The Charnel Prince

In The Charnel Prince, Greg Keyes picks up the saga of the The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone basically right where it left off at the end of The Briar King. Here we have basically the same cast of characters (excluding the deceased) and POVS, with the addition of a bard who is bent on writing the first opera. The main narrative arc of this novel covers Muriele’s power struggles in the capital, whilst Anne tries to return, Neil chases Anne around, and Aspar is tracing the “threat” of now awake Briar King.

Early in the book there is a moment that might make the reader’s head spin a bit. Aspar encounters both the Briar King and a new Sefry character whilst fighting some monks who are reawakening a demonic sedos. In the aftermath of this encounter we find out that the Church is the real enemy (who didn’t see that coming) and the Briar King is either a good guy or at least the enemy of our enemy. To me this is a bit trite.

I must admit that it is possible to operate on incorrect information and suddenly have to change an opinion based on new evidence. However, the tone of The Briar King and the portrayal of this entity up to that exact moment point so much to the Briar King being evil that this switch about just doesn’t feel right. Perhaps this is just because we will see another flip flop in a later novel, but at this juncture in the story it feels mishandled.

After this point the story works quite well. We find several of the characters really growing up and into the roles they must inhabit. This is most notable in Anne, but also key to both Neil and Cazio. During the story we also find out that the Church thinks that the world is corrupt and is trying to reawaken all these dead paths to somehow save the world before some unknown apocalyptic event. Apparently there is also some unknown player involved that is both very powerful and is gathering powerful underlings throughout the world.

This novel is fast paced. There is plenty of action in nearly every visit to each POV and a lot of ground is covered. What the reader knows about the situation has changed vastly by the time we reach the end. The only down side to this is the fact that it feels like not very much actual time has passed between the beginning and the end of the novel. We only know that it must have been a significant amount of time because several characters travel great distances, and several characters are wounded and heal enough to participate in key battles.

Thus far the novels in the saga of the Kingdom of Thorn and Bone have been enjoyable reads. The Charnel Prince didn’t quite hold me in thrall as much as The Briar King did. I do think that the strength of the overall story has grown a great deal in the second novel, in that it feels much more like a part of a larger story than the first novel did. However, the sense of timing could have been much better and I have a real problem with the way the big bad so abruptly changed. I give this book a 3/5.