The Hand of the Sun King is a 2021 fantasy novel by J.T. Greathouse. It is the first novel in the Pact and Pattern series. The novel is the author's debut novel and was released in August 2021 by JAB Books. I was provided with a review copy of the novel by Netgalley.

Wen Alder was born into two worlds. On his father's side, a legacy of proud loyalty and service to the god-like Sienese Emperor spanning generations. And it is expected that Alder, too, will follow this tradition by passing the Imperial exams, learning the accepted ways of magic and, if he serves with honor, enhancing his family's prominence by rising to take a most powerful position in Sien—the Hand of the Emperor. But from his mother he has inherited defiance from the Empire, a history of wild gods and magic unlike anything the Imperial sorcerers could yet control. It began when his spirited, rebellious grandmother took Alder into the woods and introduced him to her ways—ways he has never been able to forget. Now, on the verge of taking the steps that will forge the path of his life, Alder discovers that the conflict between the Empire and the resistance is only the beginning of a war that will engulf both heaven and earth, gods and man—and he may be the key to final victory for whichever side can claim him as their own…

This novel was told in first-person perspective, which I normally am not a fan of, but it worked really well in this instance. Alder's struggle between the two sides of his heritage becomes so much more apparent with the first-person perspective. This writing decision also works because the book is meant to be, at least in part, Alder's autobiography. It's the story, as he remembers it, looking back years later. His feelings, his concerns, his regrets feel that much more real because the story is being told from Alder's own viewpoint, not from an objective, outside source. The POV is also how the plot twists are able to be executed properly. Without getting into spoilers, the twists work because Alder viewed things as occuring for one reason, when there was a hidden reason he wasn't aware of, not because something happened "off-screen" or because he's simply an unreliable narrator. The twists lie in the motives of other characters, not in a surprise revelation about past events.

The downside to this novel being told in first-person perspective is that the reader doesn't get to see much development in characters other than Alder. There is only one character, aside from the narrator, who undergoes any kind of development, but the development is more the result of their relationship evolving rather than the character himself. Alder is the only one who gets any real development, but he's also the only one who needs any. At its core, the novel is about Alder's journey to figuring out who he is and which part of his heritage, Sienese or Nayeni, he's loyal to. As a result, the development of other characters isn't as necessary. In some case, the lack of development in other characters serves the plot much better. The lack of development wasn't an issue for me, but the lack of depth to the side characters was. I wish the minor characters had been fleshed out a bit more, because it felt like each one only had one character trait and that was the extent of their character.

I really enjoyed the world and the magic system in this novel. The world is very heavily-inspired by east Asian history and cultures. The magic system isn't difficult for the reader to understand, but it's clearly very complex and deeply ingrained in the world. The magic is treated as an extension of different cultures and the deep roots each type of magic, for lack of a better term, serves to make each culture that much richer. There was a great deal of thought put into creating the world of this story and how each location would give rise to different gods, different types of magic and different stories. I also appreciated that this story delved into the ugly side of empire-building. The Sienese are trying to conquer every known civilization they encounter, and the narrative goes into detail how they've gotten so successful at it and why they seem justified in doing so. These actions aren't shown to be "necessary" or "noble", but to be cruel and wrong, and I appreciate the fact that the ugliness of empire-building wasn't shied away from. The story as a whole had a great mix of classic and modern fantasy elements and Alder's story, while not always pleasant, was certainly compelling.

The writing was pretty accessible. The prose is digestible and the author does a great job of giving the reader lush, imaginative descriptions of the world so that they can envision it. There were a few passages where it felt very clear to me that this was a debut novel, but others that read like J.T. Greathouse had been writing for years. There is a bit of a pacing issue, at times, where it feels like some parts of the story are taking too long, while other events pass far too quickly. It only happens occasionally, but it was something I felt acutely aware of during the slow-moving sections. At the beginning, I had an issue with how certain events played out, as it seemed Alder was running into a lot of conveniences, but after getting further into the book and a few things were revealed, those moments made more sense to me. Those moments felt like intentional things in hindsight, as opposed to lazy writing. The plot was very carefully considered to allow all those moments to work within the story, while also giving a surprise towards the end. I was blown away by the ending, as I wasn't expecting the climax to conclude in such a way and it really got me excited for the next novel in the series.

The Hand of the Sun King is an engaging fantasy novel. It has a good plot, a great world and an intriguing magic system. While the character development and some of the pacing needed a little bit of work, the novel on the whole was enjoyable. The plot twists were executed very well and the climax is one of the best I've read in a debut fantasy novel in a long time. I look forward to the next novel in the series, without a doubt. I'd recommend this book to fantasy fans who are looking for a coming-of-age story that's a mix between modern fantasy and more classic fantasy.

Rating: 4.2 Stars

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