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zoe_e_w's review
1.0
I'm putting King's Justice down 160 pages in, or roughly at halfway point in the book, and I can't recall when I've felt more cheated by a sequel. I loved the first book in this series, King Maker, but even then, I'd noted that the book spent more time with the villains than it did with the heroes. This felt fitting to me in the first book, because Arthurian legends aren't so much about King Arthur as they are about his kingdom. Nevertheless, I assumed that with the street gangs in King's Indianapolis hood having fallen apart, the second book would be more about King and his crew of "knights."
No, instead, we're introduced to a group of gang bangers so similar that even if one is fae and the other is a human haunted by his childhood encounter with the lady of the lake, there's virtually no difference in their methods of running gangs. Both men strive to look hard in everything they do, and as a result, neither man has any personality, nor do they give readers any reason to ride shotgun with them.
I think that if this were an gangland urban fantasy without trying to cling to Arthurian legend, it might have worked. If I were rating this as a standalone novel with no connection to King Arthur, my expectations would be vastly different. But this second book in an Arthurian series is a bait and switch, and the heroes have not had a role in this story at all. They're an afterthought. Everyone is an afterthought, and I've struggled to make it this far due to a wandering, head hopping narration and a lack of direction for any character, good or bad. More and more new characters are piled on, and I just don't care about any of them.
Another problem is the depiction of all women in this book. I realize that the author is trying to show how these gangstas and hustlers think, but given the amount of head hopping already going on, I would have liked to see something more substantial in the way of character development for the ladies returning from the first book. But even when they are given time to develop, it's in repetitive ways that seem to reinforce that all women are just sneaky hos looking for a way up the food chain.
My breaking point finally came when a gang lieutenant is given The Ring, allowing him to turn invisible and beat a larger man with impunity. Cribbing The Hobbit in the middle of what was supposed to be a retelling of King Arthur's legend was one plot device too far, and I only made it another five pages before I decided to drop the story. Even the return of Dred (Mordred) couldn't keep me locked in this dull pattern of self-destructive posturing.
Given how much I gushed over the first book, I really wanted this to go somewhere, and it never did. This story loses focus so badly that even though I bought the third book, King's War, I'm not going to bother reading it either. With apologies to the author, whom I have great respect for due to his much better writing in The Devil's Marionette and King Maker, I give King's Justice 1 star. Again, I feel like the victim of a bait and switch. I was told to expect a story of the Knights of Indianapolis, and instead I am forced to ride with a gang of unmemorable and unlikable knaves instead.
No, instead, we're introduced to a group of gang bangers so similar that even if one is fae and the other is a human haunted by his childhood encounter with the lady of the lake, there's virtually no difference in their methods of running gangs. Both men strive to look hard in everything they do, and as a result, neither man has any personality, nor do they give readers any reason to ride shotgun with them.
I think that if this were an gangland urban fantasy without trying to cling to Arthurian legend, it might have worked. If I were rating this as a standalone novel with no connection to King Arthur, my expectations would be vastly different. But this second book in an Arthurian series is a bait and switch, and the heroes have not had a role in this story at all. They're an afterthought. Everyone is an afterthought, and I've struggled to make it this far due to a wandering, head hopping narration and a lack of direction for any character, good or bad. More and more new characters are piled on, and I just don't care about any of them.
Another problem is the depiction of all women in this book. I realize that the author is trying to show how these gangstas and hustlers think, but given the amount of head hopping already going on, I would have liked to see something more substantial in the way of character development for the ladies returning from the first book. But even when they are given time to develop, it's in repetitive ways that seem to reinforce that all women are just sneaky hos looking for a way up the food chain.
My breaking point finally came when a gang lieutenant is given The Ring, allowing him to turn invisible and beat a larger man with impunity. Cribbing The Hobbit in the middle of what was supposed to be a retelling of King Arthur's legend was one plot device too far, and I only made it another five pages before I decided to drop the story. Even the return of Dred (Mordred) couldn't keep me locked in this dull pattern of self-destructive posturing.
Given how much I gushed over the first book, I really wanted this to go somewhere, and it never did. This story loses focus so badly that even though I bought the third book, King's War, I'm not going to bother reading it either. With apologies to the author, whom I have great respect for due to his much better writing in The Devil's Marionette and King Maker, I give King's Justice 1 star. Again, I feel like the victim of a bait and switch. I was told to expect a story of the Knights of Indianapolis, and instead I am forced to ride with a gang of unmemorable and unlikable knaves instead.
hawkeyegough's review
2.0
This author has excellent prose and descriptive abilities. It's just a shame he chose to shackle his plot decisions to the King Arthur myth, because in this case it really drags down the pacing and it causes a lot of things to not make sense in this updated setting. Another issue is that the main character really doesn't have much character at all. All the characters' loyalties seem to change from the 1st book to the 2nd without much explanation (Dred and Rellik, particularly), which is confusing and remains unexplained for the 3rd book in the trilogy to address.
Finally, the story is so dark there really should be some kind of redeeming aspect to it. Lots of awful things happen to everybody in the book (except King). This is OK for a book that's supposed to be dark and gritty (this one is), however it's clear that the ending is supposed to be a happy-ish one. I'm not feeling any sense of victory at the end, just more needless killing of some admittedly bad dudes. But there's an equal amount of killing of good dudes, so how is that a victory at all? If the purpose is to make us ask this question, it really needs to be fleshed out more and not feel like the conclusion was just a bunch of random petty grievances being avenged simply for the sake of it. The conclusion does not feel impactful or meaningful, partly because it's never clear why the bad guy needs to be taken out (more than any of the other folks who get murdered) and partly because the supporting villains have been recycled about 5 times by this point with no variation at all. For an urban fantasy novel, magic is also disappointingly rare and never explained. Broaddus has a lot of potential, I'd like to try some of his books that take place in a setting that is more in his wheelhouse and maybe that feel a little less proselytizing to the reader. Everybody who prayed in this book was instantly a white knight, regardless of their actions. Some lip service is paid to addressing their morally questionable actions, but this felt tacked-on and not very impactful.
Finally, the story is so dark there really should be some kind of redeeming aspect to it. Lots of awful things happen to everybody in the book (except King). This is OK for a book that's supposed to be dark and gritty (this one is), however it's clear that the ending is supposed to be a happy-ish one. I'm not feeling any sense of victory at the end, just more needless killing of some admittedly bad dudes. But there's an equal amount of killing of good dudes, so how is that a victory at all? If the purpose is to make us ask this question, it really needs to be fleshed out more and not feel like the conclusion was just a bunch of random petty grievances being avenged simply for the sake of it. The conclusion does not feel impactful or meaningful, partly because it's never clear why the bad guy needs to be taken out (more than any of the other folks who get murdered) and partly because the supporting villains have been recycled about 5 times by this point with no variation at all. For an urban fantasy novel, magic is also disappointingly rare and never explained. Broaddus has a lot of potential, I'd like to try some of his books that take place in a setting that is more in his wheelhouse and maybe that feel a little less proselytizing to the reader. Everybody who prayed in this book was instantly a white knight, regardless of their actions. Some lip service is paid to addressing their morally questionable actions, but this felt tacked-on and not very impactful.
tregina's review against another edition
2.0
While I'm still interested in the ongoing story, this instalment just didn't quite do it for me. I felt like there was excessive physical description of every character that arrived on the scene, and the story itself needed to be a bit tighter so it didn't feel like it was meandering all over the place without a resolution. The epilogue rocked my world, though, and I'm looking forward to reading book three.
tregina's review
2.0
While I'm still interested in the ongoing story, this instalment just didn't quite do it for me. I felt like there was excessive physical description of every character that arrived on the scene, and the story itself needed to be a bit tighter so it didn't feel like it was meandering all over the place without a resolution. The epilogue rocked my world, though, and I'm looking forward to reading book three.
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