The Synopsis:
The gods are angry.
Volcanic eruptions, sinkholes, ground shakers–everything points to their unhappiness. At least that is what the king of Armania believes. His son, Prince Wilek, thinks his father’s superstitions are nonsense, though he remains the ever dutiful heir apparent to the throne.
When a messenger arrives and claims that the town of Farway has been swallowed by the earth, the king sends Wilek to investigate. But what Wilek discovers is more cataclysmic than one lost city. Even as the ground shifts beneath his feet, Wilek sets out on a desperate journey to save his people and his world. But can he do it before the entire land crumbles?
I received this book from the author/publisher for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.
My Review:
It pains me to write this review, because Jill Williamson is honestly one of my personal favorite {Christian} authors. Her incredible writing style and immensely wonderful storylines have more than once received my 5 star rating, however, in King’s Folly, I’m afraid that she fell short of her own reputation in my eyes.
The storyline of King’s Folly is very unique, as are the characters; nor have I ever seen a fantasy story world built quite like the one present in this book, however, it is a very dark book. Containing dark magic, dark plots, and dark scenes that are very depressing to the reader. Whenever I picked up the book to read it, I could feel my spirit drop from its usual joy to this feeling of utter, pressing sadness. That alone was enough to cause me to stop reading, however, unfortunately, there were a few other aspects that caused me to stop just when it was getting interesting.
The sexuality present in this book shocked me; because it was never this forward in any of Jill’s past books (after all, she is supposed to be a Christian author). Almost every page had either a derogatory comment or an “almost” sex scene. The main male characters had concubines or slept with prostitutes (and were proud of it), while the main female characters either talked about it or had battled with being a sex slave in the past. Every. Single. Character. Contributed in some way to the ridiculous amount to of sexuality that I simply could not handle it any longer; it intensified as the book went on rather than decreased, so I put it down.
Usually, I try to finish a book even if I don’t like it, because many will often have a redeeming moment in which everything is righted; however, this book is just too heavy (and long) to drag a reader on with no break and continual mounting of problems. Even if the end of the story is powerful and redeems the journey it took to get there, the author should have lightened the book enough to make it endurable to the readers. Not to mention at least tone down the sexuality, I understand that many kings and kingdoms had concubines and such, but there are better ways to inform the reader of this without disgusting them, especially when one is assumed to be a Christian author.
Because of all of this, King’s Folly, can only receive 1 out of 5 stars from me and I’m afraid that I will be very hesitant on reading any of Jill’s future books.
Rated:
Rayleigh is a Freshman in college with a major in Accounting and long-term goal of being a CPA. She is an avid reader of all genres, and just as much of her time is spent writing as it is reading. She is the Associate Editor and Web Manager for PURSUE Magazine, in addition to posting her monthly articles on their blog. Rayleigh interns for Hartline Literary Agency where she advises authors in the best way to market their books. She is also a Social Media Manager for various businesses.
Her writing pseudonym is Rae Leigh and she is in the process of seeking publication for her Dystopian novella, Program MIRA.