So apparently this author is a booktuber or something. I never heard of him before reading this. I chose to reach this novel, because I’m trying to read more books by debut authors.
This novel reminded me of ‘Seven Blades in Black’ by Sam Sykes, in terms of having a feisty young woman protagonist travelling across a somewhat barren landscape. In ‘SBiB,’ the protagonist’s goal is revenge; in ‘Anji Kills a King,’ the protagonist Anji is fleeing after she assassinated a king. A few days later, Anji’s caught by the enigmatic bounty hunter ‘The Hawk,’ who then begins dragging Anji back home to be executed. This novel is the story of Anji and the Hawk traveling, as they fight against monsters, other bounty hunters and cultists.
I strongly enjoyed the book, but with a caveat: I found the first half of the book less compelling than the second half. If I were to grade the first half, I’d give it a 7 out of 10; I’d give the second half 9 out of 10. The first half was a bit slow, but I feel that the second half made up for it.
The good: the prose passes muster, in terms of the occasional appealing rhetorical flourish without any purple; interesting worldbuilding, while the narrative avoids ‘show, don’t tell’ mistakes; the pacing is above industry standard; good characters; good mastery of using intrigue to add tension to a plot. But it wasn’t altogether perfect. Let’s get started.
Notes
- Impetuous young woman protagonist.
- Coming of Age/Bildungsroman about an ~18 year old woman. (At least I think she’s 18? I don’t remember if the book specified. She might be a bit younger/older.)
- It’s marketed as Adult Fantasy, but I think it’s YA. Anyone 15+ could read it if they’re ready for a few adult themes.
- In the industry right now, there’s a tendency for some women authors to be categorized as YA, even if they’re better categorized as Adult.
- This is the opposite case; a male author’s YA novel was mis-categorized as Adult. Male readers generally don’t read YA, even if the readers are Young Adults themselves. So male authors get shoved into Adult even if they’re better put amongst YA. It happens fairly frequently, from what I’ve seen.
- Travelogue fantasy
- High Fantasy
- Restrained Scope.
- This is not an Epic fantasy with a million POVs; the only POV is Anji 3rd person.
- The scope of the plot is stuck right on Anji, to an almost suffocating degree. TBH, I think the book needed a few Hawk scenes.
- Dark Fantasy/Grimdark
- Drug use is common
- Generally gloomy atmosphere
- Mother/daughter toxic relationship vibes
CONCEPT AND EXECUTION
Anji is the orphan daughter of two rebels, slain by the corrupt government. Through good luck, she’s sent to work at the king’s palace. Six years later, she kills the king and flees… only to be caught a few days later by the Hawk. The Hawk is a member of the Menagerie, a group of animal-themed bounty hunters who do the government’s dirty work. Captured by the Hawk, Anji is on borrowed time before her torture and execution by the government. The only possible way for Anji to escape is to befriend the jaded bounty hunter.
Overall, the story was well executed. I can make minor quibbles here and there about the book: I felt the the first half of the story was mildly weaker than the second half; the novel needed another line-edit pass to catch a few punctuation errors; I found Anji to be annoying at moments. But overall, the story functions on a mechanical level.
And I was really impressed with how the author avoided common mistakes which most debut authors make. If this author keeps improving, I think this author is one to watch.
CHARACTERS AND STRUCTURE
In most genre fiction, authors try to blend two (or more) narratives into a single novel: the A plot, and the B plot. In a crime drama, the A plot will be the actual story about the mystery they’re trying to solve; the B plot will be the relationship trouble the detectives are having in the background while the case is going on. In ‘Anji,’ the A plot is a rebellion against the government, while the B plot is Anji and Hawk’s frenemy mother/daughter relationship.
In ‘Anji,’ the author attempts something difficult. The A plot is unfocused. There’s minimal dialogue about it, no side characters, no making choices about the rebellion. The B plot dominates ‘Anji’ pagecount. In most genre novels, the A plot takes up more pagecount than the B plot; the only type of novel I can think of where the B plot is more important than the A plot is Romance.
The author chose an extremely difficult story to tell as a result of this A plot/B plot ratio. This type of novel absolutely depends on the reader investing into the relationship between the primary couple in the novel. Anji and the Hawk aren’t in love, but their frenemy status is the whole point of this novel. For this novel to be successful, the narrative must create believable chemistry between the two characters. And as this isn’t Romance, the author can’t rely on spice to keep readers entertained in the face of sloppy writing.
‘Anji Kills a King’ is a two-person character study, from a debut novelist no-less. I’m not brave enough to attempt to write this novel, because there are so many way to screw this up. I’m impressed, because I was genuinely emotionally moved at the events at the end of the novel. The author was successful in selling the mother/daughter relationship between the two.
This book has small stakes: Anji’s life is on the line, and that’s pretty much it. This isn’t a book with world-altering stakes; there is no big-bad who needs to be slain, for example. If you don’t find Anji compelling as a character, you might struggle with the novel’s tension and stakes.
One final note: Anji as a character can be annoying at times. She frequently gets verbally obtuse with the Hawk and the Menagerie. I can’t call her ‘sassy,’ but she does push boundaries with her dialogue. Her behavior broke my suspension of disbelief. TBF, I prefer sincerity. Anji did have moments of sincerity, but they were relegated to the end of the story; that’s a big reason why I gave the second half of the book a 9 out of 10 vs the first half 7 out of 10- Anji was less obtuse in the second half.
Taking a step back to look at the wider genre, these days sassy/sarcastic/spitfire protagonists are common. And I struggle enjoying these protagonists, because it feels like the protagonist always ‘win’ in every conversation. For me at least, the need to have a quippy, underdog protagonist feels like wish fulfillment.
Merely using the words ‘wish fulfillment’ can be interpreted as a condemnation, but I don’t mean it as such; a big draw to the Fantasy genre for pretty much everyone is the wish fulfillment, myself included occasionally. But everyone has different wishes, so what works as wish fulfillment for one person might not work for another. So where I found the first half to be 7 out of 10, people who like teenage spitfire protagonists will find the first half 10 out of 10.
SPOILERS:
Again, Anji grows less sure of herself towards the end of the book. I wound up enjoying her as a character when she finally started ‘losing’ conversations. I liked how Anji’s bullshit eventually resulted in her losing some fingers when the Menagerie got fed up with her. That was good characterization for the Menagerie, and the impetus for Anji’s character growth. And I especially enjoyed the revelation that Anji accidentally got her best friends killed, as a result of her recklessness. That is the sort of nuanced storytelling and ethical ambiguity I rarely find, especially in YA lit. The author really flexed his storytelling chops.
WORLDBUILDING AND PROSE
The author used restrained prose and worldbuilding, keeping the lens of focus on Anji at all times. The author never infodumps about a topic; instead, the author ‘shows, don’t tells’ important information. For example, there is a drug which when you use it, you gradually transform into a demon. Instead of infodumping that knowledge, the author shows a demon. Another example, there is a corrupt religion; instead of saying ‘this is a corrupt religion,’ the narrative goes to a brothel and shows a priest there. This is ‘show, don’t tell’ done very well.
This ‘restrained’ prose is taken to such an extreme that I have difficulty imagining what the world is beyond the bounds of what Anji saw during the events of the story. I think it would have been okay if the author infodumped a little more, to help add richness to the setting.
I enjoyed the prose. It was mostly functional, with a touch of beauty here and there; using the ‘windowpane/stained glass’ metaphor, where windowpane glass is invisible prose, like Sanderson; stained glass is beautiful prose, perhaps poetic or lyrical or mystical, like Rothfuss or McKillip. This novel leans heavily on the windowpane side, but with a bit of stained glass here and there.
John Mendez- Book Reviews and More 