Review of The King of May

[Mokhantso Letsela]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The King of May" by Matthew Tysz.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The King of May by brilliant writer, Matthew Tysz, is the second installment of the fantasy series called The Turn. In it, we see the effects of “the turn”- an apocalyptic event that was caused by Oak. In this installment, there is an obvious power struggle between characters who became gods after the turn causing Scholar and Ashley to go on a mission to terminate all of them. Will they succeed? Meanwhile, Cattleprod is building his empire and wants to take on King of May who is much more powerful and (in my personal opinion) quite charming.

Having read the author’s other fantasy/science fiction series called We Are Voulhire, I love and appreciate his descriptive writing skills. As with the other series, I felt like I was watching a movie as I could easily imagine the events and scenes in the book as the author described them. One other thing I loved is the author’s sense of humor. I especially enjoyed The King of May, who I found to be very funny. The chapters in the book are narrated from two points of view: in the voice of the character for the main characters; and from the narrator’s for the rest of the characters. This is the case for We are Voulhire. I love this because it allows the reader to understand the characters better and what makes them tick. The book seemed to be well edited as I found a few minor grammatical errors, making it easy to read.

On the not-so-great side, I found it a bit hard to keep up. Granted, I did not read the first book but I thought there would be a little back-story for people like myself so that we could catch up on the storyline and be able to follow. This sadly was not the case. The introduction of many characters made it even harder to keep up and made reading the book a challenge for me. One thing that I am on the fence about is the author's heavy usage of vulgar language. Yes, it makes sense for some of the characters to be vulgar given the period and their character, but sometimes I feel like the author overdoes it. I felt the same way when I read his other series.

That being said, I will rate the book 4 out of 4 stars. I realize that not reading the first book and not knowing the full story might be the reason for me not enjoying the book to the fullest so I will not blame the author for that. I must say, however, that a little backstory would have been nice.

I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys fantasy novels with sprinkles of humour. The book cannot be seen as a stand-alone book; all the books should be read and in the correct order. Some sexual references can be found in the book but it is nothing explicit. Still, it is not suitable for a younger audience. The profane language used also makes it unsuitable for children. I do not think that any religions would be offended by anything in the book but that people who do not like it when the Lord’s name is “used in vain” might be offended by statements like, "Because I can be whatever the bleeding Christ I want to be!", and, “I knew sure as God hates ugly.”

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The King of May
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