Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1653770 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Synopsis
'The Briar King' laid the groundwork for this mesmerizing series, set in a world on the brink of apocalyptic change. The adventure continues in this second book.

Customer Reviews

Solid addition to the series
Picking up where The Briar King left off, the second volume of The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone ups the stakes and pace significantly. The Kingdom of Crotheny is in turmoil and the capital, Eslen, seethes with those who would take advantage of the crisis to snatch some power for themselves. A composer, Leoff, finds himself elevated to the court after an unexpected act of heroism and made a pawn in the struggle between the Queen Mother and her sworn rival. Meanwhile, Princess Anne remains on the run with a small band of companions, and their flight back to Crotheny from the distant south is fraught with peril, whilst Sir Neil is sent on a quest to find her. Aspar, the king's holter, finds himself recruited by the Church and charged to hunt down and destroy the monstrous Briar King, but within the forest he soon finds that not all is as it seems...

The Charnel Prince is a solid continuation of this intriguing series. It's similarly as fast-paced and readable as the first book, and new characters and new storylines unfold that are mostly a match for those that have come before. A few storylines from the first volume are even concluded. Keyes' writing is fluid and well-paced, and the author's own skills at fencing and knowledge of composing come through in the writing, providing a solid backdrop for the story.

There are a few issues. Almost every chapter finishes on a major cliffhanger, which is frustrating as it's often not until several chapters later that we get back to that storyline, meaning that at any one time almost the entire cast of characters is in some form of jeopardy, which gets a little wearying after a while. Also, there are notably fewer twists around this time than in the first book and the second volume is a little bit more predictable than the first. Nevertheless the story ends strongly and leaves the reader eager to tuck into the third book, The Blood Knight.

The Charnel Prince (****) is available from Tor in the UK and from Del Rey in the USA.

Another entertaining chapter in the saga...
I enjoyed "The Briar King", even if I did not love it, and it's pretty much the same story with the follow-up in the four-book "Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone" series, "The Charnel Prince". I think I actually enjoyed this book a little more than the first one, but not enough to significantly raise the star rating.

Why did I enjoy it more? I think it partly has to do with the introduction of more fantasy elements than were present in the first book. Magic is a little more prominent, as are the exotic beasties and monsters. I dug the various chases and fights more than in the first book, too.

One of my complaints was that a new character who is introduced, the composer Leoff, never really clicked for me and I was never particularly interested in his story. Also, I am now wondering what the point of the Briar King is, based on what was revealed about him in this book. He's still around, but I am hoping that he has a relevance beyond what we have seen so far, and that this relevance will be discovered in the next book, "The Blood Knight". As it is, he doesn't seem worth having a whole book named after him, and the world-shattering significance that he held in the first book is not in evidence here.

But this is an enjoyable book, and maybe even a little better than the first one. Despite the fact that I hardly think this series is awesome, I have read enough to recommend it to fantasy fans. Incredible or not, you should find it worth your time.

An excellent continuation of a good fantasy sequence
Grey Keyes continues to impress in the "Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone" series.

He has created a detailed, rich fantasy world with enough hints of dark magic and Things Long Forgotten. This contrasts nicely with the curiously empty worlds of many other fantasy novelists - here we can believe that this is world populated by a cast of thousands, not the 10 people who inhabit the realm of Tad Williams.

The chapter structure is short and Mr Keyes relishes ending each on a cliffhanger - which in the main do not feel contrived and pull the reader onwards in a "just one more page" journey that leads to then end in a single sitting.

The story - it is too complex to detail here, but be assured of questing knights, evil churchmen and complex plotting. I would urge everyone to read the first and subsequent books in this sequence.