King of Scars is written by Leigh Bardugo and came out in January 2019. King of Scars is set in Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse and is the first part of the Nikolai Lantsov duology.
It is not a standalone novel. I tried to read this novel after finishing the Shadow and Bone trilogy and it was clear that I was missing something important. The Six of Crows Duology. You have to read them all to understand this book. But I am happy to say that it was worth it.
Each set of novels has their own style and so does this one. Shadow and Bone trilogy are ordinary fantasy books. The Six of Crows duology are fantasy heist books and King of Scars is a semi-political fantasy book.
Similarly to the The Six of Crows this novel has a few POV characters. Three to be exact:
Nikolai Lantsov – the new king of Ravka who has to lead the country into prosperity, try and stop wars on all fronts and deal with his inner demons, both literally and figuratively.
Zoya Nazyalensky – the new general of the Second Army and part of the Grisha Triumvirate. We learn to get to know her better in this novel and hate her a little less. She struggles with the events that occurred during Shadow and Bone trilogy and suffers from tremendous guilt.
Nina Zenik – the one character that continued from The Six of Crows duology into this novel. She deals with the ramifications of all what happened to her and her friends during the The Six of Crows duology. The events that happened have a clear effect on her personally and on all of Ravka.
King of Scars follows all of the three characters, how they cross each other's paths and how they separate. Like most of the Grishaverse novels this books has more twists and surprises than you can think of. But unlike The Six of Crows duology, it felt like just the right amount of surprise, suspense and twists and turns. Everything is built gradually and beautifully. Nikolai has a lot of work to do to bring stability to Ravka and the new threats emerge from all sides. The political sides as well as the Grisha sides. And the ending will leave you opened mouthed. I so did not see it coming.
If you liked previous novels set in the Grishverse, you should totally continue with King of Scars. It does not disappoint.
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