Like Sung-il Kim’s debut novel Blood of the Old Kings (translated by the incomparable Anton Hur), his follow-up Blood for the Undying Throne is a trove of badassery. It takes everything awesome about 90s fantasy, the bigness of it, the bombast, the refusal to get bogged down in grimdark or hyper-realistic details, and updates them with modern reflections on empire and the nature of evil. And the second book is even better than the first: this is The Empire Strikes Back of trilogy fantasy. It nails the feeling of the world getting much bigger, and perfectly lands the escalation of all the themes and threats explored in Blood of the Old Kings. It’s darker, more reflective and more threatening without losing either its sense of possibility or its hope.
Or its sense of magic, I should be sure to add. The magic system here was unexpected, and remains an impressive balance that’s based on but not overwhelmed by the power of imagination. So often, magic users whose only limitations are their imaginations either fall short or become ludicrously overpowered. Arienne is neither. The trick is that her imagination is just that—it’s inside her head, quite literally. Her powers are a limitless interiority, but that doesn’t always find easy or perfect expression in the outside world. While she can carry around supplies and even people inside her head, much like having a pocket plane, she’s still completely responsible for what she carries. If there’s—for instance—a donkey named Aron in her magical mental space, that donkey still demands food and attention.
Also, not since Bill the Pony have I felt such affection for a pack animal. Aron must be protected at all costs! (Given the “save the cat” general rule, I don’t feel it’s a spoiler to reassure you that Aron will be fine.)
But getting back to the magic, let’s talk about Kim’s own powers. Once again in this sophomore novel, he shows off his ability to dream up and pull off feats of innovation in the fantasy genre and make them seem effortless. He doesn’t belabor Arienne’s abilities, or his own cleverness with this magical system. He just gets right on with it, the plot the absolute center of his—and our—attention.
Some time has passed from the events of the first book, and a rebellion is underway. Loran and Cain are no longer POV characters, although they remain busy in their respective roles. Only Arienne remains one of our focuses, since she has put all her other plans on hold to journey to the former Mersia, an entire country that the Empire destroyed.
Arienne feels both powerful and very much like a journeyman—literally, in this case. She’s gone to the devastated wasteland of Mersia to discover why and how it was destroyed. She suspects that the official story is concealing some greater truth, although she can’t guess that it is also tied closely to her past.
Meanwhile, new protagonist Emere is doing his own investigation from the capital, all while dodging assassins and conspiracies. Now a councilor, a low-ranking official and effectively a political hostage, Emere is surprisingly blasé about the dangers. As we come to learn, he’s no stranger to peril: before attaching himself to his brother’s do-nothing rebel cell in Blood of the Old Kings, he was a full-fledged wanderer. A decade ranging all across the continent made him comfortable with all kinds of threats, even if it never did deliver the destiny he was—and is still—searching for. How can he free his country from the Empire? He will do anything to find out, no matter if he destroys himself in the process.

The third POV chapter in this book is Yuma, whose story takes place more than a century earlier in the still-thriving Mersia. Well, mostly thriving. There are beautiful cities, rich culture, and a gorgeous grassland landscape, but all of this is ruled by the Grim King. Yes, Eldred the necromancer-king from the first book is back, but not to tell his villain origin story. He’s already firmly ensconced as a despot, and as Chief Herder, Yuma must find a way to resist and negotiate with him. Her bravery is unquestionable but her power is very limited, at least until a mysterious emissary from the Empire comes with promises of support.
The tension in Blood for the Undying Throne is no longer about the freedom of a single country, but now of all of them. I probably shouldn’t have to say that geopolitics are complicated, but so often in SFF they aren’t. “Empire bad, rebellion good” is bog-standard, as are moral absolutes. Kim doesn’t let that easy dichotomy be the end of it. Yes, the Empire is oppressive. So are some of the kingdoms it conquers. Several kingdoms welcome the Empire gladly, and with tyrants like the Grim King as the alternative, why wouldn’t they? Not only does it offer relief from certain kinds of oppression, it brings trade, roads, and technology.
But the Empire scorns what it has no use for, whether that’s cultural traditions it tramples or gods—yes, actual gods—it destroys or subsumes, thriving most potently on death. As in the first book, Blood for the Undying Throne is deeply interested in what death means to power. Previously, there was only the bleak threat that even death was no escape from subjugation, at least for Powered individuals. Now, we see that there is no escape for anyone, especially not in Mercia, where a necromantic overlord can kill anyone at any time, and then reanimate their corpse for his army. Yet the Empire, as we know, will even derive power from the countries it has killed, exploiting their specters as an ongoing threat to the ones that remain. Yuma’s choices seem to be between bad and worse, a choice that Emere will also face. How do you choose hope for yourself, and how, as a leader, do you even begin to choose it for others?
This is a book very much about the promises but also the consequences of that hope on a grand scale. It’s easy enough to tell people to be hopeful, but what about when there is pain and death at stake, but even death is not the end to suffering? And what if the alternative is not abject privation but just the slow grind of endurable misery? Believing in a better future, persisting toward it, is no longer a given. It’s a choice, and watching these characters make it is a true pleasure to read.
Blood for the Undying Throne will be released October 28, 2025.