The Kheld King (The Triempery Revelations #2) by L.L. Stephens

The Kheld King continues in the character-driven vein of its predecessor, while bringing more drama and action to a solidly woven plot.

It’s becoming much harder to find good series that are either nearly or fully complete. These days, I generally struggle to get into sequels. For many authors, this crucial point is where they either lose the majority of their audience or enchant them enough to go the whole way.

The Kheld King is a well-written sequel that fans the flames of the political intrigue lit in Sordaneon into a blazing, raging inferno.

Synopsis

With the stage set for a cold war between Stefan and Dorillian, the new king of Essera has his hands full as he begins to consolidate his power over his dominions.

Motivated by fear of Dorillian and the surviving highborn, Stefan’s series of unsavvy political maneuvers will determine the fate of his kin, as well as his kingdom.

For Dorillian, lingering shock over the death of his mentor and the catastrophic Demise means that his best option is to sequester himself within Sordan’s borders, watching developments in Essera from afar off. Will his reignited self-preservation instincts be enough to protect him and his heir from the darkness brewing in Mormantalorous? Or will his political apathy only lead to worse damage elsewhere?

Themes

If Sordaneon drew heavily on themes of familial feuds, parental responsibility, and the dynamics of blood ties, The Kheld King is an exposé into how strongly fear can motivate one, often to the point of destruction.

We see the results of Stefan’s choices: his decision to subtly ostracize the Malyrdeon highborns, the installation of his kin, the Khelds, into positions of high power, and his move to ally with Nammuor.

While Dorillian’s own fear is less palpable, it is no less decisive. Opting against making any choice at all is, in itself, a choice. And, of course, there are consequences for it.

The Kheld King also delves into the classic fantasy themes of greed for power and ambition. Regardless of its billing as political fantasy, the entire story has a strongly classical feel to it with its incorporation of many of the traditional tropes – tropes that make it no more predictable than one would expect of an epic fantasy read.

Characters

Despite how annoying Stefan’s character was, I felt very sorry for him at the end. He got what was coming for him, for sure, but I didn’t see it happening the way it did. He wasn’t an evil, power-hungry bastard like Nammuor. He was simply a man, unfit to rule, thrust into the gilded cage that is kingship, forced to do battle with forces he didn’t understand, on a ground not quite firm under his feet.

Dorillian’s role in The Kheld King is a bit more muted than it was in Sordaneon. Still, it was no less of a catalyst. He’s clearly a much wiser, patient, and more calculated man than he was. It’s ironic when you realize that his character growth was only made possible by his forced mentorship under Marc Frederick, whose own grandson suffered from a distinct lack of it.

For a book with very few story POVs, The Kheld King works admirably well with its segmented cast of secondary characters. We don’t see much of the story through their eyes, but Palimia, Erenor, and the Malyrdeons are every bit as crucial to the progress of the plot as the main characters themselves.

Storytelling

The author, I must say, is one of the best fantasy writers and storytellers that I’ve read, who needs to be talked about more. In what is threatening to become a copy-and-paste genre, The Kheld King and The Triempery Revelations as a whole can boast true uniqueness. If you’re looking for a story that simply stands out, you’ve got one here.

The Kheld King admittedly starts out slow but climaxes around the halfway point. There’s, as such, plenty of time for the author to deliver more than one plot-defining moment as the story starts to wrap up.

Verdict

The Kheld King continues in the character-driven vein of its predecessor, while bringing more drama and action to a solidly woven plot.

It’s a solid five-star book and really gives you a lot of reason to complete the series.