book are pulled together.

The three different POVs in this book, are so different that they could be their own books but together the interwovenness of them really works and is seen the beginning in really subtle ways that make a lot of sense. Although I will say I was the most invested in Loran’s story, for me hers was the most interesting and she herself is the most interesting character in the book. Arienne’s was second for me, and I did kind of like the youthfulness that she brings to the story. Cain’s was the weakest, and I could tell from his first chapter that I wasn’t going to be as invested in him or his story as the others.

From the beginning I didn’t jell when with the writing style of this book, and honestly I don’t really like it – but I will give it some grace because this book is translated and I’m sure that reading this book in the language it was originally written would bring much more to the experience.

This book is pretty fast paced, which I do tend to like as it helps keep the momentum of reading it going and the use of time jumps can work really well. But sometimes the time jumps here could really disrupt the flow of the book, which I think is a shame.

Overall, I did enjoy myself and I think the world that has been crafted is really interested. But I’m not sure if I would pick up the sequels as I know this is the first in a series just because of the writing style.

This book was just fantastic. Not a single think I can fault. Great characters, well written, interesting plot, the world building was one so well.
Just an overall very epic book!
would love to read more by this author!

Here we have a strong candidate for my favourite book of 2024! It’s been a while since I’ve been hooked on a new fantasy series to this extent - Blood of the Old Kings completely captured my attention and its world-building is absolutely top-notch. This is a strong recommendation for anyone looking to delve into a new fantasy world, whether you’re widely read or new to the genre.

More important than any technical or writing prowess, this world created here is simply awesome! A repressive empire, a novel approach to necromancy, mechanised war units, AND a seven-eyed dragon trapped under a volcano?! Yes please, sign me up! The necromancy elements in particular deserve a lot of praise for their ingenuity. Sorcerers find themselves in an unusual position in this world, since their bodies can be used as powerful power generators upon their death, with the strength of the generator being proportional to the power of the sorcerer; essentially, sorcerers are often worth more to the empire they serve dead than alive. The sense of scale and dread created when discussing the dragon and the mech units is fantastic too, and really adds weight to the story.

Blood of the Old Kings has three lead characters all with their own plotlines, and honestly the overall story is somehow better than the sum of its parts! The stories work together perfectly to help paint a picture of the world, subtly influencing each other without tangling in a mess. Breaking it down, we have the chosen one who’s forging her own destiny, the academic runaway and the sleuthing street rat. The MCs fall into categories we’ve seen a hundred times before, but they’re written with such vibrancy and energy that I completely overlooked the fact.
It feels like all the characters actually belong in the same world, with no chapters resorting to filler at any point.

Hats off to Sung-Il Kim and translator Anton Hur for your newly published lightning in a bottle! I can’t wait to read any future instalments in the world you’ve created.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. I enjoyed this multiple POV epic fantasy. Each of the characters felt very unique and I particularly liked how at times their stories briefly interconnect and how the other characters actions influenced events around them. The story was very well constructed in this way and so felt very immersive. The pacing on this is brisk, which is good in many ways as it is a nice easy read (the translator did a fantastic job) and we skip the more tedious parts of characters moving around however at times I also felt that the jumps broke some of the immersion. I also felt this during some the battle scenes. Overall, I highly recommend this to epic fantasy readers!