[ChrisW]

I read the Charnel Prince about a month back and i'm struggling to remember much about it. Also while reading it I had the feeling during bits of it that i'd read it before. I' pretty sure I hadn't.

Anyone else had this happen and what to you put it down to?

[Julian]

No.

The Charnel Prince is pretty straightforward. Here's

SOME SPOILERS

the thing:

Story Line 1: Asper, Stephen and Winna continue their journeys through the world (the King's Forest, in particular). But they discover that the forest isn't ailing because of the Briar King, but despite of him. The Briar King is trying to save to forest, even if that means destroying the inhabitants of it. So who's the enemy?

Story Line 2: At court, in Eslen, Muriele the Queen, is in trouble; her grip on the throne is slipping. Ostensibly, her rival is Gramme. In reality, it's the Church, and behind the Church is something more daunting. She thinks to find help from a court composer, Leoff, and comissions him to compose a musical piece to bind her country together. But before Leoff can do this, Prince Robert - apparantly killed by William, Muriele's husband, in the first volume - returns and seizes the throne. Leoff, however, finishes his work and has it preformed before a large audience - thereby restoring some hope to the people of Crotheny.

Story Line 3: Out in the world again, Anne, Muriele's daughter, repeatedly encounters dangers as she simply tries to stay alive and return to Eslen. It becomes ever more clear to her that hers is the destiny that may decide the fate of Crotheny. This eventually actually becomes clear to her heart-smidden protector, the ebulliant Cazio, as well.

Meanwhile, of course, in all three storylines, all sorts of subplots evolve and all of them are interwoven.

****
Okay. Now - if someone could just remind me what happens in... Darn, can't even rememeber what the last Jordan was called! :D

[ChrisW]

Umm I wasn't really after a refresher :rolleyes:

Oh and in answer to your question, nothing :p .

[Julian]

Umm I wasn't really after a refresher :rolleyes:



Really? Than why where you struggling ;) ?

Oh, and: you're right about the Jordan, of course!

[Leiali]

I read the Charnel Prince about a month back and i'm struggling to remember much about it. Also while reading it I had the feeling during bits of it that i'd read it before. I' pretty sure I hadn't.

Anyone else had this happen and what to you put it down to?


I wasn't keen on the Briar King so I gave the sequel a miss. I think that a book you might find formulaic may seem familiar because it reads like something else. I have a rubbish memory, but the really good books I remember something of long after....So, my diagnosis is you didn't really like it much because it reminded you of something else, and nothing about it moved you enough for you to remember key events...does that sound right? :D

[Julian]

I wasn't keen on the Briar King so I gave the sequel a miss. I think that a book you might find formulaic may seem familiar because it reads like something else. I have a rubbish memory, but the really good books I remember something of long after....So, my diagnosis is you didn't really like it much because it reminded you of something else, and nothing about it moved you enough for you to remember key events...does that sound right? :D

The question's directed at ChrisW, so he'll have to answer. But, yes, I think the reasoning is pretty sound!

What surprises me, though, is that people find Keyes (overly) formulaic, as you put it. I mean: I understand the idea, but surely, in fantasy, it is often not so much the formula as the way in which it is employed which makes the difference?

Keyes is not breaking any new ground, that's true. But neither is Martin, when you think about it. What Keyes is doing, is writing good fantasy, and writing it quite well too (in my opinion, of course!).

Let me give you an example from The Charnel Prince, dealing with one of the new main characters:

AGAIN, SPOILERS

Leoff. He is, firstly, not a young boy bound for great adventures. He's a established composer. On his way to the court of Eslen in the hopes of bagging a royal commission, he nevertheless gets embroiled in the struggles that grip the country of Crotheny. He is not the hero of this part of the story (that would be a chap called Gilmer). But once he reaches Eslen, he is certainly proclaimed to be heroic - by, ironically, the queen's rival, Ambria Gramme. Politics in full swing, here! Invited to a party organized by Gramme, he unwisely attends.

Now, at this point the reader might think that the course of events will be predictable: by attending the party, Leoff gets into trouble with the queen, in spite of the fact that he really just wants to further her cause. And it's going to take the rest of the book to sort it out. Anyway, that's what I thought...

But this doesn't happen. In fact, given the sequence of other events happening more or less at the same time, quite the opposite is true... Coming to the party, foolish as it was at the time, affords Leoff the leverage he needs to complete the original commission given to him by the queen. The point is that, by the end of the book, Leoff is allowed to do what he set out to by the very fact of his naivité.

I liked this - I thought it good writing. And whilst I have some difficulty believing in the influence a composer might have in the general scheme of things, that concept, too, was refreshing.

Well, don't know why I'm defending this book so vigorously, really! Except: it really ain't bad, you know!