The Demon King

I can't make myself care because of what happened in Flamecaster. I will try to read that book again in the future instead. But I can't make myself care for these characters. I feel like the first chapter in Flamecaster is a big slap in the face to fans of The Demon King.

I liked it a lot. Of course. Why would I have given it five stars otherwise?
I think it's great how Cinda manages to wind the people's lives together without taking the obvious route. I'm looking forward for the next book.

This is a fantasy novel about a matriarchal queendom. Wizards are the villains here.

This book is not a bad one. It just happened to me the worst thing it could be possibly happen to any reader: I had no connection or interest for the characters and the story.
I still would recommend to try it out for yourself, though.

This was very good and a fast read after a few pages. The story was engrossing. The fantasy element hasn't really kicked in much yet.

The characters were all amazing.
List of morons - The Queen, The High Wizard, Micah Bayar.
Loved: Amon, Hunts Alone, Dancer, Averill Demonai.

I liked how the stories entangled to bring the characters together. I also liked how the story didn't shy away from romance either.

Things I liked:
- The way the Clans lived.
- The Clan names.
- Raisa and her father's relationship was so nicely portrayed.
- Raisa always finding a way out!
- Poor Amon

Got some free time on my hands, might as well write a review.

Sometimes it's difficult to put yourself in the shoes of sixteen-year-old heroes. Especially if you don't really have the experience of living in the same world as characters and seldom can really understand them. So, here is the author's purpose: not only to tell a story but make the reader feel for the characters.

There are different kinds of first books in the series. The Demon King is essentially an introduction to the story that takes all book. We meet the characters, get to know their life and aspirations, their fears. After a couple of days, the only thing that I can remember is that the plot felt very smooth. There were literally no moments that made me excited or scared (except for a couple where I was irritated with Raisa, the Princess Heir).

I don't want to read the second book right now. Actually, I don't even know if I will pick it up later.

good book but it ended right in the middle of the story. On to the next one in the series.

I had stopped reading series books, too much reading for not enough return. But This. Was. Wonderful. So wonderful that I wasn't even irritated by the joke name of one of our two protagonists.

Solid 3.5 stars.

“The Demon King” is a novel from two disparate perspectives that eventually begin to weave together. We have Han Alister, who at sixteen years old is already a former thief and gang leader, trying to live his life honestly. But even when staying out of town, trouble still finds him, and before long he is tangling with wizards and getting into worse trouble than he ever did as a gang leader.

The flip side of the novel follows Raisa, princess and soon to be heir to the Queendom of the Fells. Life isn't as sweet and simple as it should be for a princess as Raisa becomes more and more aware and involved in politics that are as old as the Queendom. The closer Raisa gets to her 16th birthday and “Name Day,” the more convinced she becomes of something running afoul in the Queendom. And somehow, her mother the Queen seems to be at the heart of it.

First, the con. The novel makes so many allusions to past events and history in this first novels that I spent the first third of the book convinced that I had missed a preceding volume or even series. No such book existed, sadly, which makes it even more baffling. I understand the desire to start a story already in motion, so that the reader can discover the world of the characters. Sometimes, that works. Sometimes, it doesn't. In this case, it almost didn't work.

However, if you can plow forward in the book, things will snap together and start to make sense. As soon as they do, the book is a rush of action and revelation even when it quickly becomes evident that there is going to be little conclusion in this volume. The stories of Han and Raisa loosely weave together and apart in a way that will leave the reader eagerly anticipating the next page. And for every revelation we receive, there is a hint that we are only hearing a part of the story.

This first volume of the Seven Realms offers a lot of promise, and I'm looking forward to reading the next volume to see if Chima pays off. If you're looking for a story with conflicting love interests, magic, and the threat of a kingdom spiraling into war, the first act of the Seven Realms series is a good place to start. Enjoy!

Now this was a story that had me glued to the pages. Thank-you to my friend Reeshe for giving this and its sequel (The Exiled Queen) to me for Christmas because as soon as I had picked up the first and read it I had moved on to the second.

This book excelled in my two loves - great characters and great word-building. Cinda Williams Chima has a boundless imagination and she knows how to use it to make a fantastical adventure story.

The Demon King is told from two very different POVS that of Hans Alister reformed thief lord and that of Raisa ana'Marianna princess heir to the Queendom. Both Han and Raisa are obviously two characters raised in very different settings but they were both characters that I had grown to like very quickly. Han is a charming former criminal trying his best to make an honest living while taking care of his sister and mother while Raisa is quickly approaching her sixteenth birthday where she will be required to choose a husband. What I liked about Raisa though was that she wasn't moping around at the prospect of having to get married. She sees it as a duty and she considers each option not with her heart but with who would be best suited to help her rule her kingdom and make it prosper, it also doesn't stop her from flirting with the occasional guy and having a bit of fun because she knows that it will have to end when she turns sixteen.

Both characters are brave and smart and by position and circumstance their lives are pulled into great danger and towards each other.

There are wizards, royalty, street gangs, and clansmen all swirling around in the world of The Seven Realms and although there were certain parts of the plot that were entirely predictable the way the story was written made me not care in the slightest.