Half a King

How it reads

Half a King is fantasy (grimdark fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in an invented world, in the historical past, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are power and politics and identity. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It opens a series. It ends on a cliffhanger, so have the next book ready. At 416 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.