Blood of the Old Kings

By Sung-Il Kim

Book Overview

Named a Best Fantasy Book of the Year by NPR, Amazon, Paste, and Book Riot

From award-winning Korean author Sung-il Kim & translated by the world-renowned Anton Hur, Blood of the Old Kings begins an epic journey unlike any other.

There is no escaping the Empire.
Even in death, you will serve.

In an Empire run on necromancy, dead sorcerers are the lifeblood. Their corpses are wrapped in chains and drained of magic to feed the unquenchable hunger for imperial conquest.

Born with magic, Arienne has become resigned to her dark fate. But when the voice of a long-dead sorcerer begins to speak inside her head, she listens. There may be another future for her, if she's willing to fight for it.

Miles away, beneath a volcano, a seven-eyed dragon also wears the Empire's chains. Before the imperial fist closed around their lands, it was the people's sacred guardian.

Loran, a widowed swordswoman, is the first to kneel before the dragon in decades. She comes with a desperate plea, and will leave with a sword of dragon-fang in hand and a great purpose before her.

In the heart of the Imperial capital, Cain is known as a man who gets things done. When his best friend and mentor is found murdered, he will leave no stone unturned to find those responsible, even if it means starting a war.

Step into a world of necromancy, murder, and twisted magic. A world in need of a hero.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250895332
• ISBN13: 9781250895332
• Release Date: October 2024
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 3.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Bring on the dragon!

I love that books written in other languages are being translated to give readers a chance to enjoy brand new fantastical worlds. And I will say doubly that for this story as I was immediately sucked in from the first chapter with Loren braving all to make a blood pact with the fire dragon in the volcano. It was such an interesting world where an empire as conquered many lands through magic, but not sorcerers casting spells. Instead they are more useful to the empire as dead generators powering war machines like chariots and powered centurion armor. The book varies from three points of view, Loren, the woman fighting to become king of her homeland to get vengeance against the empire that killed her family, Cain, a refugee living in the capital and always finding himself in sticky situations trying to find out why his friend was killed, and Arienne, a runaway sorcerer with something the empire desperately wants back. Each of those viewpoints does an excellent job of introducing the reader to how magic works, how the empire is run, and what the different people are like from various nations under the rule of the empire. I loved all three characters, the earnest of Arienne as she tries to make the right choices and make her own way into being something other than a future generator, Cain balancing between helping the rebels and working with the ministry of truth, and Loren, learning about her awesome powers and how to lead an army to save her homeland. This was so much fun to listen to, being on the edge of my seat especially with the final battle in the end! And it does end with some unanswered questions which made me happy to learn that there will be a couple more books in the series. The three narrators in this audiobook did a phenomenal job in bringing this world to life and I can't wait for the next book! And I am positive I will be listening to this audiobook again. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this audiobook to listen to and review.