Reviewed by Quirky Cat on
The King’s Peace is an action filled fantasy adventure of epic proportions. This isn’t the first of Kevin Hammond’s novels, and it shows. There’s a complexity to the plot that can only come with time and practice. This is one of those stories that when you pick it up and start reading you think it’s one thing, but when you actually sink your teeth into it you realize it’s a completely different beast (and I mean that in a good way).
I’ll admit it took me a little while to get into this story and become invested in Nathaniel (the main character). The whole first chunk of the book is about him and his past; taking it’s time in setting up his character and traits. While I greatly appreciate the effort put into it, I was pretty happy to see things start moving more swiftly. So if you’re reading this and you’re debating about continuing, please give another chapter or two. Trust me.
I really loved how dark this series was willing to go – Hammond explored the consequences of inequality by showing us how a magical disaster would differently affect all tiers of class. It became pretty clear very quickly on who he thought would be the worst affected, and to be frank, I agree with his assessment. I appreciate that he didn’t shy away from this fact, or have it be a small background element (a trait that many other epic fantasies are guilty of, unfortunately). But rather it was a driving force for Nathaniel, which made me like the character that much more.
It took me a while to sort out the different gods and religions for this world, but I actually liked that. There was no clear or defined belief that the kingdom had, but rather a variety of gods whom people could chose to believe in. Naturally each god had their own domain, or benefit for worshipping them; this isn’t an uncommon way of handling it (which is fine by me).
I can safely say that I wasn’t sure what to expect by the time I came to the end of this novel. After the introduction it was made quickly apparent that I couldn’t base my expectations on assumptions, since Hammond’s pretty good at throwing twists and turns at me. I loved this, and thus I’m not going to ruin the ending by talking about it (you’ll thank me later, trust me).
This was the first work I’ve read by Kevin Hammond, but I have to say I’m impressed. I loved the details strewn throughout this novel, as well as his focus and development of the main character. I’ll be curious to see what Hammond’s other novels are like.
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Reading updates
- Started reading
- 4 February, 2018: Finished reading
- 4 February, 2018: Reviewed