The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Trigger warnings: Gang related violence, references to illness and child death

Synopsis: Times are hard in the mountain city of Fellsmarch. Reformed thief Han Alister will do almost anything to eke out a living for his family. The only thing of value he has is something he can't sell—the thick silver cuffs he's worn since birth. They're clearly magicked—as he grows, they grow, and he's never been able to get them off.


One day, Han and his clan friend, Dancer, confront three young wizards setting fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea. Han takes an amulet from Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, to keep him from using it against them. Soon Han learns that the amulet has an evil history—it once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. With a magical piece that powerful at stake, Han knows that the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back.

Meanwhile, Raisa ana'Marianna, princess heir of the Fells, has her own battles to fight. She's just returned to court after three years of freedom in the mountains—riding, hunting, and working the famous clan markets. Raisa wants to be more than an ornament in a glittering cage. She aspires to be like Hanalea—the legendary warrior queen who killed the Demon King and saved the world. But her mother has other plans for her...

The Seven Realms tremble when the lives of Hans and Raisa collide, fanning the flames of the smoldering war between clans and wizards.


Review: The Demon King is the first book in The Seven Realms series, which is a series I've been wanting to read for a long time. Typical of any first book in a fantasy series, The Demon King is slow going. We are getting introduced to characters and the world, so a slower first book is pretty standard. I will say that I liked our main characters, Han and Raisa, quite a bit. Han is your typical, raised poor and tries to do right by his family, protagonist. Raisa is your sheltered princess who does a fair bit of growing as a character just in this first book. Unfortunately, none of the other characters really stood out to me. Even Dancer, who is Han's best friend, was pretty forgettable. I also didn't understand the relationships between some of the characters. Raisa's mom is the queen, and her father is a clan leader, but her mom seems to deeply dislike the clans and they were hardly ever in the same scene together. I might just not be used to fantasies like this, but I wasn't sure if Raisa's parents were "divorced," for lack of a better word, or if he was just constantly gone because he was a warrior.

Like I said, the story itself was pretty slow. Nothing really captured me about the plot, and there were some elements that were quite predictable. I did like seeing life in the clans versus life in the castle, and surrounding areas. Again, thinking of Raisa's father who can come and go between both settings freely, it was interesting to see him adjust his mannerisms depending on where he is. I do wish we got a bit more time with the clans because I never really got a good grasp on the magic system in The Demon King.

Decent start to a fantasy series and I'm curious to see where these characters go next.

3 howls