Trial of the Sun Queen Review

 Book Review of Trial of the Sun Queen by Marina Price


I think that Trial of the Sun Queen is an overall very good book that I would recommend. It is a fantasy book with lots of world building and character development. The main character, Lor, has lived in the worst prison in this world called Nostraza for her entire life despite her committing no obvious crime. One day, she gets mysteriously stolen from the prison, finding herself in the lavish rooms of a castle. However, of course this is a fantasy book, so she must compete in a set of tests called the Trials of the Sun Queen. The castle she is in is called the sun palace, where she is competing in deathly trials (designed to kill the contestants) to attempt to be chosen as the sun queen. The other contestants have trained their entire life for this contest while Lor is only put there as tribute to show the people of the Sun Kingdom why the people of elite society are better. (This is a bit of a SPOILER so skip this sentence if you want to read this book) She manages to survive the trials, so by the rules of the court she must become the sun queen. However, instead, she decides to deny the choice after making some revelations about what becoming the sun queen means. By denying this choice, she puts herself back in prison. (SPOILER OVER you can continue reading now). This of course isn’t a very good ending, that’s because this book is actually the first book of the series the Artefacts of Ouranos. You can continue to see how Lor’s story plays out by reading the rest of this four book series. However, I am focusing on the first book right now because I have yet to complete the series myself, but I will tell you about it when I do finish it. 

There is a lot to like about this book and its structure.  I liked this book because it immersed me in a completely different world. I also liked that there was almost a mix of themes, some romance and fantasy. I loved that the main character was an independent woman who showed lots of themes of bravery and courage without needing a man by her side. The plot line is also fairly unique, despite following some typical threads of a fantasy novel. Although there are many good things about this novel, there are a few aspects I didn’t like. The plotline had many holes in it, where I felt like I wasn’t following the story completely or got confused on a certain scene. It wasn’t just the plot that would confuse me either, the worldbuilding was definitely not the best compared to other fantasy books I’ve read. Some places were never introduced to the reader, others would have completely different traits in a certain scene compared to how they were described in the beginning, and the overall theme of the world doesn’t really make sense to me

As you can see, there are a couple of reasons why I would not recommend the Trial of the Sun Queen, but the good overcomes the bad, making it a good and overall satisfying book that I would recommend to a friend in search of their next fantasy read!

-Marina

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