Pale Kings cover art

Pale Kings

Emaneska, Book 2

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £20.99

Buy Now for £20.99

About this listen

Could you take a child's life to save a world?

Pale Kings, the explosive sequel to the bestselling epic fantasy The Written, has arrived. Packed with action, magic and mythology, Pale Kings is a sword and sorcery adventure that raises stakes to new heights.

©2012 Ben Galley (P)2022 Audible, Ltd Dark Fantasy Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Magic Royalty
All stars
Most relevant
Second book did not disappoint love the story narration is brilliant there is nothing not to immerse yourself into and just surrender to the story .. every character is considered thought through and very soon imprinted into the mind … have listened back to back … love it when I feel like a series sooo good work gets in the way found myself wanting the day to end so can get the headphones on

Utterly fabulous followup

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Absolutely amazing! Loved every moment and was enthralled by it. The story telling is strong and a world is created where I care deeply for the characters.

Mind blown

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Pale Kings is one of those books I enjoyed while reading, even if it didn’t leave a huge mark afterwards.

The novel is split into three parts, and the pacing varies quite a bit between them. Part Two, in particular, dragged for me. A large portion of it revolves around characters attending social functions, having conversations, and unpacking exposition. While some of that groundwork is clearly important, it feels drawn out and could have been tighter. The momentum dips noticeably.

Part Three picks things back up. There’s more movement, more consequence, and the story finally starts to feel like it’s going somewhere. The shift in pace is welcome and makes the final stretch much more engaging.

The romantic elements didn’t land for me. Almost the entire female cast wants the male lead (apart from the ugly or unpleasant ones) and it starts to feel trite and shallow.

As the ensemble grows, not every character gets enough space to justify their inclusion. A few, like the cat girl, feel underused and somewhat redundant because they never receive enough focus to meaningfully contribute to the plot or emotional weight of the story.

That said, I did enjoy it overall. There are some solid twists, even if many are telegraphed early enough that the surprise factor is sacrificed. The world is interesting, the writing is competent, and it’s an easy book to settle into.

It’s not exceptional, but it’s far from bad. A decent, entertaining read.

I really liked the narrator. He does a range of voices, each distinct for the different characters. The only thing I didn’t like was the hoarse whisper-shout every time a character raises their voice. It took me out of the story every time.

It’s pretty good. Nothing amazing but good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.