I am King is a fantasy adventure journey/chase with definite classic influences to its world and magic. Centered around Beau, a ten-year-old exiled prince from a country that’s in the midst of a civil war after his father was killed and another took the throne. Because of his lineage, the current king (Rancine) wants to find him and kill him, thus sending a party of men after him and giving birth to the story.
Instead of the more typical good versus evil, this story takes place after the “dark lord” is beaten and the world has to pick itself up and start anew. The magic is quite limited; being divided into dark and Paladin, but never being in the spotlight. It is also nothing new; one is based on blood and death and evil and the other on light and good deeds. That said, because it wasn’t explored in-depth, in could be improved upon in the following books.
The continent where the majority of the story takes place (Hattan) is medieval European, though it was well executed and didn’t feel like a stage. The place where most of the characters are from (The Middle Islands) is Caribbean-based, which definitely makes it distinctive. Overall, it didn’t have crazy deep worldbuilding like WoT or Stormlight nor something radically different like Rage of Dragons or Mistborn but it was consistent and fit the themes of the story.
Character is, in my opinion, one of its strengths, with the author being able to make me care about most of the characters on both sides. Royce and Gavin were especially interesting and, though their arcs weren’t to my particular taste, they were a big part of why I kept reading. The child characters; Beaumont and Julius were also well crafted, feeling very childlike but still like their own distinct people.
The plot was nothing special, though Damien didn’t pull his punches as far as killing characters was concerned (which I very much appreciated). This meant that I wasn’t sure which of the characters were going to make it, which made me more invested in the fight scenes. That said, Gavin’s arc was quite predictable (at least for me), though Royce’s was less so.
A great aspect of the story was its pacing, which always had some tension so that picking the book up was easy but never so much that it felt tiring or that I felt like I couldn’t put it down. The prose was in the modern Sanderson trend, opting for a straightforward approach instead of the more lyrical that was predominant in the classics. It was also far from the description-heavy style of the likes of Robert Jordan.
The ending felt like a nice conclusion to the story while still propelling the series forward. It also had a couple of bitter moments as well as some more cheerful ones.
Overall, this was a nice story that, while it didn’t blow me away, it was never difficult to pick up or boring and was able to make me care about some of its characters.
Spoiler Commentary:
Royce was probably my favorite character, as his very grey morally pulled me to him unlike others like Nisila, whose motivations felt very bland and unrealistic. I really understood him and could totally grasp why he acted the way he did. That said, his arc was somewhat uneven; going from almost redeemable to borderline evil. His ending was not what I expected, as I thought he would be killed by Duboi after crossing the line (whichever it may be) but it still wasn’t too far off.
Gavin, Beau and Julius were good characters and also well executed ones, though I didn’t feel for them as I did for Royce. Nisila also wasn’t relatable, so I didn’t get that attached to her. As for the rest of the characters, I liked everyone in Royce’s gang (especially Duboi and Jubvey) but I didn’t care for many more.
The one thing I didn’t like was when the characters were in Medling Port and the guards were speaking in a jargon that was a mixture of English and Spanish. This not only raised several linguistic issues; like why do all the other characters speak English? (or the same language) and understand each other, but also would be distracting and bothersome to those who don’t understand the language (as it was for me and I am Spanish).
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