BLOOD OF THE OLD KINGS by Sung-il Kim (BOOK REVIEW)
“There is no escaping the Empire. Even in death, you will serve.
Powered by the corpses of sorcerers, the Empire has conquered the world. It claims to have brought peace and stability to its conquered lands, but some see that peace for what it is—a lie—and will give everything in the fight against it.
Loran is desperate for revenge after the Empire killed her family, so much so that the swordswoman climbs the volcano where the legends say an ancient dragon slumbers and leaps in. She finds that the legends are true, and Loran leaves the mountain with a sword made of dragon’s fang and a great purpose before her.
Cain arrived in the Imperial Capital lost and orphaned, and it’s only thanks to the kindness of a stranger-turned-mentor that he survived on the city’s streets. When his friend is found murdered, he will leave no stone unturned to find those responsible, even if it means starting a war.
Arienne’s future has never been in question—born a sorcerer, she’ll be a Power Generator for the Empire upon her death. But when she starts to hear the voice of a powerful necromancer in her head, she realizes the only thing more terrifying than dying for the Empire is never getting to truly live in the first place.
When peace is a lie, there is power in truth—and as Loran, Cain, and Arienne hunt for answers in their own lives, any one of their small rebellions could be the stone that brings the Empire toppling down.”
Evil empires are hardly new in fantasy and cultivating original stories based on this premise with something substantial to say is a challenging feat. Blood of the Old Kings didn’t inspire me with its characters or its fantasy, but it showcases a thought-provoking discourse on what it means to exist in this setting.
The book opens with an impressive in media res, skipping over any standard overland adventure to reach the dragon’s abode, going straight to Loran bargaining with the entity. The description of the dragon is awesome, a terrifying blood-red, multi-eyed beast that only treats with humans and would-be kings on its own terms:
“When she came to, Loran found herself under the scrutiny of a dark red dragon with too many eyes.
The best had two enormous eyes where you would expect them, flanked by two smaller ones on the left and three more on the right. […]
More than how the fire-dragon loomed over her like a tower, more than the teeth that looked like swords and spears in a crowded weapons rack, more than the black chains over the scales of its back, and more than the claw pressing down on her chest and holding her in place—it was these two rows of eyes, left and right, that frightened her.”
The dragon bookending the story is illustrative of its measured use of magic, hardly seen anywhere in the Empire when the authorities have a monopoly on sorcerers in life and death. After an introduction to Loran in the outreaches of the continent, we go to Cain and Arienne in the capital city. The three POV characters of Blood of the Old Kings are not typical protagonists who don’t go on typical hero’s journeys. They are connected by only their shared homeland and a few coincidences but exhibit different feelings about their families and country of origin. Their unpredictability is refreshing, when they don’t react or feel exactly the way they should, if going by narrative conventions.
Loran is the most trope-inspired character, undertaking a desperate mission in the name of revenge and overthrowing the Empire. However, she is a widow in her late 30s, whose husband and daughter were executed on the orders of an Imperial prefect, rather than a younger, romantic, and definitive long-lost heir. She actively ponders her right and ability to lead and comes to a different conclusion about the conflict than expected. Elsewhere, Arienne flees the Imperial Academy for sorcerers after seeing the disturbing reality of her fate after death. Arienne is a teenager who clearly hasn’t figured it all out; she is searching for personal freedom and likes the idea of being feared but lacks a deducible greater purpose until the very end. She also doesn’t have a presumed emotional dedication: She is apathetic about her birth family and only mentions having a boyfriend at school, who she unceremoniously left behind. I found these plot points to be a bold take on the connections we might assume a young woman in this type of story is supposed to have, showing how she can prioritize herself. Finally, 20-something-year-old Cain directly says he isn’t invested in the conflict one way or another, yet the story still makes a hero out of him, as he finds something else within the Empire worth fighting for. In a final confrontation, he memorably tells his opponent:
“I have no interest in the world. But this city is Fienna’s kingdom, and that kingdom is in my care now. […] That is why I came for you.”
Blood of the Old Kings isn’t a book to offer up the most straightforward depiction of heroism, even when I wouldn’t call any of the characters morally grey; they all want to do right by the people in their lives. Likewise, the book’s engagement with the long-lost heir trope is compelling. It shows how a king truly is chosen by the people, and hardly any other definition of the word matters. Loran’s alleged heritage isn’t important, while other claimant monarchs abound in this story, with different opinions on legacy and leadership. The focus is on the Imperial Capitol and the conquered country of Arland; little about other territories under the Empire’s domain is revealed. This raises questions about if things are as bad elsewhere as they are in Arland, especially given some of the characters’ actions regarding how to combat the Empire. Detailing the history of other countries besides Arland and its directly neighbouring kingdoms might have raised the stakes concerning what the rebels are willing to do. However, the people and places the characters are immediately familiar with are more important to them and the book’s themes.
Meanwhile, the prose isn’t anything spectacular, which might just be an unfortunate by-product of the translation. Anton Hur—the award-winning translator who we have to thank for the English version of the recent release A Magical Girl Retires—may have encountered some complications with transferring original fantasy concepts from one language to another. Hur succeeded in recreating the book to be comprehensible and impactful, but I can’t help but wonder if certain descriptions, declarations, and metaphors are just stronger in the original language. Additionally, the characters’ emotions aren’t incredibly poignant, failing to garner my investment in the way other books have, even though the facts of the situations they find themselves are haunting. For instance, Loran having to parley with the prefect who ordered the murders of her family is hair-raising.
A final, deeply interesting facet of this book is the sorcerer Eldred, whose spirit Arienne is carrying around in her head. Eldred relates a past conflict between the Empire and his kingdom, driven by both sides refusing to let go of power. When the Empire succeeded in conquering Arland through its magical machinery being able to defeat the dragon, the book demonstrates some machine vs. nature themes as well. Coming to the end of the story with the full picture having formed, themes of gradual change set against the motif of which people the agents on either side view as expendable emerge.
Blood of the Old Kings is an effectively standalone but open-ended fantasy novel that makes it clear the Empire’s rule is unjust and cruel but exposits that toppling it is not as simple as other stories would have us believe. Governments fall, battles are lost, and compromises are made, as the backdrop for a story about characters who are doing their best for themselves, and for their people’s present and future.
Blood of the Old Kings is available now, you can order your copy on Bookshop.org