Ruination by Anthony Reynolds

Name of Book: Ruination 

Author: Anthony Reynolds

ISBN: 978-0-316-46905-0

Publisher: Orbit 

Type of book: Fantasy, loyalty, knights, hidden islands, death, love, revenge, sacrifice, League of Legends novel 

Year it was published: 2022

Summary:

The first ever novel set in the blockbuster universe of League of Legends, one of the most popular video games of all time, Ruination is an epic tale of magic, revenge, and an empire on the verge of ruin.

Camavor is a brutal land with a bloody legacy. Where the empire’s knights go, slaughter follows.

Kalista seeks to change that. When her young and narcissistic uncle, Viego, becomes king, she vows to temper his destructive instincts, as his loyal confidant, advisor, and military general. But her plans are thwarted when an assassin’s poisoned blade strikes Viego’s wife, Isolde, afflicting her with a malady for which there is no cure.

As Isolde’s condition worsens, Viego descends into madness and grief, threatening to drag Camavor down with him. Kalista makes a desperate gambit to save the kingdom: she searches for the long lost Blessed Isles, rumored to hold the queen’s salvation, if only Kalista can find them.

But corruption grows in the Blessed Isles’ capital, where a vengeful warden seeks to ensnare Kalista in his cruel machinations. She will be forced to choose between her loyalty to Viego and doing what she knows is right–for even in the face of utter darkness, one noble act can shine a light that saves the world.

Characters:

There are about two main characters, namely Kalista and Erlok Grael.  Kalista is loyal, sacrificing and takes duty and family very seriously. She also doesn't give up easily and often accepts her fate too easily. At the same time she is struggling with finding the clear answer and being loyal. Erlok Grael is best described as selfish, thoughtless and a snob who thinks everything about him is sacred. He is also manipulative and often causes characters to go against their personalities and natures,  and he also encourages darkness in those he meets. He sees himself as wronged and takes advantage of situations he finds himself in. The secondary characters include Viego, a young king whose wife is critically sick and who only desires for her to be healthy again as well as Ryze, a naturally born runic mage who has to make a lot of decisions in order not to end up as Erlok Grael. 

Theme:

The importance of heart and duty 

Plot:

The story is in third person narrative primarily from Erlok's, Kalista's and Ryze's points of views. It begins about fifteen years earlier than coronation of Viego with Erlok being assigned as a warden archivist, and then moves on to coronation of Viego who shouldn't have been king in the first place. The story then moves on to a year later to a feast that Viego was having where his beloved wife got injured (It all happened in the first 20 or so pages.) I have to give Anthony Reynolds top marks for creating a wonderful and engaging story that just simply kept flowing without ever being overlong or overwhelming or overly detailed. The author strikes the right balance between setting, action and character development, thus its easy to become emotionally invested in the characters, experiencing heartbreak as well as empathy and understanding towards Kalista's situation. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

Anthony Reynolds was a Games Developer and manager at Games Workshop in the UK. Since then he's written freelance for a number of companies, including Black Library Publishing, Mantic Games, THQ, Bandai-Namco, Behaviour Interactive, and River Horse Games. He currently lives in California.

Opinion:

I never played League of Legends, and until the publication of RUINATION, I hadn't even heard of it. My first warning for it would be that is if you aren't familiar with League of Legends and hate spoilers, don't look up character profiles of Viego, Kalista, Hecarim, Erlok Grael (Trasher) and Ryze because the story will then be spoiled. However, its not necessary to play the game to truly enjoy this novel, which is what happened to me. First of all it takes about a thousand or so years before the events of the game, and there is definitely strong world building skills along with strong and sympathetic characters. Heck, I often think of this novel as a new Forgotten Realms  and I sincerely hope I can go back to the universe once more, or at least I am crossing my fingers for more stories about Kalista and Viego. 

This was given for review 

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)