A fantasy debut novel emblazoned with a quote from Brandon Sanderson atop the dust jacket sets a certain expectation. Nick Martell’s The Kingdom of Liars has that expectation and launches The Legacy of Mercenary Kings, which takes place in a world where the cost of magic is memories, a world where one of the moons is broken and pieces of it fall to the Earth, a world where Michael Kingman is living in infamy as his father is an traitor, executed for killing a prince and heir to the throne 10 years prior to the start of the novel.
In this brilliant debut fantasy, a story of secrets, rebellion, and murder are shattering the Hollows, where magic costs memory to use, and only the son of the kingdom’s despised traitor holds the truth.
Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family.
In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind. So when the opportunity arrives to get folded back into court, via the most politically dangerous member of the kingdom’s royal council, Michael takes it, desperate to find a way back to his past. He discovers a royal family that is spiraling into a self-serving dictatorship as gun-wielding rebels clash against magically trained militia.
What the truth holds is a set of shocking revelations that will completely change the Hollows, if Michael and his friends and family can survive long enough to see it.
Michael Kingman is sentenced to death for murdering the king, which is where the story opens and a pretty interesting hook. He recounts the events that led to his sentencing. Set in the Hollows, a once gilded nation now struggling to regain its former glory, there’s still a hierarchy of society. Much like the nation is down on its luck, so is Michael. He is literally branded for his father’s crimes, much of his drive is to redeem his family’s names. The young children are taken in by a kindly
In the Hollows, before Michael’s father David killed the prince, the Kingman family always advised the rulers of the land. Not exactly subtle with that last name. To an extent, Michael embraces the infamous name associated with his family running small cons with his friends to help keep his family safe; his sister Gwen is caring for their mother who has a mysterious illness, including loss of a significant chunk of her memory.
The magic in this world is present, potent, but not overbearing. In other words, it doesn’t exactly consume the characters actions, but it is treated with enough respect and awe especially since the consequences of using magic is a loss of memory. Reminiscent of Avatar: the Last Airbender, the magic wielders are known as Fabricators and connected to a specific element like Fire, Water, or Air. Where the magic has its deepest impact is the idea of memory loss, which is very evident in Michael, which makes him an interesting unreliable first-person narrator. As he encounters some of the critical characters in his orbit, they know him, but Michael’s own memory of those characters is nonexistent. That element puts a nice wrinkle of tension throughout the plot.
As Michael continues his quest to redeem his family’s name, he connects with a mercenary named Dark. Or rather, Michael winds up indebted to Dark. Meanwhile, his sister Gwen puts him in touch with a mysterious old man Charles Domet, an ailing High Noble of the Hollow. Domet hires Michael as his “assistant” and the two realize they can work together to re-establish the Kingman name’s standing in society as they have mutual goals, even if Michael doesn’t initially realize this or understand why Domet is pushing Michael in the ways he is. The primary path for Michael’s reentry is “The Endless Waltz,” a societal competition and Domet’s Noble connections allows him to make it possible for Michael to participate despite his infamous family.
There are a lot of familiar fantasy elements in Martell’s world and the novel. There’s a royal family, there’s magic, there’s a youthful headstrong protagonist at the center of the story, political rebellion, mercenaries/assassins, and wizened mentor who is more than outward appearances would lead one to believe (including Michael!). Martell puts a great spin on these familiar elements and has a great hook to his magic system which has a ripple effect on the characters despite its limited use. I particularly liked the character of Domet and his interactions with Michael in all of their scenes together.
For all the right reasons, The Kingdom of Liars resonated with Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastards sequence, Joe Abercrombie’s First Law, and Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn novels, from the world, Domet, and the magic respectively. Again, Martell brings ample originality and his own voice to the novel and the world that I couldn’t help but love meant that I blew through about 150 pages in the first sitting and there was no turning back.
The Kingdom of Liars is an immensely absorbing fantasy debut. Martell told a complete story, but it is very clear he has more to tell of Michael Kingman and the Hollows, especially how he brought the novel to a fantastic conclusion. I for one cannot wait to read the second novel, The Two-Faced Queen.
Also worth noting that my SFFWorld colleague, Mark Yon, had some really nice things to say about The Kingdom of Liars in May.
Highly recommended.
© 2020 Rob H. Bedford
June 2020 | Saga Press
608 Pages | Hardcover
https://www.nickmartell.com/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Saga Press
Excerpt: https://www.tor.com/2020/06/18/read-an-excerpt-from-the-kingdom-of-liars/
