A mute radical. A brutal queen. A quest through a deadly maze.Yosyph fences his heart and keeps his mouth shut. Posing as a mute tavern-hand, he gathers information on his bigoted queen and silently seeks to raise a rebellion. But when he discovers the monarch’s scheme to enslave thousands, he fears leading a revolt now would only end in a massacre.Desperate for allies in the coming war, Yosyph … in the coming war, Yosyph travels through a deadly desert in search of his kin. But he’s shocked to discover his only option to defeat the queen’s vast military is an ancient magic that will consume him–unless he opens himself to the voice of his god.
Will Yosyph’s unexpected answers to his prayers stop his realm from descending into bloody darkness?
2019 Whitney Awards Nominee
The writing style is smart and engaging. Brave young men, vivacious heroine. Vibrant world, exciting stakes… I’d recommend to fans of Blades of Acktar, The Queen’s Thief, and The Minstrel’s Song! — H.S.J. Williams, author of Moonscript
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What an entertaining story. I really enjoyed the action and adventure. The complicated relationships made it even more interesting.
M. L. Garb did a fantastic job with with building up the world and the characters. I had no problems visualizing everything as it was happening. Such a creative tale.
Neal Arango took the story to the next level. A very entertaining performance.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.
The King’s Trial tells the story of the Yorel Yosyph, who is on a mission to save the people from going into slavery. He plans a revolution against the queen. To do so, he must pass the King’s Trial to get help from his people. It is a difficult task with many obstacles. In the meantime, he saves a girl who is the girlfriend of prince Halavant. This book was very well written! I loved the storyline and the characters a lot. There were many twists and turns which made the story unpredictable. I couldn’t put it down because I always wanted to know what happened next. I can’t wait to read the second book in the series! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes to read fantasy books.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
In The King’s Trial, M.L. Farb has created a rich world with deep, relatable characters.
I loved both Halavant’s and Yosyph’s growth throughout the story. Halavant is a prince who has to hit bottom to realize the world doesn’t revolve around him. Yosyph is a quiet man who must learn to rely on God and others. And I can’t wait to see more of Katrin, who I adore.
The book has adventure, political intrigue, faith, a twist I didn’t predict until the last moment, and a bit of romance that makes me anxious to read the next book. I’m glad it’s available now!
4.5 stars.
Fantasy is not normally a genre I read, and I rarely accept review requests for any genre as I’m not a blogger, so when an author I hadn’t come across before asked me if I might be interested in reading and reviewing her book, I wasn’t particularly disposed to accept. However, I downloaded a sample and discovered a well written, medieval-styled story that appealed to me.
The King’s Trial is much better than I was expecting. The characters are mostly in their late teens and grow throughout the book. Apart from a couple of minor quibbles, I found I could believe in both them and the world the author had created, and the further I got into the story, the more compelling I found it. It was an exciting tale, and I occasionally found myself holding my breath.
This is a complete story, but it looks as though there may be a sequel. If there is, I shall be buying a copy to see how the characters continue to grow and what happens next.
Please note, I was given a free copy for my honest opinion. Had I not enjoyed it, I would not have written a review. I would buy more books by this author. I rate this book at a solid four stars.
Excellent YA Fantasy
I loved the converging storylines and the character growth in this book! The story is told from the first-person point of view of Yosyph, the rebel army leader opposed to the wicked queen, and the first-person perspective of Halavant, the spoiled son of the same queen. The author does a fantastic job getting you hooked on both plotlines, and I loved alternating between Yosyph’s story and Halavant’s as the plot unfolded and secrets were revealed. This book is perfect for a young adult audience with clean content and relatable characters throughout the well-edited pages.
I loved the thought-provoking topics throughout the book and was deeply moved by Yosyph’s faith journey. The lesson he learned struck a chord with me in my faith walk, and I appreciated the author’s ability to weave a simple yet profound message into the story. I can’t say enough about how much I loved Halavant’s transition; I could not stand him at the beginning of the book, but his character developed so much as the story continued.
The book culminated in an exciting race against time and a satisfying conclusion. Several edge-of-your-seat instants and some heartwarming and humorous moments in the final chapters made me appreciate this book even more. The final sequence of events left me standing on solid ground but eager to plunge into the sequel!
It’s an epic story that screams for an adaptation
While I don’t really like the way it jumps pov I understand why it’s done
I was disappointed with who ended up in power it makes the second book very compelling
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Great book for young adults. Fun, interesting and engaging. Holds your interest and keeps you coming back for more.
What a great book! I found it very colorful and the characters were beautifully detailed. Full of adventure and excitement.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Got caught up in “what was going to happen next”. Liked the characters. They were very believable. Great story line and plot.
I have very conflicted and opposing thoughts on M. L. Farb’s “The King’s Trial”. At times it is clever, heartfelt, and fun while at other times it is formulaic, heavy-handed, and self-indulgent. Portions of the book were great and other parts were so-so. It is not a bad story by any measure but the flaws shown enough to make the read, at times, a chore. It could easily become a five-star book in my opinion if the rough edges were smoothed out.
First, the great: The story is your somewhat tried and true formula of royal teens trying to save their kingdom with a quest. What makes this great is that it is cleverly subverted in interesting ways. For instance, one character goes on a quest to save their love interest but instead saves themself through improving their character. I honestly thought I would really hate the spoiled brat prince but through their storyline, I came to find them interesting and deep. The world-building is intriguing and creates a feeling of a larger sense of place. The characters are all pretty fun. The best parts of the story (from the spoiler section below) were when real historical precedents would peek through about how revolutions and governance work against what we think. For instance, just simply assassinating one bad person doesn’t necessarily end a war. The fact that this book thought of that made it much stronger than several other similar books I’ve read.
Second, the not great: The story begins and ends with a lot of exposition to explain the setting and motivations of the characters. The lead, for example, is a member of a revolutionary group working against the kingdom’s monarchy. Over the course of several matter-of-fact flashbacks, we learn some of why the lead is doing this. It feels more like the character is affirming their choice themselves rather than trusting us to trust they have a reason. The end has similar issues in which, after a time skip, we learn how things are going in rapid succession as stated facts. It’s not terrible but it made getting into the story harder than it needed to. Secondly, the characters make lots of silent prayers to a god (or possibly gods?) but never discuss the matter in any depth. It seems to play a very important part of the story (as one character literary speaks to a god several times but the matter is left as just a thing that happens. As a fantasy nerd, I love learning about made-up religions. It’s one of my favorite parts of games like the Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age. So, the metaphysics of the book left me with more world-building questions than answers but not in the right way.
*Light Spoilers*
Lastly, the story is a bit problematic. One major theme throughout is that the primary lead is not white but rather a member of a dark-skinned “desert people” with magical abilities. This seems to play on the concept of the magical other. The literary history of which is not wonderful. This bothered me only a little at the start as this character only talked about the ability as an abstract skill rather than an intrinsic power. Over the course of the book, however, it was shown to be a supernatural power that was unheard of in the largely white kingdom. It seems like, in a magical world, it would have been fun to have more different kinds of magic or explore why the character was magical. Other issues like how disability was discussed and shown had similar themes of nearing problematic issues. All of which were things that made me step back and distance myself from the story rather than add to it.
*Heavy Spoilers*
The best portion of this story was the heel turn of one of the characters. It turns out that there is more to this story than just an evil queen doing evil for fun. The true villain wants democracy at any stake. Even to the point of starting an unjust war to make it happen. This elevated the story a lot in my mind. Stories like the Lord of the Rings or Sword of Shannara make it seem like just getting rid of the big bad saves the day when in reality there is more nuanced than that to fix a broken system. I appreciated the even-handed exploration of those themes in a fantasy story.
*Spoilers End*
I’m interested to read other works by M. L. Farb. This series could grow into something really interesting if she builds on the ideas in this story.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.