Michael is the son of David Kingman, a man who killed the young son of the King. However, we begin the book not with this event, but with Michael in the dock and sentenced to death.
The rest of the book is backstory, explained from the perspective of Michael, explaining how he got to this point.
After Michael’s father was executed for regicide, the rest of his family also suffered. Michael was reduced to scamming minor royalties to get the money to survive. This money in part goes to help his sister, Gwen, who looks after their mother Juliet in an asylum. For reasons that will become clearer later, Juliet is rather confused and seemingly incapable of independent care.
Michael manages to take up a post caring for Charles Domet, one of the most Machiavellian High Nobles in the country. It is dangerous – Domet has fired people for minor offences before – but the money is good and may help the family out of their current hardship.
This one took a little while to get going. I think it was about 60 pages in before this one really gripped me. There’s a terrorist attack which has consequences for Michael, his family and friends, and at this point I really got into the background of the story. How the High and Low Nobles operate and their need to be involved in the cattle-market referred to as ‘The Endless Waltz’ is an interesting idea, the set up at the court involves a combination of your usual brute force and magic, reminding me of the sort of courtly antics of Renaissance Europe.
More importantly, when Michael is nominated by Domet to take part in the Endless Waltz ceremonies for reasons that will become clearer later, Michael manages to get a look at some of the political shenanigans surrounding the King’s court and is able to use what information he gets to his own advantage.
One of the biggest revelations of the book is the magic system that operates. I can see why fans of Brandon Sanderson would like this aspect, as it appears to operate in that kind-of game-system style that fans of Allomancy will appreciate. Magic is something that users inherit through birth – not everyone can do it. In this novel the wielders of magic are called Fabricators and they can be of different elements – Air, Fire, Water and so on. Although their presence is not constant, the magic element does play an important part in the book.
In terms of the bigger picture we (and Michael) discover that his father may have been framed for the alleged murder, although why he didn’t object to the accusation that led to his death is still something of a mystery, but one that is resolved by the end of the book.
“All I’ve ever seen you do is make a stupid choice, complain about it, feel bad about it until whatever you want gets dangled in your face, and then go after it again to repeat the cycle.” (page 500)
I can see that the author has set himself a challenge here. It’s not easy to keep readers interest with a lead character who is often so negative. There are times when the “I’m so miserable” and “Everyone’s against me” tone can be wearying if the balance is not quite right, and occasionally the reader here might feel that Michael is nothing more than a whiny young man full of teenage angst.
To be fair, he is attacked and beaten up a lot.
Much of the book is about things happening to Michael without his knowing why. He is often reacting to things rather than taking the lead on matters, although this changes through the book. But there were times when I did wonder why people were helping Michael – he certainly has no idea himself. The characters supporting Michael are varied and generally interesting enough to keep things moving. I suspect that we will read more of them in later books. As you might expect, much of the last part of the book is Michael listing what he needs to do next, for the next volume.
I guess that much of this you may have read before. But whilst the trappings may be familiar, The Kingdom of Liars has enough about it to make it different. Whilst it could be seen as a little long, and one where the plot at times just so happens to allow the pieces to fall into place, once it gets going it’s an entertaining read. The last part of the book kept me reading.
On reflection, The Kingdom of Liars makes me think of a Fantasy version of Christopher Ruocchio’s recent SF debut Empire of Silence and has the qualities that I liked there as well – interesting worldbuilding, engaging plot, unusual characters. The Kingdom of Liars is an impressive debut, more so when you know that the author is in his mid-20s.
The Kingdom of Liars by Nick Martell
Published by Gollancz, May 2020
600 pages
ISBN: 978-1473225619
Review by Mark Yon
