Review: From Darkness Won (Blood of Kings, #3) by Jill Williamson @JillWilliamson

Tags

blood of kings, christian fantasy, from darkness won, jill williamson, young adult

Achan steps into his role as Crown Prince and prepares for war. But war against whom? Could Esek still be alive? Has Lord Nathak taken Esek’s place? Or is the mysterious Hadad the true enemy Achan must confront?

Vrell has her own agenda of serving Prince Oren as a healer, but when she is stormed and lost to the Veil, Achan does all he can to bring her back. His conversations with her are strange, though, as if she has no memory of who he is.

In a land consumed by Darkness, the fate of Er’Rets hangs in the balance as Achan endeavors to take the throne and end the reign of Darkness.

Blurb and cover from Goodreads

5 out of 5 stars

I love this series. I love this series SO FREAKING MUCH. Original, imaginative, inspiring, thrilling, enchanting, addictive—just a few adjectives to describe it. I am so sad to see the series end, but what an ending that was! I cannot remember the last time I binge read through a whole series beginning to end without reading anything else in between. I’m actually not sure it has happened before. This series consumed my literary adventures until the moment I ran out of trilogy.

As a Christian lover of Epic Fantasy, I cannot express all the ways and reasons I adore this series. For me, it was just perfect—perfect. Exactly what I have been needing lately and I’m dead serious when I say that every chance I get I shall be shoving this in people’s faces with all due fangirling and enthusiasm.

The plot:

It seems cliché to call the plot “fast” and I’ve said it before about the earlier books. It was certainly intense and never stayed in one place for very long. I admit I had a few of those “not enough book left for everything I want to happen” moments, but everything was okay in the end. There were some sad things, but everything was okay.

There were plot twists I did not see coming (another awesome point), what I considered to be highly realistic portrayals of individuals’ moral and spiritual struggles, and a good dose of action. In a word: awesome.

The characters:

Achan’s character arc is probably my favorite one in recent memory. In many ways, it’s not apparently obvious in the beginning just how much development he needs. (One of many parts I thought realistic.) He’s not a “bad” person in the beginning, but he comes to see over the course of the story that he can’t be truly “good” on his own, either. I loved that theme examining universally corrupt nature and Achan’s worries that he’ll repeat his father’s sins were a wonderful element as well.

As the blurb says, Vrell loses her memory in this one and can’t remember Achan or even guising herself as a boy for months. When that happened, it was a bit of a shock to realize how much character development she’d had when it was suddenly gone. Good grief. But I did like how her arc turned out as well, with her finally swallowing her pride and being honest and I LOVE THE ENDING SO MUCH I better stop there.

A wonderful series that I’m sorry to see end. I caught wind of the author writing another Achan and Vrell story, so I will be watching for that. I especially recommend this to Christians who don’t like Christian Fantasy (like me). Let this prove to you that religious fiction can be awesome, not preachy or boring or sermon-ish. Read it and then we can gush over it together!

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Review: To Darkness Fled (Blood of Kings, #2) by Jill Williamson @JillWilliamson

Tags

blood of kings, christian fantasy, epic fantasy, fantasy, jill williamson, young adult

Achan, Vrell, and the Kingsguard Knights have fled into Darkness to escape the wrath of the former prince. They head for Ice Island to rescue two of Sir Gavin’s colleagues who were falsely imprisoned years ago. Darkness is growing and only one man can push it back. Achan wanted freedom, not a crown. His true identity has bound him more than ever. He must learn decorum, wear fancy clothes, and marry a stranger. Achan knows one thing for certain. He will not be a puppet prince. Either he will accept his role and take charge or he will flee. But which will he choose?

Blurb and cover from Goodreads

5 out of 5 stars

I was hoping this would be as good as the last one and yep, it was. There was a little more exploration of the religious themes, but nowhere near the overwhelming levels I have encountered elsewhere. (By “overwhelming,” I mean uninterrupted monologues that elaborate theological teachings for a page or more straight. Here the Christian elements are brought in as part of the story AS THEY SHOULD BE.)

The plot:

I think this baby is 700+ pages in print. It is not for the faint of heart, but the story moves quickly and the words slip by before you know it. There was a great deal of character development in this book, especially with Achan. We meet a host of new characters and find out more about the backstory as well as the world building.

I got stressed reading this several times just because of the suspense levels, but I loved every second and I’m gobbling up the third and last book right now.

The characters:

As I mentioned, Achan has a lot of character development in this book. There’s a great deal more on his flaws and his difficulties in reconciling himself with the god he was basically taught nothing about. It was something I wanted to see the author explore and she does not disappoint. Achan goes through the whole angry at God and “why me?” set of thinking (realistic, I thought) and I thought the author handled it very well.

Despite a brief stint of self-pity and some trouble with basic morality in this book, Achan is still lovable and it’s hard to hate someone the author is knocking around every other chapter. I mentioned in my review of the first book that Achan is kind of like a punching bag and as promised, things do not get better. He still gets beaten up on a regular schedule and I feel terrible for him.

Vrell is still going under the guise of a boy and Achan has no clue (for most of the book anyway, but spoilers). I made the mistake of thinking her perfect (maybe just a little) in the first book, but no. She screws up and shows arrogance and pride and pig headedness and finds plenty of ways to make the reader scream “no!” All the same, I find her to be a likable and endearing character, which it isn’t very often I am this fond of a female lead. (Don’t ask why, I just tend not to like them.)

On top of our Joffrey-esque villain, Esek, from the first book, I’m fairly certain the devil turns up. It happens a little later in the story, so that’s all I’ll say, but we definitely have our fair share of villains, I just don’t have the space to mention them all.

A great series that I wish was far more popular and I think I’ll be going into withdrawals when I finish this series. If anyone hasn’t read this, go fix that now. If anyone has, let me know so we can gush over it together.

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Review: By Darkness Hid (Blood of Kings, #1) by Jill Williamson @JillWilliamson

Tags

blood of kings, by darkness hid, christian fantasy, fantasy, jill williamson, young adult

Given the chance to train as a squire, kitchen servant Achan Cham hopes to pull himself out of his pitiful life and become a Kingsguard Knight. When Achan’s owner learsn of his training, he forces Achan to spar with the Crown Prince, more of a death sentence than an honor. Meanwhile strange voices in his head cause him to fear he’s going mad. While escoring the prince to a council presentaiton, their convoy is attacked. Achan is wounded and arrested, but escapes form prison-only to discover a scret about himself he never believed possible.

Blurb and cover from Goodreads

5 out of 5 stars

This. THIS is how you write Christian Epic Fantasy. I’ll be honest, I usually hate these sorts of books. Christian fantasy (and Christian literature in general) tend to be…what is the word? Preachy. Overbearing. It pains me to say and I wish it weren’t so, yet it’s true. But none of that here.

I think I added this to my “Dear Santa” list over a year ago because it looked like my kind of trouble. Over vacation, I was browsing through my Amazon wish list and saw that it was free for Kindle. Fearing it was too good to be true, I prodded at the page for a bit before hitting “download.” A few days later, I went and bought the second. Now I’m reading the third and thinking there should be a bigger fandom for the series.

The plot:

Okay, so I did feel like the story was congested for the first two or three chapters. In the beginning, I was wondering where it was headed and thinking it was a little slow, but so many people on Goodreads and Amazon had loved it and I figured there had to be a reason. I quickly discovered that there was.

I’m one of those people who takes what happens to the characters personally. I spent plenty of time pacing, worrying, panicking, and putting down my Kindle because I couldn’t take the suspense. As soon as we got through the first few chapters, the story took off like a firework and swept me right up in it. I love it when a book does that and I admit there were a few twists I did not see coming.

The characters:

Achan is basically a punching bag for the local lowlife population. Poor baby. In essentially every other chapter, he’s getting punched, stabbed, shot, strangled, burned, poisoned, whipped, or something else horrible. (Spoiler: it does not get better as the series progresses.) He can be naive and occasionally self righteous, even temperamental, but all things considered, I think he turned out pretty fricking good. Sir Gavin is a knight who sort of takes Achan under his wing and I kept wanting to yell “DO NOT LEAVE HIM UNATTENDED!” every time Gavin walked off the page.

The other POV character is Vrell, a young noblewoman disguised as a foundling boy to avoid marrying the main villain. Their two storylines didn’t directly intersect until more than halfway through the book, I think, but still meshed together quite well. Vrell doesn’t take half the physical poundings Achan does (she’d probably be dead), but she still gets her fair share of trouble. She has her own set of faults and flaws and qualities and I thought she was a realistically structured character, just as Achan was.

At present, I’m trying to think of people I could coerce into reading this. I adored the story, greatly appreciated the author’s presentation of the religious elements, and I think my brothers and friends are going to have this shoved in their faces at the first possible opportunity.

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