The King’s Peace & The King’s Name

The King’s Peace (2000) and The King’s Name (2001) by Jo Walton

In actuality, there are really three books in two. The first book, The King’s Peace is actually two books, “The King’s Peace” and “The Kings Law” which are just a little shorter than the second book, The King’s Name.

The tale is a history of a world that is similar to, but not exactly, the British Isles, so there is a sense of familiarity, without actually being something real.

It is the tale of King Urdo of Tir Tanagiri, as told by Sulien ap Gwien, a woman warrior who is as central to the events she is retelling as King Urdo.

The first book, The King’s Peace, tells of how King Urdo wages war in Tir Tanagiri to achieve peace, and then how the peace is held together as the king creates the law to uphold the peace, but it also interweaves the life of Sulien, telling her story amidst the tale. It spans more than a decade, and I did find the jumps in time slightly confusing in parts, when I lost track of precisely how many years in the future we’d gone, although giving the ages of children did help a bit to keep the time line straight. It wasn’t a huge problem, but it did cause me to have to go back a couple of times to determine how much time had passed, and it also came across as a little choppy in places, as we jumped from time to time, although the fact that the book was written as a memoir does help explain the jumps.

There is no real conclusion at the end of the first book, so make sure that you have book two when you start book one. (Note to authors: I hate cliffhangers, and so many of your write them, won’t buy and read a series until it is concluded, unless I know for certain that there is a sense of conclusion at the end of each book.)

The second book, The King’s Name, tells of the Civil War, fostered by Morthu, that split the land, family, and friends apart. The time line is shorter in this book, and I didn’t have the problems of keeping track of time.

I particularly liked the fact that in Sulien’s land, female warriors are accepted as normal. As far as I’m concerned, such tales are far preferable the ones where a woman has to prove herself in a man’s world. There’s enough of that in reality, thank you.

There is also a thread of religious conquest and the morality of it. The faith of the White God is a parallel to Christianity, and the spread of Christianity throughout the British Isles. (I’m now curious as to whether the spread of Christianity through the British Isles followed a similar path, or was more akin to the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire.)

Jo Walton does a good job building characters that come across as real, especially in the conflicts of family and friends, and created a land that I can easily imagine, and seemed quite familiar, as if it were something I’d read about in a history book.

I would definitely recommend these books to anyone who likes sword and sorcery.

And kudos for having a realistically dressed heroine on the cover!
Rating: 8/10

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