“The King’s Bastard” published by Solaris Books (Orbit), July 2010, 978-1-90751-901-7. Read the first chapter for free here. To buy the book, click here.

Plot Summary:
Book One of the Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin…

Cloaked in silent winter snow the Kingdom of Rolencia sleeps as rumours spread of new Affinity Seeps, places where untamed power wells up. Meanwhile, King Rolen plans his jubilee unaware of the growing threat to those he loves. By royal decree, all those afflicted with Affinity must serve the Abbey or face death. Sent to the Abbey because of his innate Affinity, the King’s youngest son, Fyn, trains to become a warrior monk. Unfortunately, he’s a gentle dreamer and the other acolytes bully him. The only way he can escape them is to serve the Abbey Mystic, but his Affinity is weak. Fiercely loyal, thirteen year-old Piro is horrified to discover she is also cursed with unwanted Affinity. It broke their mother’s heart to send Fyn away, so she hides her affliction. But, when Fyn confesses his troubles, Piro risks exposure to help him.
Even though Byren Kingson is only seven minutes younger than his twin, Lence, who is the king’s heir, Byren has never hungered for the Rolencian throne. When a Seer predicts that he will kill Lence, he laughs. But Lence Kingsheir sees Byren’s growing popularity and resents it. Enduring loyalty could be Byren’s greatest failing.

The Review: “The King’s Bastard” marks the first in Australian fantasy author Rowena Cory Daniells’ King Rolen’s Kin trilogy, and it wastes no time getting down to business. The book starts off with a very intense, serious mood that establishes a story that commands the reader to go on from the first scene and find out what kind of land Rolencia is, what other wild beasts the characters will encounter, and whether the hunting party after an Affinity beast will triumph (Affinity, from my understanding, is the source of all the magics in the land and spews out beasties like leogryfs).

Right off the bat I found this book to be a refreshing change from many dark epic fantasies, which are notorious for taking forever to get into the thick of things. Daniells launches us smack dab in the middle of things, or in medias res as it should be. The story is engaging right from the beginning as we witness a hunt for an Affinity beast in a wintery expanse–it doesn’t take long for things to go awry on this hunt for a lincis, with five untried youths to boot.

The dialogue felt natural and not at all laborious or tinged with elements or RPGs, a tendency of some fantasy novels, and the descriptions were vivid for the most part. I miss novels that really allow the reader to explore the vast terrain in a way that isn’t just endless paragraphs of exposition, but that is actively engaging.

In terms of the characterization, Daniells does a great job of establishing that Byren, although he is noble and valiant and possesses the traits attributable to a good warrior, isn’t just a goody two shoes who wears armour and has 24-inch pythons. He definitely has his moments where his character reveals the intricate threads that make him who he is–noble for sacrificing his own reputation to save a friend–a sacrifice made all the more noble because it means that Byren loses the trust, respect, and possibility of coming together with his lady crush, Elina, who is of the same household of Orrade (Dovecourt).

It’s an exciting novel with many elements going for it–soon, the story becomes complicated as Orrade, Byren’s best friend, goes blind after being treated by a mysterious seer/healer. And not only that, Orry carries around a symbol of Palos, which in this world, means he’s gay. Byren tries to save his friend by claiming the symbol is his when confronted with Lord Dovecourt, Orrade’s homophobic dad, but this just makes things worse, and soon enough, both of them are banished from the Dovecourt household, Orrade disowned. Makes for a tense beginning

Other interesting characters that emerge include Byren’s twin brother, Lence, who is definitely not the most cheerful heir to the throne you’ll ever meet (but one can’t really blame the guy considering that everybody likes his brother better, everybody seems to want Byren to be the kingsheir, and it really doesn’t help that a seer predicted that Byren would become the kingsheir by killing his twin). We also meet Byren’s other brother, Fyn, who is on his way to becoming a monastic type because of his “visions,” which makes things more difficult for him, because magic (or Affinity) is, unsurprisingly, not kosher in this world.

That brings us to Byren’s little troublemaking “I am not a perfect obedient slave!” sister, Piro, who is refreshing not only because she resists her inevitable fate, which is to become a complacent agreeable wife, married off to someone she doesn’t love. She also has her burgeoning Affinity powers–something that an old Seer points out. Piro, however, is afraid of her abilities, because of the consequences her visions might have (let’s just say that she predicts some traumatizing deaths). As previously mentioned, Byren and Lence, although twin brothers, thankfully don’t have the annoying “One twin is good and the other one is evil” motif, which also makes for a refreshing change.

In general, I have to say that after a very long hiatus from reading epic fantasies*, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the first chapter of “The King’s Bastard” appealed to me a great deal. It is written in the same style as other epic fantasies but the language isn’t needlessly florid and languid.

Daniells knows how to engage her audience, and her characters are compelling enough that they make you want to read on. That’s the difference between a good writer and a mediocre one. King’s Bastard isn’t riddled with long, pointless passages that just show castle life, the king and queen making arrangements for a royal party, or any other pointless scenes that are just filler.

And most refreshingly of all, this book is a bonafide political fantasy written in the same vein as Gail Z. Martin. Nothing turns me off more than book jacket descriptions that go on about some epic battle between elves and dwarves (or another race; case in point: like we’ve never seen that a thousand times before), or LOTR pastiches (they still get published, fyi), or extended role-playing game transcripts (my point is about fantasy novels as a whole and not the actual RPG-based fantasy novels like Dragonlance and Warhammer, which are supposed to read the way that they do.) A battle between wizards that will “determine the fate of the world” has been done to death and is predictable. I’m glad that political fantasy has a tremendous new voice, and I hope we’ll see more from Rowena after the Rolen trilogy ends.

Happy Reading!

*Some time a couple of years ago–I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when–epic fantasy novels just became suddenly unappealing for me. Dense, thick, and dreary–written in a dreadfully boring style that made me want to tear my eyes out. I used to enjoy them a lot in my teens. I used to be all about Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Terry Goodkind, etc…I don’t know what it is about the majority of epic fantasies–whether it’s the way they’re written or the subject matter, but they just don’t hold any sway for me anymore and I’ve pretty much abandoned them in favour of more interesting dark fantasy and horror novels.

To view the amazing trailer, watch below:

KRKhd from Daryl Lindquist on Vimeo.

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“The Warded Man” by Peter V. Brett

“The Summoner” (Book One of the Chronicles of the Necromancer) by Gail Z. Martin