Ruination: A League of Legends Novel by Anthony Reynolds

Synopsis (From Goodreads)

The first ever novel set in the blockbuster universe of League of Legends, one of the most popular video games of all time, Ruination is an epic tale of magic, revenge, and an empire on the verge of ruin.

Camavor is a brutal land with a bloody legacy. Where the empire’s knights go, slaughter follows.

Kalista seeks to change that. When her young and narcissistic uncle, Viego, becomes king, she vows to temper his destructive instincts, as his loyal confidant, advisor, and military general. But her plans are thwarted when an assassin’s poisoned blade strikes Viego’s wife, Isolde, afflicting her with a malady for which there is no cure.

As Isolde’s condition worsens, Viego descends into madness and grief, threatening to drag Camavor down with him. Kalista makes a desperate gambit to save the kingdom: she searches for the long lost Blessed Isles, rumored to hold the queen’s salvation, if only Kalista can find them.

But corruption grows in the Blessed Isles’ capital, where a vengeful warden seeks to ensnare Kalista in his cruel machinations. She will be forced to choose between her loyalty to Viego and doing what she knows is right–for even in the face of utter darkness, one noble act can shine a light that saves the world.

My Review
5 out of 5 stars

I’ve been playing League of Legends since season 2. I’m hardstuck silver, so 10 years of playing this game certainly hasn’t paid off. I am addicted and keep playing on though. Anyway, 10 years of playing this game and finally they release a book about some of the champions I have known for ages! Playing League of Legends and reading are literally my only two hobbies, so you can imagine my excitement. This novel follows the origins of the Ruined King, Viego, and his military general niece, Kalista. Viego’s wife, Isolde, is terminally ill and in need of a miracle cure. The thought of losing Isolde puts A Thousand Cuts into Viego’s heart. She needs to be saved or Viego will lose his mind and the kingdom of Camavor will suffer for it. After trying countless methods to cure her, it seems all hope is lost until Viego decides to try to find the legendary Blessed Isles for a cure. He doesn’t trust anyone to go and look for them other than Kalista, for she has grand Martial Poise. Fate’s Call then sends Kalista on a journey to save her queen from Damnation. Hopefully it isn’t a Death Sentence.

It’s a pretty straightforward fantasy plot with Kalista going on a journey to locate a Fountain Of Youth-esque island, but develops into its own unique story with League’s lore. I think the best part is the fact that I finally get more to the LoL lore, and I really enjoyed learning about the origins of the Kalista and Viego and how they got to where they are in the game itself. A handful of other champions do make an appearance and are integral to the plot as well, but I don’t want to spoil it. A side note– in the print version of the book there is character art at the end of the novel for each of the champions that do make an appearance, so just another way to avoid spoilers if you want to go in blind (like Lee Sin!). There are also many Easter eggs relating to the game itself. If you’re a fan of League of Legends, you’ll certainly enjoy this. I think it does also work well on it’s own, and people unfamiliar with the game will still enjoy a well-written fantasy quest story. The pacing of the novel is quite smooth– I think it’s well edited and doesn’t linger unnecessarily at any parts. It had good flow and kept the story interesting.

Understandably given League’s gameplay, there are quite a bit of action scenes. I personally tend to struggle with action scenes and generally skim them to get a gist of the outcome. Here, though, I thought all of those were written very well– they were easy to picture and kept me engaged.

If this book had a League of Legends rank, I’d give it Diamond (5 ranks of Iron – Diamond for the Goodreads 5 star scale). LemonNation gives it a nod of approval.

This first in what I hope is a whole series of LoL novels is certainly not a worrying trend for Riot Games. Riot pls give us more!

See this review on Goodreads and on Storygraph.

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Synopsis (From Goodreads)

The Alexandrian Society is a secret society of magical academicians, the best in the world. Their members are caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity. And those who earn a place among their number will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. Each decade, the world’s six most uniquely talented magicians are selected for initiation – and here are the chosen few…

– Libby Rhodes and Nicolás Ferrer de Varona: inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds.
– Reina Mori: a naturalist who can speak the language of life itself.
– Parisa Kamali: a mind reader whose powers of seduction are unmatched.
– Tristan Caine: the son of a crime kingpin who can see the secrets of the universe.
– Callum Nova: an insanely rich pretty boy who could bring about the end of the world. He need only ask.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they must spend one year together to qualify for initiation. During this time, they will be permitted access to the Society’s archives and judged on their contributions to arcane areas of knowledge. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. If they can prove themselves to be the best, they will survive. Most of them.

My Review
3 out of 5 stars

This book mainly works well as a character-driven novel. The plot does sounds really cool, but it doesn’t resolve in a super interesting way. I thought all of the characters were introduced well, and each initially felt that they would be a distinctive voice from the others. There are six total main characters, and each chapter is told from one of the six’s point of view. I think it does alternate evenly between all six, but it doesn’t necessarily feel that way. The way each character is introduced is through them individually meeting Atlas and Atlas extending an invitation to join this elite magical society, though it’s a selective invitation in that they invite six but only choose five. You know that they’re all going to volunteer for this opportunity if you’ve read the synopsis, so it’s a bit of a slow start, but it was a good way to get to know all of these characters. After those first initial chapters though, it became evident that the author has clear favorite characters who are better developed and more important to the story. This is why I can’t say for sure if there was an actual even distribution between all of the POV chapters. I definitely started to loose interest in half of the characters, and two of them I couldn’t even really remember who was who (Tristan and Callum– I know that each had a distinct magical power, but I couldn’t remember which power went to which person). I definitely wish all POVs felt even and important to the story, but it doesn’t resolve that way. The book is a first in a series, so it’s possible that it will even out.

I also had some issues with the writing style. It was overwritten in my opinion. In one particular example, a character is having a phone conversation with her boyfriend, and instead of holding an active conversation with the boyfriend, it provides flashbacks of the day’s previous events that the character is thinking about when asked a question by her boyfriend, but by the end of it, she isn’t going to share since this magical society is secret. I would frequently forget that she was talking to him. Honestly I felt the boyfriend’s frustration in being left hanging from an actual response to his questions. The style does fairly well for creating a character-driven novel because it can focus on the characters’ internal thoughts and reactions, but I felt it was a little too much.

As for the plot, it sounds cool, but it isn’t really focused on action or learning or performing magic. It’s more centered around an aspect that is spoiled in the synopsis, and in the tagline for the book. I won’t say more than that, but the book doesn’t really sell the point or the atmosphere of becoming a member.

At the point, I’m unsure if I would continue on with the series. Again, I liked some of the characters (the ones that are well developed). I’m not the biggest fan of the writing style, and I’m unsure if the plot will get more interesting than what this was. I also thought the ending of this was predictable, at least in terms of the main point, but not necessarily all the nitty-gritty details. Left feeling lukewarm overall.

Thank you to the publisher for providing a free eARC via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

See this review on Goodreads and on Storygraph.