Review: Ilona Andrews’s “This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me”
by Miles Raymer
Ilona Andrews’s This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is a portal fantasy about a 21st-century woman named Maggie who goes to sleep one night and inexplicably wakes up in the kingdom of Rellas, the setting of her favorite fantasy series. Having read the unfinished series obsessively while she waited for the third novel to be released, Maggie possesses invaluable knowledge of the world and characters, including details of near-future events. Maggie also soon discovers that she will come back to life if killed in Rellas, even if it is extremely unpleasant. Armed with information and immortality, Maggie commits herself to saving her beloved Rellas and its citizens from the horrors described in the novels.
Readers of Andrews’s other books will be familiar with their quippy style and romantic beats, but This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me feels more developed and mature than their previous works. I would be shocked if they ever topped the Kate Daniels series––my favorite contemporary fantasy books––but Maggie’s story brims with vibrant potential. Andrews executes a successful experiment with metafiction, and the book’s premise is a winning mixture of derivation and originality. The world of Rellas is complex and captivating, with Maggie experiencing it as a combination of theme-park pilgrimage and worst nightmare come true. It’s fascinating to watch Maggie discover the differences between loving a fantasy world and having to live in it, and the more she uses her foreknowledge to nudge Rellas into a different future, the more her outsider information is revealed as a limited asset. Every time she spends what she knows, she has less of it, and the Rellas she remembers drifts further from the one in front of her.
The plot has lots of twists and turns, and of course there are several strapping men who quickly take an interest in Maggie’s special talents. As always, Andrews handles romance with a deft and delicious restraint, which seems all the more admirable these days given the recent explosion of obnoxious prurience in other “romantasy” titles. Thematically, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is a comforting non-departure from Andrews’s other writings. Maggie is a plucky heroine concerned with defending the innocent, surrounding herself with quirky and loyal friends, and strengthening social systems that promote peace and freedom while minimizing violence and tyranny.
My one complaint is that the novel contains a large cast of characters with weird fantasy names, and I often found myself confused about who was who. Partly this was due to my own laziness, but I wish Andrews had included a Dramatis Personae or perhaps a summary of the Great Families of Rellas with their family trees and magical powers. I hope Andrews will consider adding some sort of handy reference tool to book two to help me get my bearings.
I used to think of Ilona Andrews novels as guilty pleasures, but now I see them as pure pleasures with nothing whatsoever to feel guilty about. I look forward to the next step in Maggie’s journey.