Ratings11
Average rating3.8
"Everything epic fantasy should be: rich, cruel, gorgeous, brilliant, enthralling and deeply, deeply satisfying. I loved it."—Lev Grossman on The Ruin of Kings You can have everything you want if you sacrifice everything you believe. Kihrin D'Mon is a wanted man. Since he destroyed the Stone of Shackles and set demons free across Quur, he has been on the run from the wrath of an entire empire. His attempt to escape brings him into the path of Janel Theranon, a mysterious Joratese woman who claims to know Kihrin. Janel's plea for help pits Kihrin against all manner of dangers: a secret rebellion, a dragon capable of destroying an entire city, and Kihrin's old enemy, the wizard Relos Var. Janel believes that Relos Var possesses one of the most powerful artifacts in the world—the Cornerstone called the Name of All Things. And if Janel is right, then there may be nothing in the world that can stop Relos Var from getting what he wants. And what he wants is Kihrin D'Mon. Jenn Lyons continues the Chorus of Dragons series with The Name of All Things, the epic sequel to The Ruin of Kings A Chorus of Dragons 1: The Ruin of Kings 2: The Name of All Things 3: The Memory of Souls At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Series
5 primary booksA Chorus of Dragons is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2019 with contributions by Jenn Lyons.
Reviews with the most likes.
Why. Just, why. A billion pages of yawning backstory/flashbacks, 50 pages of actual stuff furthering the plot from Book 1. I am so disappointed. I won't be bothering with book 3 :(
This is an undeniably ambitious series. Here, in the second book, we are introduced to a completely different main character, with a new narrator construction. Whilst the first book took the form of an interrogation transcript, this one is more a series of stories told in tavern. The world is expanded and more stories are brought in, which intertwine with the first book in a pleasing way. I get a certain Malazan vibe with this interwoven story style (although the prose is very different). If anything, the prose has improved into this book, the scope of its story is slightly narrower and a lot of the heavy lifting on the world building front has already been done in the first book. This lets the room breath more and feel a little less rushed.
I am ultimately intrigued where this story is going, and thoroughly look forward to continuing!
I recently read the first book in this series and mentioned how chaotic and confusing it was. While most of the reviews for this sequel say this one is easier to follow, I had the opposite experience. I could not tell you what the full plot of this book was. I understood the bare bones, but I can not keep track of all of these different characters. I was constantly confused on who was a good and a bad guy, and that made it nearly impossible to discern what was happening.
All of that to say, I still really enjoyed this book. I don't know if it's just the interesting, diverse cast of characters, or if it's the narrators that made it fun for me. But even though I could hardly follow the plot, I still found myself enraptured with it. I'm giving it 3 stars solely because it is just so confusing to me. I didn't enjoy this one as much because of it. While the first one was confusing, I still at least could differentiate the characters and follow the plot, albeit loosely. This one, I couldn't differentiate any of the characters besides the main cast of like 4 characters. Everyone else was a blur to me so I couldn't keep track of what anyone's motivations were or even who everyone was. My confusion could be because I listened to the audiobook instead of reading a physical copy, or it could just be that my comprehension skills weren't up to snuff while I was reading. Either way, I can't give it more than 3 stars since I couldn't even really tell you what it was about.
Overall, I do still recommend this book to any epic fantasy fans. Most reviews say this book is easier to follow, so I'm definitely in the minority with my confusion.
TW: assault, blood, bones, child abuse, death, demons, fire, gore, homophobia, misgendering, misogyny, physical abuse, poisoning, pregnancy, sexism, rape, slavery, violence, war