Title: Mark of Kings (The Shattered Reigns Book 1)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R818YQ3
Author: Luke Chmilenko, Bryce O’Connor
Rating: 4.1/5
Comments
Mark of Kings is aimed solidly at the Fantasy Epic market and it mostly succeeds. My issues with it are less about the story than how it’s delivered. There are several POV changes which, in my opinion, do nothing to actually advance the story, but are just there to attempt to add emotional impact. At least for me they generally fail in that unless they were aiming for the emotion of annoyance, in which case they succeeded. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say one annoyed me to the point that I almost quit reading. That entire chapter could be removed and it would actively help the story.
My other gripe about the story is that it seems to meander about for most of the book without accomplishing a whole lot as far as getting us into the story, but delivering us a whole heaping plate of history and backstory. This is thankfully accomplished without massive infodumps, but I think they could have lightened them up without hurting the story, and it would have improved the pacing and flow, while simultaneously shortening the book.
I will most likely read the sequel, but I’m going to have to give myself a break. Fortunately the cast of characters is fairly small (essentially three important characters), so a break won’t really be an issue.
Bedroom Activities: None
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