Part murder mystery, part grand political fantasy, Richard Swan’s The Justice of Kings takes an unusual approach to the gritty fantasy genre, focusing more on the steady grind of the legal process than action and adventure. Sir Konrad Vonvalt is a Justice, a lawman who roams the Sovan Empire empowered with both the authority to exercise judgement, and the powers – metaphorical and literal – to enforce punishment. Accompanied by clerk Helena and taskman Dubine, Vonvalt pauses his roaming to investigate the murder of a noblewoman, only to gradually realise that this one crime is in fact only a symptom of a much bigger problem. For all Vonvalt’s faith in the moral certainty of his role as a Justice, times are changing and a power struggle is starting that will threaten the Imperial Magistratum, and the Empire itself.
It’s refreshing to read a fantasy story, and explore a fantasy world, built so heavily upon politics and the legal system, and the idea of on order of roaming Justices in this sort of medieval-ish setting is instantly engaging. While Vonvalt is the driving force behind the story though, it’s told through the eyes of his clerk Helena, in a smart choice that allows for a relatable point of view onto a character who’s intentionally distant, adding warmth and humanity to the story without demystifying Vonvalt too much. It’s a narrative device that Warhammer fans in particular will be familiar with – think of Helena as the Felix to Vonvalt’s Gotrek, looking back on her youth as an older woman and recalling the times she spent following Vonvalt around, always terrified and out of her depth, increasingly concerned about the life she leads and whether it’s truly what she wants.
In fact, for all that this is billed by the publisher as Judge Dredd meets the Witcher, it’s more like Gotrek and Felix meets Eisenhorn, in a Warhammer Old World with the more overtly fantasy tropes filed off. While that might sound derivative, the world building is actually excellent and the Teutonic-ish nature of Warhammer’s Empire makes a great basis for this sort of setting. There’s a strong sense of a disparate and relatively youthful empire slowly unravelling here, the tendencies and prejudices of the different nations that make up the empire coming to light in interesting ways over the course of the book. It’s also satisfyingly gritty, with Vonvalt’s powers – necromancy, and ‘the Emperor’s Voice’ – used sparingly and generating considerable fear in those around him. This isn’t a generic fantasy world built around a complex magic system, but rather a complex, carefully-thought out world full of interesting geopolitics that feels as much like an historical setting as a fantasy one.
There’s a lot to enjoy here, both in the setting and the core theme of justice tipping over into vengeance, and what that means for an individual, and for an empire. The characters themselves, however, didn’t grip me as much as I’d hoped they would. Vonvalt himself is portrayed as possessing fearsome powers and considerable intellect, but otherwise as a normal man with ordinary foibles and very human weaknesses. That’s all great, but despite his mixture of single-minded determination and human frailty I found him hard to like or even really admire. Of course Helena provides the heart of the story, but for a good half of the book she almost entirely lacks agency, following Vonvalt around with little to do but complain and suffer. Once she has the opportunity to come out from under Vonvalt’s shadow she becomes much more engaging, but even then there’s a slightly rushed romance arc that adds weight to her crisis of confidence but feels a little false.
Meanwhile Patria Claver, the main antagonist of the story, comes across suitably devious and dangerous but almost entirely lacking in motivation other than apparently wanting power for power’s sake, which is disappointing. I also had a bit of a hard time with the pacing, which is deliberately measured in order to slowly unveil the world and the characters, with bursts of action and excitement thrown in now and then. I often enjoy slow-paced novels, but this time the balance between the micro and macro pacing just felt off for me. Helena’s narration makes it clear that the events she’s describing were the starting point for tumultuous times still to come, but I struggled with being told that the empire and the Order of Justices was on the decline before I’d even really got to grips with what they actually are.
All told this has a lot of promise, and plenty of smart elements that are well described and interesting to read about…but doesn’t quite manage the balance between telling a great standalone story and setting things up for later in the series. Presumably the next book will go into more detail about Claver’s motivations, about the implications for Vonvalt, about how the empire falls and the part Helena has to play in all of it. That’s all well and good, and your mileage may vary, but I’d have preferred either a faster pace to make the macro plot work better and bring the bigger picture together sooner, or a greater focus on Vonvalt’s initial investigation to really dig into the murder mystery side of things. Still, if you’re after a new series and want something that’s grim and gritty but more interested in politics and intrigue than most fantasy novels, this may well be worth checking out.
Many thanks to Orbit Books and Richard Swan for sending me a review copy of The Justice of Kings, in exchange for my honest opinions.
Check out the links below to order* your copy of The Justice of Kings:
*If you buy anything using one of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.
If you enjoyed this review and would like to support Track of Words, you can leave a tip on my Ko-Fi page.
