The Name of All Things

After the explosive ending to The Ruin of Kings, it was too hard to resist finding out what happened next. It has been a while since a series had me hooked so deeply that I simply could not wait to start the next part!

Plot

The Name of All Things starts a couple of days after the ending of the previous book. In the wake of the Hellmarch in Quur, Kihrin has a lot going on between his resurrection, the discovery of Miya's (or rather, Khaeriel's) betrayal, and the murder of almost the entire D'mon line. Urthaenriel has destroyed The Stone of Shackles, and demons roam the streets of the capital. Heading to Jorat with a fireblood, Kihrin soon encounters an interesting character in a tavern.

This person turns out to be Janel Therannon, the count of Tolamer - the intriguing woman who's been haunting Kihrin's dreams ever since his encounter with Xaltorath. Not only does she claim to know him, but Janel also has a story of her own to tell... one that will help Kihrin understand the events that have been unfolding around them. Those events include a stray dragon, a city on the brink of rebellion, and more plotting, which, as always, include our favorite baddie, Relos Var.

Then starts the boring part.

Janel insists that for Kihrin to fully understand how they ended up here, he needs to know a huge chunk of her past. She takes turns narrating it with her friend, a priest named Qown, in a manner reminiscent of Kihrin and Talon's narration in the first book. The result, although easier to follow, is terribly slow and hard to get through.

Janel starts her story by going a few years back into the past. I thought we were done with being all confused by a brand new character narrating their history, but here we are. AGAIN. I almost felt like I was reading a completely different book. Let's read about completely new, one-dimensional characters and their tedious lives while waiting for something more exciting to happen, shall we? Something like this isn't a problem with the first book in a series, but I just couldn't get invested enough in those new side characters or figure out how they tied into the original story. I'll be honest - these chapters did not add much to the story and could have been easily shorter or more interesting. Instead of knowing what happens next with Kihrin, almost the entire book is about Janel's past.

Unfortunately, the only thing you must do is get through it (yes, I know I said the same thing last time - but bear with me!) Because things ramp up significantly after the 50% mark. After that, I was hooked... again. Janel is an interesting character when she moves past the local disputes in Jorat and into more powerful circles of kings, god-kings, god-queens, and witches and prophecies. We meet Darzin D'Mon again, and he remains just as psychopathic as ever. It is interesting to finally understand how Janel happens to end up in her current situation, but boy, does it take a while to get there.

"A prophecy." I stared at him. "I don't like prophecies."

"They can be useful."

Some of the most interesting parts of the plot were when the timeline finally catches up to the one in The Ruin of Kings - and we finally start seeing events that happened in the previous book from a different perspective. When she ends her story, we start to move again in real time. Unfortunately, the plot hops forward by only a few days, so don't get your hopes up.

The ending, though, more than makes up for it. Lyons is excellent at endings. The story ends with a certain degree of (literal) explosiveness that rivals even that of the previous book. For all the effort needed to drudge through the boring first half, the ending was fantastic - and I'm not complaining.

Characters

Janel

Janel Theranon, or the Count of Tolamer, is a fiery young woman. After briefly meeting her last book, we get to know her a lot better this time around. Janel is intelligent, resourceful, and determined. Jorat has a very different hierarchical structure than the one we're used to and she's clearly had some interesting experiences navigating it. She's soon embroiled in a dangerous game of manipulation and deceit, into a dance where Relos Var is pulling the strings (as usual). But you know what they say about the enemy of your enemy...

Kihrin

Kihrin is a secondary character for almost 80% of the book. For the most part, he is a listener to Janel's story, occasionally interjecting with his comments. However, he does play an important role in the story towards the end. His dynamics with Janel are interesting. I'm pretty excited to see how their relationship plays out next book, given his closeness to Teraeth.

Teraeth, Tyentso, Thurvishar, Therin, and Khaeriel

Don't expect to see most of these characters in this installment. This isn't Kihrin's story, and although he and Janel tend to know a lot of the same people, very few of them actually show up in this book. Which is a shame, since most of the side characters in Janel's story don't quite have the same charm. Nonetheless, now that everyone's on the same timeline, rest assured we'll see them in the next part.

"No nefarious tricks," Thurvishar promised. "On occasion, I like talking to people whose primary interests don't include new and interesting ways to conquer the world."

Worldbuilding

A majority of this book is set in Jorat with its quite progressive culture. The Joratese have a lot of interesting ideas about power, identity, and sexuality. However - the dialogue just threw me off at times. They use extensive horse-based terminology to refer to people, and hardly a page goes by without someone being called a mare, stallion, colt, foal, or gelding. It was cool in the beginning, but having the same words repeated over and over was a bit much after a while.

In terms of exposition, this book makes a worthy successor. It clears up and reiterates quite a few points which assured me that I was following the book correctly. After that, it beautifully accomplishes the task of expanding on the lore of the world. A lot more things about the Eight, Relos Var, and S'arric are elaborated on, making it an engaging read. Plus, more dragons.

Demons run when gods take the field.

Writing Style

Unfortunately, the writing felt weaker this time. I wish that this and the previous book had found a way to combine in a way that switched between Kihrin's story and Janel's. A lot of things unclear in his story would have been explained in hers. Since we're stuck with the alternative, the starting is pretty hard to get through. Additionally, the footnotes are a pain. While Thurvishar's footnotes added extra exposition in The Ruin of Kings, the person who writes them this time is just... annoying.

Although the narrative structure is similar to the previous book, none of the narrations really gripped me the way Talon's or Kihrin's did. One advantage this time around is that the story is much easier to follow than its predecessor. While it does remain non-linear, the timelines in the past remain chronological and shift only in location. This makes it much more accessible and I didn't end up feeling so confused all the time.

In Conclusion

The Name of All Things has a slow start that explores the themes of family, power, and identity to build into an engaging climax. Although marred by a tedious and flat beginning, it soon picks up its pace. However, you'll need some patience and an open mind to get there. Unfortunately, while this does bring it a step down from its predecessor, it remains a strong novel with complex characters, magic systems, and political intrigue. Lyons's book wove together a lot of threads into an immersive ending that hooked me. I, for one, know I'll be looking forward to starting the next part soon.