The Kingdom of Liars

Nick Martell

2020 • 608 pages

Ratings8

Average rating3.9

In this brilliant debut fantasy, a story of secrets, rebellion, and murder are shattering the Hollows, where magic costs memory to use, and only the son of the kingdom’s despised traitor holds the truth. Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family. In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind. So when the opportunity arrives to get folded back into court, via the most politically dangerous member of the kingdom’s royal council, Michael takes it, desperate to find a way back to his past. He discovers a royal family that is spiraling into a self-serving dictatorship as gun-wielding rebels clash against magically trained militia. What the truth holds is a set of shocking revelations that will completely change the Hollows, if Michael and his friends and family can survive long enough to see it.

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Series

Featured Series

3 primary books

The Legacy of the Mercenary Kings

The Legacy of the Mercenary Kings is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 1997 with contributions by Nick Martell.

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Graham

I am a huge fan of epic fantasy and was super excited to start this debut series by Nick Martell. Safe to say, it did not disappoint! In The Kingdom of Liars we follow the scion of a family that used to be second to the King in power. This family has fallen from grace after an apparent murder of the prince by the protagonists father. Interestingly, the book starts with the protagonist on trial for an apparent regicide - these things seem to run in the family!

Nick Martell successfully builds a richly layered world in this debut. We learn about the kingdom and its politics before diving deep into some of its intrigues. These murky grimdark machinations provide a wonderful undercurrent to the plot. This is world building of a high quality. The characters are also interestingly developed, with multiple and often conflicting motivations. On top of that we have an intriguing magic system - it appears the price of magic here is the risk of losing your memories. An intriguing prospect!

The Kingdom of Liars provides a solid base for a series and I am intrigued to see what is to come!

March 24, 2021

bloguldesefe

Good writing style (loved how the author approached worldbuilding and character history with 100% "show don't tell"), but the MC is too YA (and emo) for me, so I couldn't empathise and got bored.

March 2, 2023

Nickie

3.5 stars

This one was hard for me to rate. I struggled with the first half. The mc Michael was very annoying. He made countless bad decisions, and I was over constantly hearing about the Kingman legacy. I was tempted to mark it as dnf. I decided to keep going and I'm glad I did. I felt like the second half was 5 star worthy. I can't say I grew to love Michael, but I did start to feel sorry for him a little. I would have liked more world building too.
I am excited to continue on since the second half was so good.

April 20, 2021