‘The Ruin Of Kings’ by Lyons Is One To Skip: Book Review

I read Ruin of Kings so you didn’t have to. You’re welcome. Now buckle up, we are in for a bumpy ride and it’s almost all downhill from here. You know how sometimes a mediocre thing is made even more mediocre. For example, have you ever had a lukewarm bath ruined by a leaky tub that you don’t quite fit into? Have you ever grabbed some french fries from your least favorite fast food restaurant and they were over cooked? Have you even been so hungry/daring that you decided to buy gas station “pizza” and it was cold? Well…do I have the book for you! The Ruin of Kings Now, to be perfectly honest, I went into The Ruin of Kings excited. This book had ALL THE HYPE. Tor was pushing this book like they’d just found out they had free rein in Hamsterdam and Marlo was nowhere in sight. It had a blurb by Glen Cook (aka the Godfather of Grimdarks). It had good reviews by The New York Times, The L.A. Times, and Kirkus. Book Review said (and I quote): “With the scope and sense of fatality of Patrick Rothfuss, and well-choreographed action sense of Brandon Sanderson, Lyons leaps into the big leagues of epic fantasy and sticks the landing.” In this one sentence Book Review raised the bar to unimaginable heights. If you’re a fan of the fantasy genre, Sanderson and Rothfuss are two unimpeachable names. Sanderson, whose body of work contains The Mistborn Saga, The Stormlight Archives, and Elantris as well as the last three books of The Wheel of Time, is enjoying a stretch of writing that I don’…