Prince of Dogs

As you know, I wasn't supposed to read Kate Elliott's King's Dragon a few weeks ago. I'd been looking for Michelle West's The Broken Crown ever since it was announced that PRH had forced Daw to drop her. But try as I might, and I did try my damnedest, I couldn't find any of my West books. Still, rummaging through boxes in my locker allowed me to get my hands on my Elliott books. Which is why I decided to give the first installment of Crown of Stars a shot.

I received my copy of West's The Broken Crown shortly after reviewing King's Dragon and my plan was to read that one next. Trouble is, I sort of wanted to know what Elliott had in store for her protagonists in the next volume. So Michelle West was pushed back yet again and I jumped into Prince of Dogs as soon as I was done with the Africa Risen anthology, and I have no regrets!

Here's the blurb:

HELD CAPTIVE BY THEIR DESTINIES

SANGLANT -- the Prince of Dogs, King Henry's bastard son; though believed dead by all who could succor him, he is being held captive in the city of Gent by Bloodheart, the Eika warlord. Cursed by his mother's blood with an inability to die, he struggles to maintain the last shreds of his sanity in the hope rescue may yet come....

LIATH -- now a King's Eagle, and still grieving over Sanglant, she strives to unlock the secrets of her past while seeking to evade the traps set for her by an obsessively ambitious man. But even a post in King Henry's court offers her little protection from those determined to claim the forbidden knowledge she has hidden....

ALAIN -- raised in humble surroundings but now proclaimed a Count's heir, he is increasingly troubled by visions of the enemy he befriended and the Lady of Battles whom he's sworn to serve. A man who desires nothing more than peace, he is about to be thrust into the heart of war with the Eika....

FIFTH SON -- least favored child of Bloodheart, he has returned to the lands of his own people to build an army to do his father's bidding. If he survives this mission, he will become a force to be reckoned with....

And even as King Henry continues his progress through his troubled realm, defeating rebellious lords and gathering their promises of troops to use at Gent, Sanglant, Liath, Alain, and Fifth Son are fighting their own battles against almost overwhelming odds. Only time will tell who will prove triumphant as all are caught up in the dangers and turmoil of a world at war.

This second installment picks up shortly following the ending of its predecessor. The first portion of Prince of Dogs mostly deals with the aftermath of the Battle of Kassel and the Eika's conquest of the city of Gent. In many ways, it feels as though King's Dragon and Prince of Dogs are two parts of the same novel. And though Kate Elliott paved the way for a lot more to come, these first two volumes recount a more or less self-contained story. As such, even though we are aware that there's a lot more in store for readers, these two books don't move the plot as much as I expected them to.

Compared to popular contemporary SFF series of the same period, Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt, George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, and Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon and Deadhouse Gates all unveiled more ambitious and multilayered tales, albeit with bigger pagecounts. Having said that, weighing in at more than 600 pages each, the first two volumes of the Crown of Stars saga are by no means slim novels. With many pieces already set on the board, I just thought that Elliott would have moved the plot much further by now. Granted, there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes. But I didn't expect that it would take this long for King Henry to try to reclaim Gent.

Elliott's meticulous worldbuilding continues to impress me. With an uncanny eye for detail, her portrayal of this medieval European analog is worthy of a historical novel. As mentioned in my review of King's Dragon, such a conscientious depiction of the historical period will please fans of worldbuilding. But the author also has a tendency to overdo this, and there's no denying that it often gets in the way of the plot and also slows the pace throughout the book. This was a flagrant flaw in young Anna's storyline and it did plague the king's progress more often than not. I'm not sure anyone wanted to know this much about the tanning process and whatever else is required to run a tannery. Too often these bits and pieces meant to add a measure of realism to this fantasy universe bog down the narrative instead.

I also mentioned that another element that sets Crown of Stars apart from most epic fantasy series out there is the presence of religion and the major role it plays in every single aspect of this tale. Elliott's gender-egalitarian rebranding of the Roman Catholic Church affects people from all walks of life, from king to peasant. Indeed, not since Katherine Kurtz's Deryni saga has any SFF author tried to make religion such an all-encompassing facet of every day life in their fantasy universe. It remains particularly well-done in Prince of Dogs, but I can see why some people would find that offputting. As I said before, religion affects everything. It's unclear whether or not Elliott's portrayal of the Church can be as impressive as Kurtz's, for she's kept everything small scale thus far and the reasoning behind certain precepts don't always make sense. Still, I have high hopes for the volumes to come. Considering that the use of sorcery was formally accepted at a past religious council, although only if under the Church's supervision, I was hoping that we would get POVs from members of the clergy to explore that aspect. Alas, the author keeps her cards very close to her chest, and even including the perspective of Biscop Antonia revealed very little in that regard. Here's to hoping that the next installment, The Burning Stone, will unveil more secrets about magic and its various uses.

As was the case with the first volume, though good overall the characterization can at times be uneven. Alain has been proclaimed heir to Count Lavastine and must now learn what's expected of him if he is to rule once his father is gone. Liath, now a King's Eagle, is torn by the death of Prince Sanglant during the fall of Gent. Probably because so little time has passed between the two novels, I was disappointed by what little character growth there ultimately was for these two. The quick return of Father Hugh doesn't help in the least, it must be said. Though Liath remains the most fascinating protagonist of this series, the fact that she is powerless to take action to change her dire circumstances often makes it hard to root for her. Many of those sequences are tedious to read, to say the least. You can't help but feel for the poor girl, but you also want to kick her in the butt and tell her to at least try to do something about her plight. The third POV in importance is that of Rosvita, the female cleric and advisor to King Henry.  Of all the perspectives found in Prince of Dogs, I felt that most of her scenes could have been excised and the reader wouldn't have lost much as far as the plot is concerned. Hanna is once more a POV character and is coming more into her own. Prince Sanglant, King Henry's child by one of the Aoi and now Bloodheart's prisoner, gets a lot more air time in this novel, which is good. Fifth Son truly comes into his on in this second installment and it was captivating to learn more about the Eika and their ways every time Alain dreamed of him. New POV characters include Anna, a young girl who survived the fall of Gent with her brother and must somehow find a way to survive in a refugee camp. I found that too much importance was accorded to that plotline, especially since I'm not sure where it will fit in the greater scheme of things. There's only so many scenes of starvation and suffering one can take. I get that Elliott wanted to depict the abject misery of their living conditions, but I feel that it was overdone and got in the way of more important and interesting storylines. As mentioned, I had high hopes for Biscop Antonia's plotline, but the author obviously didn't want to reveal too much. I know it's likely too much to ask, but hopefully we'll get POVs from Wolfhere and Father Hugh down the line.

The political intrigue which is the backdrop of the first two volumes remains rather simplistic. Time will tell if this will improve in the sequels to come, or else it could be detrimental to the overall story arc. I'm currently reading Tad Williams' Into the Narrowdark, and there's no denying that the weak political intrigue of The Lost King of Osten Ard series is a major issue and something that hurts the tale at every turn. Can Kate Elliott be as good as Katherine Kurtz and GRRM in that regard? We'll have to wait and see.

Prince of Dogs is a decidedly slow-moving novel. The rhythm drags, sometimes at a snail's pace, for the better part of the first half of the book. It felt as though most of the scenes featuring Anna and the king's progress could have been shortened, or removed altogether. The pace picks up in the second half as Elliott sets the stage for the endgame, and we get an exciting finale that caps it all off with aplomb. Which makes you wonder why it took so long for the novel to get this good. It didn't need such an overlong setup stage, for most of the groundwork had been laid in the first volume.

It is said that Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars is one of the most underrated fantasy series out there. Time will tell if that is indeed the case. King's Dragon and Prince of Dogs show a lot of promise. I'm eager to see if what comes next will live up to that potential. As long as the author doesn't lose track of what's really important, in this case the tale and its protagonists, and doesn't get bogged down trying to capture every single historical detail to perfection, it looks as though she can swing with the best of them. If you are looking for a big, multilayered fantasy novels featuring intricate worldbuilding and interesting characters, then Crown of Stars might be for you!

The final verdict: 7.75/10

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