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Product Description
Review
Praise for Greg Keyes and his novels of The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone
The Blood Knight
"[A] sophisticated and intelligent high fantasy epic."
-Publishers Weekly
"Enthralling."
-Locus
The Charnel Prince
"There is adventure and intrigue, swordplay and dark sorcery aplenty."
-Realms of Fantasy
"Strong world building and superior storytelling."
-Library Journal
The Briar King
"A wonderful tale . . . It crackles with suspense and excitement from start to finish."
-Terry Brooks
"A graceful, artful tale from a master storyteller . . . [The novel] starts off with a bang, spinning a snare of terse imagery and compelling characters that grips tightly and never lets up."
-Elizabeth Haydon, bestselling author of Prophecy: Child of Earth
The Blood Knight
"[A] sophisticated and intelligent high fantasy epic."
-Publishers Weekly
"Enthralling."
-Locus
The Charnel Prince
"There is adventure and intrigue, swordplay and dark sorcery aplenty."
-Realms of Fantasy
"Strong world building and superior storytelling."
-Library Journal
The Briar King
"A wonderful tale . . . It crackles with suspense and excitement from start to finish."
-Terry Brooks
"A graceful, artful tale from a master storyteller . . . [The novel] starts off with a bang, spinning a snare of terse imagery and compelling characters that grips tightly and never lets up."
-Elizabeth Haydon, bestselling author of Prophecy: Child of Earth
"From the Hardcover edition." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
In The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Greg Keyes has crafted a brilliant saga of magic, adventure, and love set against a backdrop of clashing empires and an ancient, reawakened evil. Now, with The Born Queen, Keyes brings his epic to a masterly close, gathering the strands of plot and character into a stunning climax that both completes and transcends all that has gone before.
The Briar King is dead, and the world itself follows him to ruin. Aspar White, wounded and tired, must embark on one last quest to save the forest and the people he loves, but he has little hope of success.
Anne Dare at last sits on the throne of Crotheny, but for how long? The Church, now led by the corrupt and powerful Marché Hespero, has declared a holy war against her, giving the king of Hansa the pretext he needs to unleash his vast might on the young queen and her unready army.
But Hansa is the least of Anne’s worries. The Hellrune, war seer of Hansa, strikes at her through vision and prophecy. The Kept–last of the elder Skasloi lords–weaves his own dark webs. Anne’s teacher and ally in the sedos world might also be her worst enemy, and Anne’s own mounting strength compels her toward madness.
Surviving these dangers and mastering her eldritch abilities are merely prelude to the real struggle. There are many–some with power matching or even exceeding Anne’s own–who are willing to kill in order to seize control. For whoever sits upon the throne will have the ultimate command to bring about the world’s salvation–or its apocalypse.
From the Hardcover edition.
The Briar King is dead, and the world itself follows him to ruin. Aspar White, wounded and tired, must embark on one last quest to save the forest and the people he loves, but he has little hope of success.
Anne Dare at last sits on the throne of Crotheny, but for how long? The Church, now led by the corrupt and powerful Marché Hespero, has declared a holy war against her, giving the king of Hansa the pretext he needs to unleash his vast might on the young queen and her unready army.
But Hansa is the least of Anne’s worries. The Hellrune, war seer of Hansa, strikes at her through vision and prophecy. The Kept–last of the elder Skasloi lords–weaves his own dark webs. Anne’s teacher and ally in the sedos world might also be her worst enemy, and Anne’s own mounting strength compels her toward madness.
Surviving these dangers and mastering her eldritch abilities are merely prelude to the real struggle. There are many–some with power matching or even exceeding Anne’s own–who are willing to kill in order to seize control. For whoever sits upon the throne will have the ultimate command to bring about the world’s salvation–or its apocalypse.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
After the first three books in the series I had very high hopes for the final volume. Unfortunately they were not met.
The book starts promisingly enough, but then proceeds to jump forward from set-piece to set-piece without giving a chance for any one to develop fully. Mr Keyes appears to lose his previous fine control of the trajectories of each character, along with his firm grip on the overall dramatic arc of the plot. Some characters are transformed (and readers of the previous books may have seen this coming), but it seems to happen between the 'meanwhiles'. The disjointed approach robs us of any opportunity to take the changes on board gradually, and feels, frankly, perfunctory. It's as if he ended up with two books worth of story left to tackle in the final volume, and couldn't quite pull it off.
Writing itself is good, just the content that is lacking.
The book starts promisingly enough, but then proceeds to jump forward from set-piece to set-piece without giving a chance for any one to develop fully. Mr Keyes appears to lose his previous fine control of the trajectories of each character, along with his firm grip on the overall dramatic arc of the plot. Some characters are transformed (and readers of the previous books may have seen this coming), but it seems to happen between the 'meanwhiles'. The disjointed approach robs us of any opportunity to take the changes on board gradually, and feels, frankly, perfunctory. It's as if he ended up with two books worth of story left to tackle in the final volume, and couldn't quite pull it off.
Writing itself is good, just the content that is lacking.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
In my reviews for the previous book in the "Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone" series, I have essentially stated that this is a good fantasy series, but not a great one. Perhaps a thrilling conclusion would have elevated its status in my eyes, but that was not to be.
"The Born Queen" is like queuing up to ride on a roller-coaster which then just crawls ten feet along the track and lets you off. It really doesn't take the series to the heights that it needs, and comes across as extremely rushed.
The first half is largely the same as the previous volumes - fast-paced; good chapter cliffhangers, etc - but doesn't really go anywhere. And then in the second half, many of the characters suddenly completely change personalities (Keyes employs various mechanisms to facilitate this change, some of which work better than others), and remarkably we're where we have to be. It all reads very conveniently.
Several times, important events seemed to happen in the "in between" moments. A chapter would finish with a character facing a mini-cliffhanger, and when we next return to that character, something major has happened and we missed it. I just do not understand what Keyes was playing at here.
Then there is a "war" promised on the back cover. Don't bother going looking for it - it isn't there. We don't see a proper battle in the whole book.
The story of Leoff the musical genius turned out - as I had expected - to be completely pointless to the overall story and a waste of the time it took me to follow it.
Finally, the novel is also pretty badly written in places, as well, showing classic signs of being written in a hurry.
Overall, this is a weak effort by an author whose reputation would suggest that he is better than this. In a way, then, I suppose it is a fitting ending to what was always, in my view, a mediocre series.
"The Born Queen" is like queuing up to ride on a roller-coaster which then just crawls ten feet along the track and lets you off. It really doesn't take the series to the heights that it needs, and comes across as extremely rushed.
The first half is largely the same as the previous volumes - fast-paced; good chapter cliffhangers, etc - but doesn't really go anywhere. And then in the second half, many of the characters suddenly completely change personalities (Keyes employs various mechanisms to facilitate this change, some of which work better than others), and remarkably we're where we have to be. It all reads very conveniently.
Several times, important events seemed to happen in the "in between" moments. A chapter would finish with a character facing a mini-cliffhanger, and when we next return to that character, something major has happened and we missed it. I just do not understand what Keyes was playing at here.
Then there is a "war" promised on the back cover. Don't bother going looking for it - it isn't there. We don't see a proper battle in the whole book.
The story of Leoff the musical genius turned out - as I had expected - to be completely pointless to the overall story and a waste of the time it took me to follow it.
Finally, the novel is also pretty badly written in places, as well, showing classic signs of being written in a hurry.
Overall, this is a weak effort by an author whose reputation would suggest that he is better than this. In a way, then, I suppose it is a fitting ending to what was always, in my view, a mediocre series.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
After the slow pace of the proceeding book, events take off here. The author continues to deal with the separate stories and trajectories of each character in turn, as was his pattern in previous books. However the plot gets distinctly darker: the fanes, including those used by Anne and by Stephen Darige, are powers of darkness, whose use can only corrupt the user - a fact apparent to the reader long before it is apparent to the individual fane-power user.
This book 'grips' in the way the first two did: it keeps the attention, and keeps one's concern for the characters as they themselves are unaware of how they are changing.
This book 'grips' in the way the first two did: it keeps the attention, and keeps one's concern for the characters as they themselves are unaware of how they are changing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very Poor Offering
Like many of the other reviewers, I felt this book to be a great disappointment, and a sloppy ending to what had been up to this point, a very good series. Read more
Published 14 months ago by CeNedra Red
Excellent 5* series
Having just finished this series I'm awarding it 5 stars. I can understand why a previous reviewer felt disappointed, although I disagree. Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2009 by Shivari
A seriously disappointing ending to a fine series.
The fourth and final volume in the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series opens with war about to consume the kingdom of Crotheny. Read more
Published on 6 April 2009 by A. Whitehead
i thought it was ok actually...
I approached this final installment with some trepidation having seen the overall rating here - but I didn't read the reviews until after I had finished the book as I wanted to... Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2008 by Misty
Real let down
If I'm going to be blunt here I do feel that the last part in Greg's series was a let down. After building up the series over the past three books, this final instalment was not... Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2008 by Gareth Wilson - Falcata Times Blog
Disappointing
Having enjoyed all Keyes books so far, and especially the 3 first books of this series, I was looking forward to reading the Born Queen. But what a disappointment! Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2008 by Granny Weatherwax
The not so triumphant conclusion
Greg Keyes writes this concluding part of The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone in the same fluid, fast paced style that made me enjoy the previous three volumes. Read more
Published on 14 April 2008 by Antonio Pineda
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