Kingdom of Liars : A Novel.
Material type: TextSeries: Legacy of the Mercenary King ; bk.1 | Legacy of the Mercenary King ; bk.1Publication details: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers 2021.Description: 624 pages ; 23 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781534437791
- 1534437797
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Fiction | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book | MARTELL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610022718451 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
In this "excellent fantasy debut, with engaging world-building and a good mix between action and character" (Brandon Sanderson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Stormlight Archive series), a story of secrets, rebellion, and murder are shattering the Hollows, where magic costs memory to use, and only the son of the kingdom's despised traitor holds the truth.
Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king's nine-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family.
In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind. So when the opportunity arrives to get folded back into court, via the most politically dangerous member of the kingdom's royal council, Michael takes it, desperate to find a way back to his past. He discovers a royal family that is spiraling into a self-serving dictatorship as gun-wielding rebels clash magically trained militia.
What the truth holds is a set of shocking revelations that will completely change the Hollows, if Michael and his friends and family can survive long enough to see it. In a "symphony of loyalty, greed, family, and betrayal" (Tamora Pierce, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tempests and Slaughter ) this spellbinding novel "creates a solid foundation for (hopefully) a much longer narrative to come" ( Kirkus Reviews ).
Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family.
In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind. So when the opportunity arrives to get folded back into court, via the most politically dangerous member of the kingdom’s royal council, Michael takes it, desperate to find a way back to his past. He discovers a royal family that is spiraling into a self-serving dictatorship as gun-wielding rebels clash magically trained militia.
What the truth holds is a set of shocking revelations that will completely change the Hollows, if Michael and his friends and family can survive long enough to see it. In a “symphony of loyalty, greed, family, and betrayal” (Tamora Pierce, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tempests and Slaughter) this spellbinding novel “creates a solid foundation for (hopefully) a much longer narrative to come” (Kirkus Reviews). --amazon.com
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Publishers Weekly Review
Martell's taut, clever debut tells of rebellion and regicide in a world where the use of magic comes at the cost of one's memories. A member of the Kingman family has always served alongside the King of Hollow to keep the royals in check and inspire trust in the commoners, maintaining the uneasy peace between both factions and the rebels beyond the city walls. Then, 10 years ago, David Kingman killed the nine-year-old prince and the Kingman family fell from favor. Now David's son, Michael, stands accused of killing the King himself. Michael recounts the events that led to his trial, going from a life as a grifter, to becoming a pawn in a political game, to reluctantly working with High Noble Charles Domet to clear his father's name in exchange for lessons in Fabrication, magical skills that wipe the user's memory when overused. Martell weaves a large cast into Michael's world, some sinister--like Dark the Mercenary and the Corrupt Prince--others allies. Though the abundance of characters becomes overwhelming at times, their political maneuvers and varied motivations form a satisfying web. This smart, briskly told high fantasy entertains all the way until the unexpected end. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky. (May)Booklist Review
In the prologue to Martell's fantasy debut, Michael Kingman is found guilty of murdering the king. When they were children, he and his siblings were branded as traitors when their father was tried for the murder of the king's oldest son. Ten years later, a series of missteps sets Michael on a path that, he hopes, leads to clearing the family name. Michael and his siblings fell from being high nobility who played with the king's children to living on a poor side of town with their foster father, struggling to pay the fees to keep their mentally ill mother in an asylum. Despite her symptoms, their mother can't be a "Forgotten," as that memory-loss condition only affects magic users, so Michael searches for solutions to her medical problems in addition to his other adventures. Michael progressively finds himself in worse situations, certain the next one will provide the answers he so desperately seeks. Teenagers will appreciate how Michael and his siblings come into their own, and fantasy readers of all ages will be delighted with Martell's robust setting.Kirkus Book Review
Martell's debut novel is a shelf-bending adventure fantasy that chronicles the life--and looming death--of Michael Kingman, an ill-fated young man awaiting execution for the killing of a king. Set in a secondary world--particularly noteworthy for a fractured moon whose pieces frequently fall to the planet, wreaking havoc on the populace--the narrative takes place largely in Hollow, a once-thriving kingdom now beleaguered by tragedy, treason, and an impending civil war. Michael is an outcast whose father was executed for infamously killing a child prince years earlier, and he's obsessed with finding the truth behind his beloved father's death. A war hero, the king's adviser, and a man of honor, his father would never have killed a child, especially a child he vowed to protect. But with the once-venerated name of Kingman now irrevocably tarnished, Michael, a con man doing what he needs to survive, is faced with the monumental task of restoring his family's name. After an alcoholic nobleman nicknamed Domet the Deranged agrees to help Michael prove his father was framed in addition to teaching the young Kingman how to use his fledgling magical Fabrication skills, Michael slowly realizes that his father was just a pawn in a much larger game of politics and power. An obvious strength of this novel is Martell's worldbuilding prowess as well as his utilization of magic, which is subtle but powerful. But while the multiple subplots surrounding Kingman's father's death create a knotty mystery, they do sometimes slow the book's momentum. Martell generally keeps the pages turning, however, with a story full of relentless action and more than a few jaw-dropping plot twists. The structure of the narrative--a character awaiting death sharing their life story--is a bit overused in fantasy (in The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons, among others), but the quality of the story more than makes up for it. An impressive fantasy debut that creates a solid foundation for (hopefully) a much larger narrative to come. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
Nick Martell was born in Ontario, Canada, before moving to the United States at age seven. He started writing novels regularly in fifth grade, and his debut novel, The Kingdom of Liars , sold when he was twenty-three years old. Find Nick on Twitter @MacMartell or at NickMartell.com.There are no comments on this title.