Book Review: Anji Kills a King is a Worthy Epic Fantasy Debut Offering from Popular Booktok Creator and Podcaster, Evan Leikam
If you’re looking to try a new epic fantasy author, you like lots of action, and you don’t mind some gore, you might love Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam. Can I convince you with a first line? “Hot noble blood pumped over Anji’s hand.” WHAT?! Evan drops us right in the middle of the action, and it really doesn’t let up until the last page. The writing style and pacing was great, and you can tell Evan gets a lot of his epic fantasy inspiration from the likes of Tolkien, Joe Abercrombie, and Richard Swan. If you like these authors, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Although, unlike Tolkien, this does not have a feeling of whimsy. It’s dark and gritty. And like any good epic fantasy, there are giant spiders (insert shudder). Anji is an interesting FMC, as we know very little about her motivations, she’s super mouthy, annoying, and can’t decide if she likes or loathes her captor, the Hawk. Now the Hawk is by far, my favorite character. Talk about the best grumpy old lady bounty hunter there ever was. Oh, and did I mention she’s also addicted to a drug that turns you into a monster eventually? She’s holding on by a thread. I loved the idea of the Menagerie as a group of bounty hunters, and each mask gives the wearer powers. I feel like we only got snippets of what’s to come: there’s a cult trying to take over power now that the King is dead, and that ending?! After finishing this book, I do feel book two has the potential to open up the world a lot more, and give more depth to the characters.
Things to Know:
Book one of an unfinished series
Traveling Quest
Epic Fantasy
Grimdark fantasy vibes
Lots of fight sequences
TW: Death, Torture, Animal Death, Addiction
***MINOR SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT—YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!***
If you don’t want to read a brutal animal unaliving, just know it’s in Chapter 10. Excuse me, sir?! What did Molli the horse, ever do to you?!
My gripes? There were a few minor things. I would have liked some broader worldbuilding. It was mostly travel, then fight, then travel some more, without a whole lot of information being given to us along the way about the world we were dropped in. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some, but a bit more detail would have also helped me understand the characters’ motivations better. This book is surprisingly short for epic fantasy, so there’s definitely room for a longer installment. It was slightly confusing to me that she ran away after killing the king, and seemingly got far away fast, but then they’re taking the entire book to get back to the city for her execution? That was a bit confusing. I also did not love the random sex scene thrown in out of nowhere, and sometimes the gore felt like it was for shock factor. There’s definitely an element of ‘boy fantasy book’ vibes here, but I get it. I also felt like we didn’t get a ton of depth from the side characters, and I would have like to again, have some more understanding around motivations and the Menageries' relationships with each other.
Overall, I still enjoyed it, and felt it was great as a debut! As someone who has watched Evan skyrocket on Booktok and Bookstagram from the beginning of his journey, I’m so excited for his writing journey. He totally deserves every success and I look forward to reading book two. Many thanks to Tor for the ARC and MacMillan Audio for the ALC, which I listened to, while reading my physical copy. I really enjoyed the narration—the character voices are all super unique and definitely immersed me into this world even more. When’s book two?!
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