The King Must Die
Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Paperback/Ebook/Audiobook
ISBN: 978-1668061015
S&S/Saga Press, November 4, 2025, 496 pgs

Fictional universes captivate readers because they inherently reveal glimpses of reality. Themes like political unrest, human intervention, and uprisings often bleed onto our pages from the world and history surrounding us. It is no wonder that a book adapting all three of these real, visceral themes would grab the attention of two of our reviewers. With this science fiction title seamlessly weaving such topics into its narrative, it presents the unique opportunity to immerse ourselves in a world that reeks of familiarity despite the fantastic. With that, we have the pleasure of presenting you this double-featured review of Kemi Ashing-Giwa’s The King Must Die (courtesy of Melissa A. Watkins and Arley Sorg).

Arley: From page one, Kemi Ashing-Giwa does what many SFF authors do: dunks the reader into a tide of details, names, and histories. These details concern a far-future version of humanity. It’s a narrative tactic that many genre readers can handle and some even crave. What Ashing-Giwa does that many SFF authors don’t do nearly as well is also give the reader an interesting character in a captivating situation; moreover, the conversation—the tool and context by which some of these details are initially delivered—feels important, not just to the character but to the story. Ashing-Giwa does this right from page one, rather than being simply wedged into a scene for no other reason but to get it into the book. In fact, in many ways, some of the details seem plausible, making this future world, this imagined history, and all those political details feel relevant to us in the present. Our hero is Fen, and she is in a bind.

Mel: Fen is the daughter of political prisoners, forced into service as a magistrate’s bodyguard in the kingdom of Enkaiia on the distant planet NewEarth. When her exiled fathers are assassinated, her own life is forfeit as well. She escapes and joins the rebellion, determined to bring honor to her family name, reclaim her heritage, and gain revenge on the king for his crimes.

Arley: As lethal as Fen is, she has to work as a guard to keep them alive. The imperial family can be cruel, and since her ambassador parents have been imprisoned, Fen has little choice but to exist under the thumb of a seriously questionable bureaucrat in a system run by dangerous people.

Ashing-Giwa next gives us Alekhai, this time throwing us into propulsive, fun action and flexing her storytelling skills. Alekhai is heir to the throne, being the Sovereign’s younger brother, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee safety.

Mel: Alekhai is the pampered second in line to the royal throne, content to laze about on pleasure barges and watch the political machinations of his older sibling from a distance. When his own life is placed at risk, things change, and the king’s younger brother becomes his greatest rival, showing that there’s much more to him than meets the eye.

Arley: He’s been sent out to perform a menial task: gathering taxes. After finishing the task, he’s enjoying a ride on a skiff with a cute guy, being fed fruit while floating through the desiccated landscape of NewEarth when his sister’s assassins show up to try to take him out. It’s a great moment because it gives the reader a sampling of the kind of adventure the book offers, while also presenting a character who is ostensibly in the exact opposite position as Fen. Attentive readers will, however, intuit that even while one is at the very top of the social strata, and the other is at the very bottom, and even as they seem to have strikingly different personalities, they actually have a lot in common.

Mel: Of course, Fen and Alekhai’s paths cross, a company of rogues (loveable and otherwise) is built, and a journey ensues. This science fantasy novel doesn’t go too far afield in its choice of plot devices. It does rely on some fantastically detailed world-building and politics to keep readers enthralled. There are weird animals with weirder names, Dune-lite politics, and a climate-ravaged alien planet. Most interesting of all, the politics of this world are created around a conflict that seems to have originated from a failed alien intervention intended to create a world without violence. Of course, human nature has gotten in the way, and much of what we see our characters do is bound by strictures that limit the type of violence they can inflict on each other, if not the amount. This also leads to some very magical events regarding life and death that, given the colonized planetary setting, are handwaved away with a futuristic science explanation that leads to some of the funniest and most shocking moments in the book.

Arley: It’s important to know, perhaps, that some might call this science fiction, but it often reads like a fantasy adventure, complete with swords, monsters, and other markers that feel very . . . fantasy fiction. It’s also important to know that this has always been the case with lots of books called “science fiction,” and that Ashing-Giwa does introduce a number of elements into the book which are also very . . . science fiction. One of the most important of these is the idea of catastrophic climate and ecological events caused by humans. The setup here is that humans wrecked earth so terribly that they had to beg an alien species to save them. The aliens did, bringing humanity to another world, aka “NewEarth,” only to see humans wreck the new world just as terribly as they had the old one. Pulsing through this book is that critique of greed and capitalist-driven decisions, of the wealthy exploiting both people and resources, and of the continued cycles of power and wealth disparity.

Mel: There’s a lot of violence in The King Must Die. Each fight and each death are described in bone-breaking, bloody detail that amps up the plot. Nothing drags on for too long, and just when you think you’ve got a handle on what’s happening, there’s a twist, and the book changes to an entirely different type of story for the next dozen pages. What seems like a straightforward tale: find the rebels, take down the evil empire, live happily ever after—is actually much more complicated than that in its execution. It feels as though Ashing-Giwa built a really cool world and proceeded to throw every adventure gambit possible at the pages. None of them are unusual or unexpected on their own, but the sheer number of wildly exciting things that happen in this book is incredible. There were a few moments when I turned a page, encountered a giant twist, and thought “OMG, now what?” but it all works because the world built to keep all of this story is so airtight. The result is actually a lot of fun. All of the different zigs and zags in the story keep things from being too predictable and add to the excitement. You name it—secret wounds, surprise assassins, unexpected deaths, dangerous wild animals—all of these and more make an appearance and keep the reader guessing.

Arley: One of the things that makes this book interesting is Ashing-Giwa’s choices of characters and their decisions. Fen and Alekhai are great, and it’s easy to simply follow their story; and since the book feels like a somewhat pulpy adventure, it’s easy to read along and enjoy the conflicts and dangers. But careful readers will note the way many of Ashing-Giwa’s characters create nuanced questions within the narrative about power and culpability and concepts of “good” and “bad.” She signals this early on with the decisions her bureaucrat “jailor” makes—allowing the reader, if they choose, to consider the roles that each individual in the book plays, the position they hold within the context of their social structures, and to also reflect on the decisions the main characters make. These nuances give more life to the folks populating the book, which makes the read richer.

Mel: It feels strange to wish that a nearly 500-page book was longer, but that’s exactly how I felt at the end. There’s just so much here in terms of the world and the action that there were a few moments when a fairly intense political detail or character moment was tersely described and I really felt like I needed a few more pages to explore it all. I especially wanted more character development—Fen’s fellow rebel soldiers are memorable and distinct, but nobody gets quite enough page time to really drive the stakes as high as the adventure demands. Fen herself is a bit of an everywoman and Alekhai, an antihero. I didn’t get a strong sense of either of their personalities until close to the end of the book, and now that they’re set in my mind, I want to see them do more as the people they developed into over the course of the story. I wonder if the author is planning on writing more books—a prequel or sequel could be a lot of fun.

Even the ending is unexpected, in that you’re never really sure where things are going to land and when they finally do, you’re looking around the corner to see what else might be coming for the characters. Nothing does but given that everything else has in the 400-odd pages prior, it’s a relief to see our characters finally slow down a bit.

Arley: There’s yet more to love about this novel, including friendship and found family, cool aliens, mysteries with their eventual reveals, and more. Still, I want to leave the twists, tricky situations, and even the plot devices for your discovery. The King Must Die is wonderful in that the story often takes directions you didn’t necessarily expect, so I will let Ashing-Giwa surprise you, rather than laying out too much here. This is modern pulpy science fiction adventure (or “science fantasy” adventure, if you prefer) at its best: well-crafted and readable, and with those thoughtful, meaningful layers for folks who want them. Go read it and tell your friends you found something awesome!

Mel: The King Must Die is a fun, epic adventure read with a great fantasy world, a little science sprinkled in, and a lot of twists and turns that keep you moving through the story with the characters. It’d make a great vacation read, as long as you don’t mind a little bloodshed and nonstop action.