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30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Solid Third Book, August 25, 2006
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.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Very much a middle-of-the-series sort of book, May 7, 2007
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.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
slow start, but Keyes delivers by the end, December 26, 2006
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
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