Review: The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng by K. S. Villoso

 

The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng is the third and final installment in the Chronicles of the Bitch Queen Series. Read my reviews of book 1: The Wolf of Oren-Yaro and Book 2: The Ikessar Falcon. Just like other two books it's a wild ride. A first person POV following Queen Taliyen as she struggles to save her son and her kingdom from so many threats that she couldn't even have imagined at the start of this series! It's fast-paced and action-packed, full of battles, political intrigue, and truly desperate/hopeless situations that Tali has to navigate. It's also full of amazingly well-crafted characters that feel real in all their imperfections. There's a lot more magic in this one and we get to learn so much more about Tali's kingdom Jin-Sayeng and its history and secrets. I binge-read over the past 3 days - I couldn't put it down and didn't want to do anything else! 

This third installment brings together many different pieces that click together so perfectly and give you new perspectives on aspects of the first two books that may not have seemed connected. After reading the first two books I thought I knew what to expect, but the events and plot twists and reveals continued to surprise me. I'm honestly amazed by how well the author was able to tell a truly epic tale with so many different moving parts and such a sweeping epic scope all from the POV of one character. 

 But despite the dragons and magic, the tear in the fabric of the world, the ridiculously intricate political scheming that we get to see unfold I think the author's greatest skill lies in those introspective musings the author peppers throughout the books, shining a lens on the costs and moral questions behind power and how it is distributed and wielded and how it affects people's lives. There are some very quotable passages where Tali is kind of grappling with her growing understanding of the world and its horrors, like this one for example: 

"I will say this: In those few, horrific minutes, I suddenly understood that monsters like Yuebek aren’t born. We make them. We make them when we hand power over to another. When we pull the blankets up to cover our eyes and pretend the world isn’t ours to change. When we take the gifts handed to us without questioning where they came from, how they were taken, who suffered to give us what we pretend is our due." 

 And these passages are, of course, made so much more powerful when read in context of the world and events and characters they refer to. I know I'll be re-reading this series again and again for these thoughtful passages. I also really need for there to be wikis, discussion forums, and all kinds of fan spaces to discuss this series and all its layers! 

 Finally, I want to mention that even though amazon made the publishers change the title of the series from "Chronicles of the Bitch Queen" to "Chronicles of the Wolf Queen" you need to realize going in that it's a dark series full of mature subject matter. Changing one word in the title doesn't change the fact that the content and themes explored in the book are far from pg-13. And in this third and final installment there's much more of... everything that makes this series dark. There is rape, torture, murder, war, and so on. The choices and mistakes of the characters all come together and Tali (as well as the reader) has to face the consequences of those things in pretty brutal ways. I'm not a fan of grimdark, and I still wouldn't consider this book grimdark, but it's not a light read. 

 I don't know if there's much more I can say about this book without spoiling it or the first two books in the series, so I'll just end by saying that this series is a must-read and that K. S. Villoso is one of the best writers of fantasy out there today. I can't wait to read more books by her and I really hope there will be a follow-up series showing what happens to the Kingdom of Jin-Sayeng in the aftermath of this series!