King of Scars
Leigh Bardugo
King of Scars is book six in Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars duology, which follows the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. I mention these because I am reading the Grishaverse books in order, and so far, every one of them is better than all the previous ones. (An auspicious sign, obviously.) Thus King of Scars is the best Grishaverse novel I have yet read. Bardugo becomes more creative with each new novel. Thus Book 1, Shadow and Bone was a serviceable fantasy with a rather predictable plot. Book 5, Crooked Kingdom was decidedly less predictable.
In King of Scars we return to Ravka and the Ravkans. (One subplot takes place in Fjerda, however.) Ravka was flattened by the war in which Alina finally defeated the Darkling (Ruin and Rising). Ravka survived with Nikolai Lantsov as its new king, nicknamed Korol Rezni. -- King of Scars. But Ravka was weakened, and Fjerda, Shu Han, and Kerch eagerly await their chance to tear it apart.
King of Scars tells of the actions of four Ravkan heroes to prevent this. The four are the aforementioned King of Scars, Nikolai Lantsov, his general Zoya Nazyalensky (I have to fight myself not to call her Zoya Nazyalenskaya, since Ravka is obviously Russia), Nina Zenik, whom we got to know well in the Six of Crows duology, and Isaak Andreyev, whom you've never heard of before.
You of course remember Nikolai, Zoya, and Nina, and are eager to hear more about their adventures. But I am here to tell you that Isaak is the stand-out character of this novel. The book is divided into two halves, "The Drowning Man" and "The Witch in the Wood". For reasons I can't explain without spoiling, Isaak only enters the story in a big way in "The Witch in the Wood". And he rapidly captured my affection, because unlike Nikolai, Zoya, and Nina, Isaak is Not Special. Yet he is called on the be remarkable, and he is.
Now, let me be clear that the whole novel is good, not just the chapters from Isaak's point of view. I am, obviously, very happy with the Grishaverse so far and will continue with Rule of Wolves and presumably Book 8, whenever that appears.
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