This has been on my TBR for a while (as with most books, tbh) but it’s only been recently that I’ve been in the mood for fantasy. Half a King is a fast-paced tale of revenge as Yarvi, the unexpected king with a withered hand, seeks to take his revenge on his uncle who has tried to kill him.

The story opens with a prince who is about to give up his status. Yarvi’s calling is to become a Minister, one who advises the King. However, his father and brother are killed, making him the King. At his coronation, Yarvi swore an oath to avenge his father’s killer, only to be betrayed by his uncle. Luckily instead of dying, Yarvi managed to escape and become a slave.

I would call this high-fantasy, but I’m not sure if there’s actually a good versus evil conflict here that I associate with the subgenre. Yarvi is likeable, but his growth journey consists of him being able to do more and more morally grey things in the name of his oath or what he considers necessary to be a king. It’s kind of strange to see a character weaponise his empathy in that way, but the story isn’t so dark I’ll call it “grimdark”. It’s definitely interesting, because as a reader, I struggled with some of Yarvi’s decisions, especially towards the end. Nothing was outright evil, but everything was fairly self-serving.

As you can probably tell, the characters are a huge part of the book. One character that was a surprise to me was actually Yarvi’s mother, the Golden Queen. I would love to read a version of this story from her side of the narrative because I had thought of her as very cold in the beginning, but by the end I found her to be a woman shaped by the cruel world, using her abilities the best way she could and loving her son the best she could.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I’ll continue with this series; it’s well-written and I had problems putting it down, but it also feels complete and sometimes, I don’t like to mess with things that I like. But the more I think about it, the more I feel like I’ll eventually read book 2, because I really want to see what happens with these characters and if I can find out anything more about those that intrigued me.

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