Status
Call number
Genres
Publication
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Thriller. HTML:�A wonderful tale . . . It crackles with suspense and excitement from start to finish.��Terry Brooks Two thousand years ago, the Born Queen defeated the Skasloi lords, freeing humans from the bitter yoke of slavery. But now monstrous creatures roam the land�and destinies become inextricably entangled in a drama of power and seduction. The king�s woodsman, a rebellious girl, a young priest, a roguish adventurer, and a young man made suddenly into a knight�all face malevolent forces that shake the foundations of the kingdom, even as the Briar King, legendary harbinger of death, awakens from his slumber. At the heart of this many-layered tale is Anne Dare, youngest daughter of the royal family . . . upon whom the fate of her world may depend. Praise for The Briar King �Starts off with a bang, spinning a snare of terse imagery and compelling characters that grips tightly and never lets up. . . . A...… (more)
User reviews
Specifically, the Princess Anne almost caused me to put the book down. A
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series.
If you are a Robert Jordan, Martin or
That shouldn't be allowed to put you off - the world in which they live is incredibly well realised and fascinating. The religion is interesting and has twists and turns. The language of the characters is sometimes odd, hard to handle even, but it makes certain elements of the story work really well, and certainly adds a strong flavour to what's going on. Why it's a greffyn rather than a griffin I'm not sure, and that's not the only example, but it's one of many such odd words - and to some extent it's this strangeness that makes the story and the book so engaging and rewarding. It makes the people seem real rather than ciphers despite their easy to see nature. It makes the politics work and so much more.
If you don't like reads that stretch you linguistically, you may well hate this, but fans of Gene Wolfe will almost certainly love it as much as I do.
Characters: Just loved them. Such a broad cast and they were all awesome.
Plot: Perfect pacing. All the mini cliff hangers. And so much happening. And yet all still brought together nicely.
Style: Modern epic fantasy. A step above the 1000+ page era. The fights were just awesome.
Despite this, I found this book extremely difficult to get in to. The writing gets progressively better throughout the book, but the beginning was tough going. It reads like a middle-grade novel instead of adult fantasy. There's very simplistic narrative, unrealistic dialogue (and a lot of it!), and many of the characters aren't likeable at first. At about three-quarters of the way in, the plot gets moving and the characters get better. I think it's because they have to deal with real problems instead of whining about trivial things.
I'm not sure if it's worth investing in this series yet, considering that it doesn't become good until the later part of the first book. There are three more books, and if these three are anything like the last part of The Briar King, I think it will be worth it. The ending of this book is definitely enough to keep me reading more, but the sequel has to be very good for me to continue with this series all the way.
After a while though (ok, it was a long while), I got used to the slower reading pace, and it became clear that all the viewpoints were at least in the same land, and a few of them got together. Finally understanding the world, I did get into it. And loved it. Like I said, it's not a fast read, and although I liked all the (good) characters and lots of things happen to them, it was not very exciting or tense. I've got the feeling this is because my affection got divided over all of them, so even though I didn't want any of them to die, I still could live with it, because there were enough of them left. I was very much engaged with the book, though. Somehow there was not a single story line that I disliked or even liked significantly less than any of the others. This is a rare thing in my experience; in most books with multiple story lines, there is at least one that is a necessary evil (necessary to get through to understand the story at least), one that disappoints you when you turn the page and see you've ended up in THAT story line again. The briar king didn't have that at all. All story lines were interesting and all (good) characters in them were engaging. I say good here because the one character I wish was different was the king's crazy brother. I just don't like that type of insane character.
As for the other characters, I really liked seeing how some of them evolved. I liked that the bookish young priest gains some skills in the physical department. Mostly I liked the two really young people, princess Anne and Cazio, gaining an understanding of life and of adventures, learning a bit more realism. That was quite well-done. And, although this is by no means an equal society, I still liked the portrayal of the women. I imagine the 'men fight from the outside, women from the inside' motto of the coven would not sit well with everyone, but the book does hold plenty of interesting and confident women, who, although they do not fight the way men do, still rescue the men as often as the other way around, and can hold positions of power.
So, all in all this book gets four stars, and I've already started the sequel... Which is really necessary by the way, because the book really doesn't end in a way that makes it even seem like you are at an ending.
reminiscent of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire - except that
it's actually finished! (There's one more book in the series that I
haven't yet read.) It follows a similar format, structurally, and the
'feel' of the writing is
quite original - at least, more so than many fantasy epics. I mean,
it's still got Dark Forces and Bold Warriors and Beautiful Queens etc,
etc... but we want that, right?
The implication, at the beginning of The Briar King is that the lost
colony of Roanoke island was somehow transported into an alternate
world. However, not much is done with this setup, as we are now many
many years from that time, and fully immersed in this world - a world
where humans were once enslaved by the demon lords, the Skasloi, but
managed to free themselves through dread magics, and develop a
medieval-type society.
However, the King's Holter, a dedicated woodsman, Aspar White, has
been seeing strange and ill things in his forest of late... When he
rescues Stephen, an innocent young scholar and novice monk, from
bandits, he is at first irritated by the young man's naivete, but soon
realizes his book-learning may shed light on some of the mysteries of
the forest... old tales of the rise of the fearsome Briar King, a sort
of Green Man/nature spirit of ambiguous nature.
Meanwhile, the mystic prophecies of the gypsy-like Sefry race seem to
indicate that there must be a Queen in the land. There is indeed a
Queen - and some princesses to boot - but there are also assassins
abroad... The low-born warrior knight Neil McVren is absolutely loyal
to Queen Muriele - and also falling in love with one of her daughters
- but his bravery may not be enough to stop the treachery and foul
plots that surround the royal women.
However, once the book does get going, it is very exciting! A lot happens in the last fourth of the story, which saved the series for me. I will continue to read the rest of the series, but I hope they don't all follow this pattern.
After a while though (ok, it was a long while), I got used to the slower reading pace, and it became clear that all the viewpoints were at least in the same land, and a few of them got together. Finally understanding the world, I did get into it. And loved it. Like I said, it's not a fast read, and although I liked all the (good) characters and lots of things happen to them, it was not very exciting or tense. I've got the feeling this is because my affection got divided over all of them, so even though I didn't want any of them to die, I still could live with it, because there were enough of them left. I was very much engaged with the book, though. Somehow there was not a single story line that I disliked or even liked significantly less than any of the others. This is a rare thing in my experience; in most books with multiple story lines, there is at least one that is a necessary evil (necessary to get through to understand the story at least), one that disappoints you when you turn the page and see you've ended up in THAT story line again. The briar king didn't have that at all. All story lines were interesting and all (good) characters in them were engaging. I say good here because the one character I wish was different was the king's crazy brother. I just don't like that type of insane character.
As for the other characters, I really liked seeing how some of them evolved. I liked that the bookish young priest gains some skills in the physical department. Mostly I liked the two really young people, princess Anne and Cazio, gaining an understanding of life and of adventures, learning a bit more realism. That was quite well-done. And, although this is by no means an equal society, I still liked the portrayal of the women. I imagine the 'men fight from the outside, women from the inside' motto of the coven would not sit well with everyone, but the book does hold plenty of interesting and confident women, who, although they do not fight the way men do, still rescue the men as often as the other way around, and can hold positions of power.
So, all in all this book gets four stars, and I've already started the sequel... Which is really necessary by the way, because the book really doesn't end in a way that makes it even seem like you are at an ending.