This is a really good book and you should read it.
By the end, I was eager for the sequel. The characters are engaging and intense, and the setting an intriguing low-magic world packed with interesting cultures to be further delved.

Richard Nell manages two stories in one -- a talented young man struggling and succumbing to evil in a brutal world he only wants to escape, brilliantly contrasted with his opposite, the tale of a shiftless prince finally forced to overcome his indolence and making himself a good man. The contrasting stories really serve to highlight the highs and lows of the two main characters, and paint both hero and villain in sympathetic light without tarnishing either's eventual assumption of their role as figures of legend.

Nell is an indie author, so I'm compelled to mention that his prose is eloquent and anything but amateur. Kings of Paradise is as satisfying as what you'd expect from any major publishing house.

Kings of Paradise presents a brutal world of complex yet primitive politics, reminiscent of Game of Thrones. Like Game of Thrones, it is also just the tumultuous beginning of a larger epic, and though that was always an aspect of Martin's work that I was less than enchanted by, Nell has managed to give the first book of his series a satisfying story arc of its own. Also like Game of Thrones, it has a number of character perspectives; some readers dislike that approach in a story, but it's something I particularly enjoy, and Nell shows considerable skill in displaying his world distinctly through the eyes of his different characters.

The only real drawback that makes me wish I could award some score between 4 & 5 is that the parallel stories don't even hint at how they eventually tie together until the last 20% or so of the book. They are joined thematically, but it's unclear if they are even taking place on the same world until close to the end. Each shift in perspective has calendar notations to indicate the change in point of view, but those notations are on separate calendars, leaving the relationship of their settings a mystery for the reader that afterwards I felt was only distracting. I hesitate to even call that out, because the thematic parallels (or does the contrast make them perpendiculars?) were compelling enough that it almost didn't matter... so I do stand by my initial statement and my score, this is a good book and you should definitely read it, even if only to be ready for the second in the series.

The characters grow from struggling children into creatures of legend, and having seen their twin origin stories come together, Kings of Paradise will leave you as impatient to read the sequel as I am!