The Demon King – Cinda Williams Chima (review)

Title: The Demon King (The seven Realms #1).

Author: Cinda Williams Chima.

Format: E-book.

Publisher:  Harper Voyager.

Page count: 498.

Release day: October 6^th 1999.

Genre: YA, Fantasy.

Rating: 4 stars.

What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)

Times are hard in the mountain city of Fellsmarch, and reformed thief Han Alister must rely on all his skills to provide for his mother and his sister.

While out hunting one day, Han and his Clan friend, Dancer, discover three young wizards using a magical amulet to set fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea. Han wrestles it from them, but without realising that his heroism has put him and his family in great danger. For the young arsonist is Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, and the amulet a treasure with immense power; it once belonged to the Demon King, the legendary wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. The Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back.

Meanwhile, Raisa ana’Marianna, Princess Heir of the Fells, has just returned to the city after spending three years with her father’s Clan in the mountains. She aspires to be like Hanalea, the legendary warrior-queen who vanquished the Demon King and saved the world, but her mother has other plans for her – plans that will put both the queendom and Raisa’s future in great danger. 

Rating:
Characters: 7/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Writing: 7/10
Plot: 7/10
Intrigue: 7/10
Logic: 7/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Average: 7.00

My thoughts:

I’ve been meaning to resd this one for so long, and now I finally did! It did not disappoint! As you can see this book got a 7/10 on all aspects haha, which means a solid 4 star read!

Both Han and Raisa POV were very interesting! And both of their storylines surprised me at times! From the start I expected some kind of romance between these characters, since that kinda always happens in ‘these kind of YA fantasies’, but that was not the case! And I really enjoyed that, of course it might come later, but it is good that it was not the main thing of the book! Han became a little bit annoying at certain scenes near the end, but because of things that happened maybe I should be more understanding haha! I really liked how Raisa stood up for herself and kept with what she stood for. I hope that will continue in the sequels.

The plot of the book was quite interesting. As I said before I expected some kind of typical YA fantasy, but there were definitely some parts in this book that I did not see coming, and that is always a good thing! Since there were some unexpected parts, and the story was genuinely very interesting I was always excited to continue reading!

The magic system was intriguing, and I would love to learn more about it in the sequel. And with the reveals made at the end of the book, I’m sure we will! I always like it when we learn about the working of magic together with the characters!

Also the world was very interesting, and was again, with how the book ended I’m sure we will learn and explore more in the sequel!

If for some reason you also have not yet had the chance to pick up this series, I highly recommend that you would! Very enjoyable, adventurous, and quite a quick read!

Have you read this book? What did you think?