King's Blood by Jill WilliamsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
King's Blood is Book 2 in the Kinsman Chronicles and continues right where Book 1 left off. Like the first book, this is three books (originally ebooks) compiled into an omnibus. It is a massive book, more so than King's Folly, with small print.
The main character, Wilek, continues to come to terms with his new belief in Arman as the only god, and has to compromise his beliefs with that of his father and others at times to maintain peace. I like how Wilek is willing to take things one step at a time to turn his people to true belief, as forcing them would cause chaos. In reality people often need to take several steps to come to terms with the truth.
Wilek also has to deal with his half-brother Janek and his secret society, which poor Hinckdan, one of my favorite characters, continues to spy on. Most of this story is political drama; I suppose there's only so much you can write about when your characters are stuck at sea for weeks on end. Even though the adventure aspect of the first 2 books in King's Blood was limited, I actually enjoyed the political drama. The author took the opportunity to build more on the characters themselves rather than the world. Wilek finally gets married to Zeroah despite the machinations of Charlon, and Trevn to Mielle (the latter in an odd, round-about way that was actually manipulated).
I didn't much like Charlon in King's Folly, mostly because I didn't get to see much of her character and her motivations appeared pretty shallow. However, I got to see a little more of her humanity and a deeper aspect of her motivations, which change through the story. I still don't like her, persay, as she is a villain, but I did enjoy seeing her strength in overcoming fellow villains.
Unfortunately, like King's Folly, the last parts of King's Blood were pretty rushed. The last book takes place on a new land Wilek discovers, Er'Rets, and they encounter tribes of giants and a race of pale-skinned people. Adventure and action take more precedent in the last book, although there's some things that are rushed, such as Trevn's escape from the giants and Wilek's death.
I enjoyed the book overall, but I had two big gripes: the number of named characters and terminology. The author did a lot of research into boats and sailing, and she shows that throughout the manuscript; however, she doesn't take enough time to explain the terminology, some of it none at all. There's a key to the flag ship at the start of the book, but it doesn't explain all the terminology. Williamson doesn't seem like an author that likes to show off what she knows through her story (which I've encountered in another story *shivers*), but unfamiliar things need explanation to a moderate degree.
There are so many named characters, many of which don't play a part, and some of which I don't remember later in the story. At the end of King's Blood, one of the members of the Hadar family is mentioned, and he's not in the family key at the start of the manuscript; I felt like he was thrown in there for convenience's sake in conveying a message to Trevn, not because he's an important character. I don't usually have a problem with having a lot of named characters in a series, but I have a hard time when so many are crammed into one book.
There were implications of rape and sleeping around with people on this one, but it wasn't emphasized as much as in King's Folly, and again it wasn't portrayed as acceptable. I'm grateful other plot devices were used in King's Blood. There's no bad language, and there was only one instance where she described some gore in a little more detail than needed.
Anyway, in the end I wasn't disappointed with King's Blood. It kept me riveted until they end, and I look forward to the next installment of the Kinsman Chronicles.
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