Potential Spoilers Ahead: The Name of All Things is the second book in the A Chorus of Dragons series. As such, the blurb for this book and the following review will inevitably have some level of spoilers for the previous book/s. I’ve tried to keep those spoilers to a minimum, but you have been warned.
You can have everything you want if you sacrifice everything you believe.
Kihrin D’Mon is a wanted man.
Since he destroyed the Stone of Shackles and set demons free across Quur, he has been on the run from the wrath of an entire empire. His attempt to escape brings him into the path of Janel Theranon, a mysterious Joratese woman who claims to know Kihrin.
Janel’s plea for help pits Kihrin against all manner of dangers: a secret rebellion, a dragon capable of destroying an entire city, and Kihrin’s old enemy, the wizard Relos Var.
Janel believes that Relos Var possesses one of the most powerful artifacts in the world―the Cornerstone called the Name of All Things. And if Janel is right, then there may be nothing in the world that can stop Relos Var from getting what he wants.
And what he wants is Kihrin D’Mon.
The Name of All Things by Jenn Lyons lives up to the promises of the first book, delivering an epic story that intersects and continues the story. The eccentric narrative style and convuluted history and identities of the characters may put some people off, but for me it just adds to the charm.
It’s fairly rare that I’ll review a sequel without already having reviewed the previous book, but The Name of All Things fits into this category. The Ruin of Kings to me was slow to start, with a narrative style that was confusing until it finally clicked, ending up with bombastic twist after twist, a smorgasbord of hidden identities, soul switching, shape-shifting and past life antics. The series has a kitchen sink approach to worldbuilding that works mostly because of how much thought has been put into every element – and it kind of has to be – because of reincarnation and immortality, many of the characters have hundreds of years of history (if not thousands). I came away ultimately satisfied, with a keenness to see where things are taken next (tempered only by the fact that I knew I would have to reread the entire series if I didn’t wait until the last one was nearly out to continue – I did a skim reread of The Ruin of Kings before starting The Name of All Things and I’m very glad I did).
So, The Name of All Things has a similar structure to the previous book, with one character compiling a narrative for another one based on recent events, interjecting with footnotes. The narrative itself again consists of a framing element – two characters alternating telling the story of recent events, culminating in a final last part that happens after the framing element. It’s a little smoother this time in that the alternating stories are mostly linear compared to the two timelines of The Ruin of Kings. Now that I knew what I was getting myself in for, I kind of love this narrative style – it does make your brain work a little harder, but there’s a little reward centre in my brain that goes ding when things fit together.
This time, the book centers on Janel, a character teased as being important both to the plot and to Kihrin, but barely seen so far other than a sequence in the afterlife. Janel, like Kihrin, is at the center of the Hellwarrior prophecies, and again, like Kihrin, is being molded by various entities, most notably Relos Var and Xaltorath. The book as a whole is presented to Relos Var by his lackey Senera, which makes for some delicious footnotes where Senera says things like ‘wait, did we know that she could do that?’. Senera is much snarkier than Thurvishar, which combined with her adversarial nature towards the protagonists makes the footnotes very fun indeed this time. Kihrin and Janel meet early on in the frame story, so most of the main narrative are Janel and her companion Brother Qown’s accounts of the events that occured to them in Jorat and Yor (in first and third person respectively) being relayed to Kihrin. These events happen concurrently with the events from the first book, which coupled with the relative lack of narrative time spent on Kihrin might frustrate some readers, but I didn’t mind at all. Janel is a strong protagonist, and Jorat as a setting was great, with rules and traditions vastly different to the rest of Quur.
The plot revolves around Janel and her companion trying to counteract the plans of Relos Var in Jorat and Yor, as he tries to exploit the current instability of the Joratese nobility. As before, there’s plenty of gods, multiple dragons, demons and secret identities. This time there’s new depths as the plot interweaves loosely with that of The Ruin of Kings, with characters such as Tereath, Thaena, Tya, Thurvishar and of course Relos Var (among others) making large enough appearances, with hints towards the events of the first book. Kihrin himself gets to interject comments it the start of every chapter. And this goes both ways – a throwaway footnote by Thurvishar in The Ruin of Kings gives a major clue to a character’s secret identity. This is definitely a book that rewards those who pay attention.
The narrative structure means that Lyons can play with all manner of foreshadowing and dramatic irony, and in general there is a playfulness to the narrative that doesn’t undermine much from the momentusness of the events. I think sometimes the narrative style can cause deeper emotional beats to get lost a little, and overall there’s a momentum to events that carries the characters forward – even if they do have agency and steer things in the smaller scale.
I’ve mentioned the setting, and Jorat is pretty great, with the people recognising differences between gender, sex and sexuality, and a culture based around horses with a breed of intelligent, talking horses that only the Joratese can understand. Alongside that, their governance has a form of democracy to it, where those who govern can be ‘voted out’ by a majority of those directly below them. And finally there’s strict ideals around the protectors and the protected. The sense of history in the setting is still strong, too.
The twists and turns aren’t quite so complex this time round, but they are still dramatic enough, and the book gets its action packed conclusion that comes with some big reveals.
While there are a few things that hold this book back from zipping towards the top of my favourites, there’s such a wealth of worldbuilding and plot weaving here that I can’t help but be carried along. Fans of the first book might be disappointed that The Name of All Things is light on Kihrin, but I’d implore them to keep an open mind because this book in many ways exceeds its predecessor.
Rating: 8.5/10
Writings of a Doomscribe 