The Court of the Blind King by David Guymer – A Book Review

Blurb:

Deep beneath the oceans of Ghyran, in kingdoms forgotten by gods and time and overlooked by the ravages of Chaos, the Idoneth Deepkin endure in bitter solitude. However, the Jade Throne of Briomdar sits empty, its long isolation threatened as never before in its history. The Everqueen’s warsong awakens the forests of both land and sea and everywhere the diseased knights of Nurgle fight to the last foetid breath for the verdant Realm they claim as theirs. But, for Prince Lurien this time of peril is one ripe with opportunity. It will take every drop of wit, guile, and treachery the prince has to overcome not only the myriad foes of the Idoneth, but his fellow Deepkin as well.

Author: David Guymer
Publisher: The Black Library
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 384
Release Date: 09/07/2020
My Chosen Format: Kindle
My Rating of ‘The Court of the Blind King’: 5 out of 5
Purchase: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Audible UK, Audible US

Review:

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Age of Sigmar has been very hit and miss for me. The stories being told are usually very good, but they almost always assume the reader has an in-depth knowledge of this strange, utterly confusing fantasy world.

With the Court of the Blind King I was expecting to be all at sea as far as understanding things went. That fear nearly kept me from reading it. The thing that swayed me was a mixture of really liking the concept of sea elves and loving Guymer’s work.

I can honestly say that, not only is this book a hit, but you can go into it with little knowledge of the world and not feel totally lost.

As I said, it’s a complete hit. It’s probably better than I thought it was as I gave it 5 out of 5 at a time where I’m experiencing a fantasy reading slump. My enthusiasm for fantasy has never been lower and yet I really enjoyed this.

You do get the occasional oddity where the author will say ‘he grasped his <insert utterly ridiculous elven (I refuse to call them aelves. Sorry Black Library, that’s a stupid name change and nothing you can say will make it not stupid) language word> when what he could have said was ‘spear’, but other than such instances it’s pretty easy and enjoyable to follow along.

The main character, the on the run, fallen prince Lurien, is somewhat of a grey area. For those of you who play D&D, he’s very ‘Chaotic Neutral’. For those of you who don’t play D&D he won’t so much do anything overly bad, unless said bad thing benefits him in some way. He’ll happily feel remorse for people dying yet, at the same time, cheerfully push someone to their death if they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Lurien is very good at getting you to pull for him, only to have you sit there wondering just why you want him to succeed a couple of chapters later. The absolute epitomy of ‘Devil may care attitude’. Bravo, David Guymer. You have written a character that is somewhat of a frustrating masterpiece.

The blurb is somewhat misleading when it claims it’s a battle of the Deepkin vs Chaos. Chaos do feature, and Guymer writes them so well that I only wish they were in it more. In actual fact it feels more like ‘Deepkin vs everybody who happens to be in stabbing range’. That may sound a bit meh, but it works wonderfully for anyone new to the setting of Age of Sigmar as you get introduced to a variety of factions whilst furthering the tale of Lurien and his plight.

I would recommend this for anyone interested in trying the Age of Sigmar setting and certainly to anyone that already enjoys this bizarre realm gate madness that they traded my beloved Old World for (shakes fist angrily at Black Library HQ).