Customer Reviews

The Blood Knight

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I began "The Blood Knight" by Greg Keyes, I was under the false impression that this was the final chapter in a 3 book series. However, after reading the end of this one it became quite apparent that this is a four book series.

Although "The Blood Knight" does tend to suffer a bit from the "mid-trilogy" (or quadrilogy in this case) curse, Keyes does a decent job of furthering the story. Middle books have a tendency to not go anywhere and this one does seem to go faster and faster on smaller and smaller wheels; having said that Keyes is masterful at carrying several storylines simultaneously without losing his readers. He also has the wonderfully saleable ability to end each chapter with a bit of a cliffhanger which entices readers to "just one more chapter before lights out". This makes for a fast read, but exciting never-the-less.

Although in my mind Blood Knight is not as satisfying (or as important to the over saga) as the first two novels in the "Kingdom of Thorn and Bone" series, it is definitely enjoyable and has most certainly hooked me into waiting for number four.

I really liked _The Briar King_, less so _The Charnel Prince_. This installment, unfortunately, continues the downward trend.

Our familiar heroes are back, doing pretty much the exact same things they were doing in the first two books. Character development has ground to a halt in favor of having them run all over the (small, illegible) map accomplishing This, That, and the Other. Aspar fights monsters in the woods. Stephen reads books. Anne experiences psychotic fugues. Austra frets. Cazio engages in painfully detailed swordfights, the outcomes of which never come as a surprise. Neil suffers nobly. Fend irritates. The good guys are all still likeable enough, in their one-note-wonder sort of way, but since none of them seem likely to die or even be seriously discommoded by anything for more than about three seconds, the suspense is somewhat lacking.

The Unkillable Bad Guys remain unkillable, which is just annoying. And--worst of all--characters occasionally do things that make no sense simply in order to advance the plot. Characterization? Consistency? Who cares! At the end of _Blood Knight_, for instance, Anne does something insane. Though I'm convinced that all will come out right in the end (because epic fantasy is Like That), the action she takes isn't one that would recommend her as a good future queen to her elders. Twenty pages earlier she'd been interested in proving herself capable of making good decisions, but that motivation goes right out the window when the plot demands it. Bah.

If you're already hooked on the series, you'll want to read this book, I suppose. It may put you to sleep, however, or cause you to rip at your hair in sheer frustration. It's a long novel (500+ pages), and it seems even longer than it is. You've been warned.

The Blood Knight is the third volume in Keyes's A Kingdom of Thorn and Bone series. It took me longer to read the first hundred pages of this book than it did the remaining three hundred. I just could not get into the story despite being thrown into action and some battles and a bit of mystery. Keyes slowly reveals some of what came before, so if you are fuzzy on what happened in The Charnel Prince, I suggest that you take the time to go back and read it. What we do know is that Prince Robert has taken over the throne of Crotheny, having assassinated most of the royals except for Queen Muriele (now captive) and Anne Dare (on the run). Robert is also dead...yet somehow alive. Got that?

Good. Now, Anne Dare is seeking an army to take back her throne and the Briar King is still on the loose doing lord knows what but making brambles grow where he walks. Leoff, the composer, is in prison because a symphony he composed inflamed the peasants against Robert.

Now, Stephen, the former monk has been captured by slinders, creatures of the Briar King and he has a long journey in front him. Anne sends Aspar, her holter (forest ranger, let's say) to find Stephen. With Anne are Cazio, the hilarious foreign swordsman (think Inigo Montoya) and Neil, the knight. Still with me?

No? That's okay. After we get past the first hundred pages Keyes really draws the reader in and he hooked me with the richness of the world. I forgot my frustration and was enveloped in Crotheny and the magic and oddness of the world. Keyes is doing interesting things with the high fantasy genre and this series and it is worth reading to see how he develops it. That isn't much of a recommendation, but describing the story at this point is nearly impossible because Keyes has a shifting viewpoint (like that of George Martin) where the characters are barely interacting with each other and doing vastly different things that you can not quite figure out how they will intersect and form the core of the story to come. The most interesting thing is that he has taken a group of characters the reader has come to view as "good guys" and I have a very strong feeling that he is starting to turn one or two of them to "bad guys" even though the characters themselves haven't changed...but the situations have and it's an odd turn because you can see a couple of characters starting to line up on different sides without them realizing what is happening.

By the end of the book I was sold and am eagerly awaiting The Born Queen. It's worth the effort to get through the opening.

-Joe Sherry

Read the first two-and-a-half books of this series and you'll be happy. Keyes is a talented writer. However, the end to this third book is so badly bungled...it seems as if the author simply punted, "Hey, I'm outta heyah." The three book build-up simply ends with an impenetrable cloud of smoke and "That's all folks!"

Agree that one's first thought is that this is a cheesy attempt to sell a fourth novel. But the more one thinks through the change here at the end from managing four sets of characters and four story lines, one realizes that the task of bringing them together either became 1) too over-whelming, 2) too lengthy to maintain the quality of writing by the deadline, or 3) too boring even for the author who realized "Everyone just wants to end this now so they can get back to the football game anyway." Maybe Keyes is a fan?

Sadly, the characters were well developed before the author lost interest. Like a divorce where one party silently and inexplicably walks out, the book leaves the reader estranged and unsatisfied. In other words, if Keyes hadn't loved his readers with style and richness of plot, the surprise divorce wouldn't have come so hard. Therefore be warned that in this third book of the series, Keyes treats his readers as Bruce Willis's treated Mattie on Moonlighting: "Readers - you can't live without 'em; and you can't leave 'em on the street corner when you're done with 'em."

Although I greatly enjoyed the first two books of this series, the last did leave me a bit disappointed. I was under the impression that this was a 3 book series and now find that all of my questions need to wait to be answered by yet another book. Not that I really mind. I really enjoyed the characters and the story did flow quite well. I would recommend this and the first two books to anyone who likes fantasy fiction.

I only wish I'd reread the second book before reading this because there's a large enough cast of characters to keep straight. It's very much like George R.R. Martin - each section/chapter deals with a different set of characters. Thankfully he's not as gory as Martin. Keyes has a wonderfully ironic sense of humor. And names that one can pronounce and remember! And actual fight scenes that I didn't skip over, very well orchestrated. There's magic and monsters and romance and friendships. Good and evil and something in between. Mystery and mayhem. It's got it all and all told in a very intelligent and vibrant way that keeps you wanting more. If you like Robin Hobb and the aforementioned Martin this book is for you. But do read the first two first!

The first book in this four-book series, The Briar King, was one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time. Great plot, interesting, sympathetic characters...just first-rate. The second book, The Charnel Prince, was not quite as good, but moved things along nicely. This is the third book, and I found it quite disappointing. Keyes seems to have succumbed to Jordanitis here, and the story has devolved into moving characters around the map and throwing monsters at them. After fifteen hundred pages, I would expect that some of the mysteries originally introduced in book one would begin to be unraveled. Very little is revealed in this book. The result is that "stuff" is happening, but motives and history remain hidden, leaving the reader scratching his head over just what it all means. The interesting characters are all that remain from the excellent writing of the first two books. Plot has been thrown out the window, sadly. Moving people around and having monsters appear out of nowhere, for no apparent reason, is not a plot. The story advances so little, that all the reader needs to know is that Prince Robert is kicked out of the castle by the book's end. It seems this could've been worked into the beginning of tighter, and better, third book, of a three-book series.

As it stands, this smacks suspiciously of publishing greed winning out over artistic integrity. Do yourself a favor and hold off till Book Four (The Born Queen) is published, two years hence.

'The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone' is an eerily mysterious fantasy series and 'The Blood Knight' keeps to the same mould.

Its Book 3 now, but you are YET to get a grasp on Crotheny's world. You still cannot comprehend the main characters, the divine beings, the strange religions and world politics. The Briar King and his cohorts, the faneways, the history of the Dares, the reason for the undead knights, the black jester, the nature of magic, the monsters and many, many other curious elements are never explored, and any comprehension you derive is extrapolated from what the characters in the story choose to reveal in their conversations or discover in the course of their adventures .Yes, I agree thats actually a good and realistic way of writing - but the problem is that they choose to reveal very little!

Everything is obtuse and at the edge of your comprehension. And so mystery keeps you on the edge of your seat. Since you never understood the world in the first place, any occurence, no matter how strange is implicitly accepted and absorbed. The creation of the 'Blood Knight' is one such occurence - and when it occured at the end, I belatedly realized that the much-appreciated mystery aspect of the series is nothing more than a tool that the author has used so he can introduce new plot elements at his whim and fancy. If you keep the world hidden under a curtain, you can introduce whatever you like in the future and avoid the pain of integration with the past! I think Greg Keyes has developed this style to a fault. :-)

However, the rich storytelling does keep you engrossed. And the action! The Blood Knight has a fair bit of action. There is a brand new monster - the super-duper woorm. The monster was over-hyped throughout the book but got killed very tamely at the end. The two protectors - Sir Neil and Cazio - who I feel are possibly the only characters that readers actually understand - fight a lot of entertaining battles for their daughter-queen. Cazio is a lovable character even if he is typecast! And Neil is someone that every intense person can relate to. Anne, by herself, is strangely remote and inaccessible in this book - both to the other characters and to the readers - which is a pity since she was initially very human. I can understand that Anne has to change, but without understanding the nature of magic, her changes and the multitude of her gifted visions are simply opaque to the reader. Asper discovers another divine entity in the course of hunting the woorm. She is called 'The Witch of Sarnwood' and the reasons for her existence are irritatingly contrived. As in the other books, Winna simply follows him and does very little apart from getting poisoned (again) and being saved (again). Towards the end, both Aspar and Stephen play an unwitting role in the creation of the Blood Knight, but the interaction of supporting characters with Stephen in this role is dense and unclear.

Yet I give it 4 stars...I am a sucker for fantasy and this book is way better than most of its genre.

The Blood Knight is the third book in the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series by Greg Keyes. This follows up The Briar King and The Charnel Prince. Reportedly he is planning on wrapping this series up in the next novel, tenatively titled The Born Queen.

I really enjoyed the first two novels in this sequence, so I had high expectations for this book. I was not disappointed. I would recommend brushing up on what happened in the previous installments before reading this, as Keyes drops you right in the middle of the action. It took me nearly 100 pages before I found my footing and recalled where The Charnel Prince had left off.

*spoilers for the first two books follow.*

Anne, Austra and Cazio, have met up with Sir Neil, as well as Aspar, Winna, and Stephen, so almost all out protagonists are together, or nearly so. The lone exception is the composer Leoff who has been imprisoned by Robert after the performance of his enchanted concert. Robert also has Queen Murielle imprisoned, and has allied himself with the corrupt church and with Crotheny's ancient enemy Hansa. With the help of her friends Anne must find a way to win the throne. She will have to manage without the full group as Stephen is taken and Aspar and Winna are sent to find him, and help him fufill his destiny.

I've heard Keyes often described as Martin-Lite. The comparison is fairly accurate. Keyes writes in the same POV chapter style, and his strength is characterization. His characters are certainly a bit more cliche than Martin's but they are strong none the less. He also does a nice job of world building. The history of the world is fleshed out a bit more with each novel, and he does manage to throw a few curves to keep the reading guessing as to what side certain supporting characters are on.

Keyes doesn't rate on my top tier of writers of epic fantasy but he sits with some pretty good company on the rung below Martin and Bakker. The Blood Knight is certainly an enjoyable book.

If you are a fan of the series, by all means keep reading. If you haven't read this yet and are looking for something to tide you over until A Dance with Dragons, or the Aspect-Emperor are release, give Keyes a shot.

7.5 out of 10

It takes some dedication to get through the beginning of this book.

Be prepared to be thrust in to the story with little idea of what's happening at first. I had the feeling that once Keyes gathered all of his characters together at the end of the second book he didn't know what to do with them, so at the beginning of this one he goes about separating them in a very disjointed way. Though this seemed messy, it wound up neatly in the end.

In this volume, puzzle pieces begin falling in place at last. Fend takes on a more important role. Stephen as well. Some light is cast upon the mysterious Sefry. Anne makes her first big move as future Queen.

Keyes continues to rule the day with superb characterization, surprising plot twists, energized battles, and powerful use of language (Whether it be English, Vitellian, Vadhiian, or any one of his other invented languages.) A main character dies in this one (and it won't be who you suspect.)

Looking forward to the fourth (and final?) volume.