“This is the only offer of free passage you’ll get. Leave now, or consider yourself a permanent member of Cruor. Stay, and help me build something new. If you don’t want to take on bounties, don’t. If you do, fine. But I’ll never force your hand again. Cruor’s Oath should be a decision you make, not one I dictate. We’ll find a way to survive because our strength comes from each other.”
From here there will be some spoilers present. If you don’t want to spoil the story, stop here.
Kingdom of Exiles is the debut novel of staff writer and editor Maxym M. Martineau, and she’s got a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Arizona State University. Her book is scheduled to be released in June 2019.
Leena is a Charmed exiled from her home. With no funds for food or survival, she sells her beasts on the black market to support herself – an offense punishable by death. A bounty is placed on her head, and when the first assassin makes an attempt on her life, she bests him and forces him to take her to his guild.
There she makes a deal with the guild leader, Noc – her life for four beasts from class B. What she doesn’t realize, is that assassins rarely keep their word, and she’s gotten herself stuck in a position where she’s slowly growing closer to the four assassins accompanying her on the quest to retrieve these beasts.
Noc is also in a position that makes his life difficult. While he must obey the order to kill Leena, he’s taking an interest in her, but he can’t risk his guild because of a woman. No matter what they do, and unbeknownst to Leena, it seems like her death is inevitable once the journey ends.
What I truly enjoyed about this story, was the beasts we got to meet along the way. From the blurb of the book, we were promised a mix of Fantastic Beasts and Assassins Creed. While I did find the Assassins Creed part to be nonexistent, the Fantastic Beasts part were wondrous. It reminded me a lot of Lucy’s powers from the Japanese manga, Fairy Tail – with the keys and Leena’s ability to call them forth as she wished.
I adored the characters we got to spend time with, and I loved their dynamic. They played nice with each other and added spice to the story. Their backstories were added to the story in a subtle way, and I think the author avoided the typical info-dump a lot of debut authors falls victim to.
At times they did feel forced and stereotypical, however. Especially Calem with his ‘trying to get in your pants in a flirtatiously kind of way’. After escaping the brink of death, his first action is to flirt with the councilwoman who saved his life, and she – a powerful woman – blushed and found herself unable to answer. It didn’t feel believable in the slightest.
While the author did avoid the info-dump trap, the worldbuilding and explanation of the magic system fell flat. At times it felt like this book was the second one in a series, and all the vital information had been provided in a previous book.
It was written in a way that expected us to know what was going on, without the information at hand. When the characters talked about certain characters or events, I found myself confused because I had no clue what they talked about. Luckily, I have an imagination, so I took the liberty of filling in the missing pieces myself.
I did enjoy Leena as a character in the first chapters. She seemed like a strong woman who was level-headed, intelligent, and way stronger than she lets on. She had a survival instinct like no other. As the story progressed, she leveled down to become a damsel in distress. I lost count of how many times she lost consciousness due to overextending her powers. Doesn’t seem like an intelligent move on her part when she’s surrounded by assassins who got a bounty on her head. Where did the survival instinct go?
And as I mentioned, she’s exiled from her home. Her greatest wish is to go back and become a part of the council. The last part of the story takes place in her homeland, and because of the events that unfold there, she’s suddenly welcomed back with open arms and even offered a seat at the council – just like that. At this point, the book felt more like a YA-novel than a fantasy novel. Everything was rainbows and sunshine, and it lost its depth.
All in all, I do believe the author has a lot of potential, and this is far from the worst debut novel I’ve read. I am rating it 2 stars because of the way the story progressed from being realistic and believable till just another YA-story with rainbows and sunshine where every character of importance magically survived.
From here there will be some spoilers present. If you don’t want to spoil the story, stop here.
Kingdom of Exiles is the debut novel of staff writer and editor Maxym M. Martineau, and she’s got a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Arizona State University. Her book is scheduled to be released in June 2019.
Leena is a Charmed exiled from her home. With no funds for food or survival, she sells her beasts on the black market to support herself – an offense punishable by death. A bounty is placed on her head, and when the first assassin makes an attempt on her life, she bests him and forces him to take her to his guild.
There she makes a deal with the guild leader, Noc – her life for four beasts from class B. What she doesn’t realize, is that assassins rarely keep their word, and she’s gotten herself stuck in a position where she’s slowly growing closer to the four assassins accompanying her on the quest to retrieve these beasts.
Noc is also in a position that makes his life difficult. While he must obey the order to kill Leena, he’s taking an interest in her, but he can’t risk his guild because of a woman. No matter what they do, and unbeknownst to Leena, it seems like her death is inevitable once the journey ends.
What I truly enjoyed about this story, was the beasts we got to meet along the way. From the blurb of the book, we were promised a mix of Fantastic Beasts and Assassins Creed. While I did find the Assassins Creed part to be nonexistent, the Fantastic Beasts part were wondrous. It reminded me a lot of Lucy’s powers from the Japanese manga, Fairy Tail – with the keys and Leena’s ability to call them forth as she wished.
I adored the characters we got to spend time with, and I loved their dynamic. They played nice with each other and added spice to the story. Their backstories were added to the story in a subtle way, and I think the author avoided the typical info-dump a lot of debut authors falls victim to.
At times they did feel forced and stereotypical, however. Especially Calem with his ‘trying to get in your pants in a flirtatiously kind of way’. After escaping the brink of death, his first action is to flirt with the councilwoman who saved his life, and she – a powerful woman – blushed and found herself unable to answer. It didn’t feel believable in the slightest.
While the author did avoid the info-dump trap, the worldbuilding and explanation of the magic system fell flat. At times it felt like this book was the second one in a series, and all the vital information had been provided in a previous book.
It was written in a way that expected us to know what was going on, without the information at hand. When the characters talked about certain characters or events, I found myself confused because I had no clue what they talked about. Luckily, I have an imagination, so I took the liberty of filling in the missing pieces myself.
I did enjoy Leena as a character in the first chapters. She seemed like a strong woman who was level-headed, intelligent, and way stronger than she lets on. She had a survival instinct like no other. As the story progressed, she leveled down to become a damsel in distress. I lost count of how many times she lost consciousness due to overextending her powers. Doesn’t seem like an intelligent move on her part when she’s surrounded by assassins who got a bounty on her head. Where did the survival instinct go?
And as I mentioned, she’s exiled from her home. Her greatest wish is to go back and become a part of the council. The last part of the story takes place in her homeland, and because of the events that unfold there, she’s suddenly welcomed back with open arms and even offered a seat at the council – just like that. At this point, the book felt more like a YA-novel than a fantasy novel. Everything was rainbows and sunshine, and it lost its depth.
All in all, I do believe the author has a lot of potential, and this is far from the worst debut novel I’ve read. I am rating it 2 stars because of the way the story progressed from being realistic and believable till just another YA-story with rainbows and sunshine where every character of importance magically survived.