Krishna
Simplistic story. Not very complicated. Keeps your interest for the most part, but does not provide the immersive experience that all great tales provide.
Maximilian, the prince, is tricked away from his group by a gifted trained hound that leads him astray. He goes missing for years. A hunter finds his ring on human bones in a bear’s den and decides to keep it for himself.
Fifteen years later, we meet Joseph Baxter who has the gift of the feel in his hands to cure the sick and his son Garth, finding that they cannot help their friend Miriam. Garth has the strong “Sense” and will surpass his father in the future.
The King invites Joseph and he in turn takes Garth. They meet the King and see that the branding he had undertaken (as all kings do) has turned bad and that the royal medic was unable to help. Garth learns that Joseph was the king’s physician but when Maximilion disappeared, he resigned and went back.
They go underground where the prisoners are mining gloam, a dark substance used for… well, I don’t know. They don’t say what it is for!
When he finds Maximillion as one of the prisoners, Garth is devastated and is resolved to free the prince. He meets a street vendor who gives him Manteceros ring, signifying Maximillion’s house symbol. When he goes to the swamp to tend to the swamp people, he meets a beautiful woman. The hovel he goes into seems magical. She, Venetia, and her daughter Ravenna, are surprised that he has the gift to “see”.
Ravenna takes him inside the dreamworld to free Manteceros. They meet Manteceros, who behaves like a child, disappointing you a bit. Then everybody, including the Manteceros start singing for insignificant things and your disillusion deepens.
It also sends them back saying ‘First let Maximillion claim the throne and then I will come to his help’. They are helped by a mysterious monk called Brother Vorstus, who is sworn to protect the ‘true’ royal family. They set off to the Veins the next year but first go to see King Cavor, who suddenly turns evil on them, ordering them to move to his palace.
Everybody sings about everything. Even freeing Maximilian is through a “magic song”. It can get a bit boring.
Anyway, Maximillion is smuggled out of the place by placing him in a secret compartment first and then smuggled in disguise out of the province, despite an entire army trying to check everyone. They then go over to the forest where Maximilian was first kidnapped. From there they go to the pavilion in dreamland. How are they transported? By singing of course!
It is a very predictable story and even though the author tries to tell it at an even pace, it simply sags in many places.
On top of it the abbot Vorstus keeps calling Garth “boy” as in “Keep silent, boy… pay close attention boy…”. Reminds me of Homer calling Bart “boy” and is terribly annoying in a story like that.
The capture of Joseph and Garth by the king’s men and the judgement scene are well done. The book picks up interest at that point but your patience has been tried for so long that it seems a bit too late. And then the Monteceros comes and behaves childishly again, spoiling the effect. All in all an OK story but does not hold your interest
4/ 10
– – Krishna (Oct 2018)