The Immortal Prince (Tide Lords) [Paperback]

Jennifer Fallon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2007 | Series: Tide Lords

On the world of Amyrantha, the immortals have power over the natural elements, their power peaking every 1,000 years at the high tide of the Tide Star.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First in the Tide Lords series, this complex saga, like Fallon's earlier Hythrun Chronicles, intertwines several vividly realized plots. One follows Arkady Desean, the Ice Duchess of Lebec and a scholar of ancient Amyranthan lore, as she interrogates Cayal, a hanged man who inexplicably did not die. She soon encounters legends of the immortal Tide Lords who created the human-animal hybrid slaves called the Crasii—canines to serve, felines to fight, amphibians to pull watercraft—and a thousand years earlier caused the Cataclysm that nearly destroyed the world. Arkady's husband, Duke Stellan, guards his own deadly secret as he maneuvers through palace intrigues and inter-kingdom clashes. Royal spymaster Declan Hawkes secretly aids renegade Crasii and preserves the Cabal, humanity's only protection from the Tide Lords. With snappy dialogue and deft characterizations, especially of her sympathetically drawn canine Crasii, Fallon neatly pulls the story threads together into a multihued tapestry of myth, deceit and ambition. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

First of a new doorstopper fantasy series from the Australian author of Warlord (2006).On Amyrantha, magic swings through thousand-year cycles; when the immortal Tide Lords reach the height of their powers, they invariably quarrel and fight and heedlessly destroy human civilization. Now, at low tide, the powerless Lords have faded into myth and only the Cabal of the Tarot remembers the danger they represent. Lord Cayal, utterly bored and despairing of eternal life, comes to Lebec and murders seven people, knowing he faces beheading as punishment. (He'll grow a new head, of course, but it won't contain any of Cayal's memories.) Unfortunately for Cayal, it's the headsman's day off, so he's hanged instead - and, several agonizing hours later, he's as good as new, with his memories intact. However, the King's Spymaster arranges for physician-historian Arkady Desean to interrogate Cayal and disprove his claims of immortality. Not wishing to torture the prisoner in case he's a foreign citizen, Arkady encourages Cayal to tell her his story. Meanwhile, confined in a cell opposite, Warlock, a dangerously independent Crasii (of mixed human and dog ancestry, bred to serve the Tide Lords, now enslaved to humans) knows Cayal is what he claims. As Arkady probes Cayal's past, so her own circumstances (she's low-born, her husband is gay and will never help produce the heir demanded by the king) slowly unravel.Convincing in broad outline, though the details don't bear close scrutiny: a modestly gratifying yarn for readers desiring to settle in for the long haul. (Kirkus Reviews)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd (March 1, 2007)
• ISBN-10: 0732283353
• ISBN-13: 978-0732283353
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,319,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Fallon was born in Melbourne, Australia, and lived in there until she was 11 when her father, a senior public servant, was transferred to the national capital, Canberra. She lived in and around Canberra for about 8 years and went to school at Catholic Girls High School (now Mercy College) in Braddon. She is the ninth child in a family of 13 girls.
The author lived in the Northern Territory from 1980 to 2010.
Jennifer has two daughters and a son. She has had over 50 foster children and friends refer to her home as "the ashram" due to the large number of strays people that still inhabit her house at irregular intervals.
Jennifer has worked as a youth worker, a store detective, shop assistant, an advertising sales rep and executive secretary, among other things. She has managed 2 hire car companies, an ISP, a video shop, been a state manager for an international cosmetics company and worked as a project manager for Territory Health Services. Jennifer is an accredited workplace trainer and has a Masters of Arts in Research and also the regular movie reviewer for ABC Radio in regional Western Australia.
In 1995, after her late husband famously advised her to 'quit writing and be a better housewife, because you're never going to get published', Jennifer decided to either get published by the year 2000 or give up writing and get a real job. Significantly, being a better housewife did not factor into her plans.
Her first series, The Demon Child Trilogy, was released in August 2000 in Australia and hit the bestseller list the first week it was released and was shortlisted for the 2000 Aurealis Awards as the best Fantasy of 2000.
She has since been shortlisted for another Aurealis, the David Gemmell Legends of Fantasy award and the Romantic Times Best Fantasy award.
Her books are released all over the world and translated into a number of different languages.
Jennifer now lives in New Zealand where she writes full time and runs up the Reynox International Writers Centre.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This one is good, but beware this series..., December 12, 2009

By 

C. Nichols (California, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Immortal Prince (Tide Lords Quartet) (Hardcover)

Good authors are hard to find, especially in the fantasy genre. I liked the immortal prince. It has good premises, the characters are rounded out, the world in which they live is functional and the language stays pretty clean (big plus for me.) If you like fantasy that is built well, this is a fun, engaging ride. Others have reviewed the book already so I want to address those of you who want to know about this Tide Lords Series, just in case you head down the same path I did with this...

Like any good author, by the time you end The Immortal Prince, you feel like running out for the second book, the God's of Amaranthya. And, JOY! Book two is also an enjoyable read albeit with some major cliffhangers. Book two is available right here on Amazon.

"What's that?" you say, "major cliffhangers? Okay then tell me about book three"...and here is where readers should beware...books three and four have been written and published...in Australia. They are both all but impossible to get domestically right now.

I am OCD and I have to finish things. So nut job that I am, I ordered books three and four through Amazon from Australia, in paperback, for about $35/per with shipping. Yes, I am crazy, I freely admit it and my husband will confirm it.

So, book three, the Palace of Impossible Dreams, is also good and you are thrilled to find three books you actually enjoyed reading. You positively can't wait to see where the author takes this concept in book four, the Chaos Crystal. But something horrible happens like the author is OVER it-the whole concept of books 1-3. -OR- Perhaps the author was forced to write book four against her will. The Chaos Crystal takes a major leap and heads in a different, rather painful direction that is not enjoyable and feels like it betrays the first three books. Not only do you do NOT get the resolution you were looking for all, but you are also left wondering what the heck just happened? Did the author inadvertantly write a whole sidebranch and called it "the end" anyway? Truly, the last book should be a standalone. I hate a series that ends poorly, especially when it was so good up until the end.

So, to recap: Books 1-3 are worth the read, maybe wait until book three is available in the US and then buy them all at once. But don't expect resolution and don't bother with the last book unless you are an admitted nut job like me who can't leave well enough alone.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good start to a new series, June 4, 2008

By 

N. Abarca (NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Immortal Prince (Tide Lords Quartet) (Hardcover)

I enjoyed both of Fallon's previous trilogies, and The Immortal Prince is an intriging start to another. What does an immortal who is tired of being immortal do to die? I like the tie of the magic with the pull of the tides and using the Tarot as a background for the story of the immortals. My only issue was the half-breed slaves who have both human and animal characteristics. I kept picturing Barf ... the half man, half dog (a mog) from the movie Spaceballs!

Overall an enjoyable read, and I will be looking forward to the next part of the story.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unkillable Immortals-- Definitely a Curse not a Gift!!!, September 1, 2008

By 

A. Lee (L.A., CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Immortal Prince (Tide Lords Quartet) (Hardcover)

Cayal is an immortal who has lived for thousands of years, has seen mortal kingdoms rise and fall and has been responsible for the deaths of thousands. Immortals cannot die; they just heal and regenerate. But Cayal is bored, supremely tired of living. He's seeking the one thing he cannot have. Or the next best thing. He purposely gets caught and tried for murder, hoping a headsman's axe will at least relieve him of his head. He won't die, but he'll lose his memories (this has happened to one of his fellow immortals). Unfortunately, the axe-man is out of town so he's only hanged, and naturally revives... When asked about who he is and why he demands to be beheaded, Cayal admits he's the Immortal Prince, a Tide Master.

Declan Hawkes, the King's Spymaster, sees a possible conspiracy involving another kingdom against his king. He asks his old friend Arkady, Duchess of Lebec, to quiz the prisoner under her guise as an academic, an expert in old lore, to prove him false. Arkady and Declan are both from the slummier side of the city... she married up, not for wealth, but as a friend and shield for the Duke who secretly favors men, and who had promised to help her father who was imprisoned for helping slaves. The slaves are the Crasii, human-animal hybrids who were originally created by the Tide Lords, although no humans believe that, either.

Arkady is fascinated by Cayal's tales of capricious and petty immortals who play with humans and animals at whim when the power of the Tides is High. For over a millennium, the Tide has been Low, so the Tide Lords and Immortals have remained hidden and powerless--and humans no longer believe what they haven't seen in so many centuries. So Arkady, intelligent and learned, cannot believe him. He has no proof other than surviving a hanging. But of course, things are about to change...

This is the first in a trilogy. It's a very long introduction, mostly setting the scene, introducing a few human characters (Arkady, the Duke, his lover Jaryx, and Declan) and a few Crasii (Warlock, a canine, who was in the next cell to Cayal and who can smell a Tide Lord from instinct). And Cayal's tales give a glimpse into the past--the making of immortals and Tide Lords, some of their antics, such as totally destroying ancient kingdoms, rearranging geography, raising volcanoes and creating inland seas, creating the Crasii at the cost of raping and killing human women, and revealing a few of the factions and enmities among the small group.

Action and plot movement doesn't really happen until the last part of this 500 page book.

Cayal's tales are interesting, however, in a horrific way. The 22 or so immortals are mostly pieces of work you'd never want to meet even if they were locked up in the most impregnable cell with the Tide never coming in. Even Cayal, not really a bad guy at heart--but still very flawed, seems a Golden Boy in comparison. They aren't amazing Evil Overlords, more like the petty, capricious gods of myth who have all the flaws of humans (and then some) and don't worry about yielding to them--AND are immortal with godlike powers. It's just a bad combination for all concerned (even other immortals).

Arkady's attraction to Cayal is not all that easy to see. He's extremely self-centered and is only interested in ending his life--not because he's feeling guilt at all he's done, but more because he's tired of living and very bored. What is revealed in his tales is not at all flattering, but is interesting somewhat in the way train-wrecks are. But then, Arkady is in a sham marriage, isn't aware that Declan, her childhood friend, was in love with her even though he goads her with her marriage of opportunity every chance he gets, and she has a past of sexual abuse.

So... the characters are not all that sympathetic. It's hard to really root for them, although in comparison to the immortals, they are absolute paragons of virtue and goodness.

I can't say that I absolutely enjoyed myself reading this, but the concept was intriguing and there was certainly enough of interest to carry me along to the end. Because I wasn't that caught up by any of the characters, emotionally, I'm not all that sure I'd seek out the next book, but I may if I'm in the right mood.