Customer Reviews

Pride of Kings

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is not generally known but on the day that Richard the Lionhearted was crowned King of England, he turned down another crown, which would have bound him to Great Britain in the Old Way. Richard chose the mundane over the mystical, leaving the island vulnerable to the evil spirits on the other side of the veil.

An innocent cleric is duped into opening the door to let unholy evil into the world. Only the ruler of Great Britain can close the door. Arslan, born of a Provence lord and a fire spirit is sent to John Lackland in England. John must put on the mantle his brother rejected. Arslan is very persuasive as are the other guardians and John proves his right to use the mystical forces to protect the land. However, he must do it secretly so Richard does not get wind of his plans and think he will try to overthrow him. John, using all the magic at his command, closes the door but the curse is not over yet. Danger lies in the form of Prince Philip of France, the mystical king of his land, who will willingly sacrifice the living to further his ambitions.

Judith Tarr has shown a John and Richard unlike those found in Shakespeare or Robin Hood. Using actual historical events, she weaves a different version of their actions during a troubled time. PRIDE OF KINGS is an epic fantasy work of alternate history that thoroughly enchants the reader with a powerful drama, mystical and earthly intrigue (both deadly), and vivid pageantry.

Harriet Klausner

I love seeing Judith Tarr writing fantasy again. Her grey mare's daughters series was ok, but she is at her best when describing the swirl of Wild Magic about Riders who have gone beyond the boundaries of the mundane world.

Henry is dead, Richard the Lionhearted is to be crowned King of the English, but there is another crown waiting for him, did he but accept it: the crown of the King of Britain, guardian of the mystical realm that is Britain, warded by four guardians who are more than human. However, Richard's eyes and heart are set on Jerusalem and his Crusade. He has no use for Pagan ceremonies and spurns the Crown of Britain. This sets in motion a magical chain of events that resonated in the real world.

In Anjou, Arslan, a young ... son of a dead lord waits with his two Seljuk servants. He had been born and raised in outremer, the son of a mortal lord and an Ifritah, a spirit of fire. In him the magic runs high. A Crusade is gathering and he intends to return to the East. However, he is given a prophetic dream, in which he is told that he must go to Britain, where he is needed. There comes riding into his brother's keep a company, one of whom is recognizable as William, a ... Plantagenet. The other, who seems less worthy is pushed aside while William is feted. The one who is pushed aside is John Lackland, the very legitimate son of Henry and Eleanor of Acquitaine. He is pleased to be amused by it and when he rides out, leaving a discomforted Lord of Anjou, he takes Arslan with him.

The mystical forces that protect Britain offer John a bargain. They offer him a chance to rule as overlord of the spirit of the place, but he is to pay a price. That price is that the world will see him as his brother's usurper and would not know of the service that he had performed to save Britain (and England) to, from the forces arrayed against it.

The book though focuses mainly on Arslan, on his love for one of the Guardians and how two people both blessed and cursed with magic come to an understanding. Arslan, the son of a spirit of fire, is beautiful and strong. His name means lion. The Lady Eschivra, the daughter of Morgana and a river god, is older than him in years, wiser than he in magic, but more tangled in her thoughts and emotions. Together they must face the forces of the Wild Magic, of Sorceries sent against them by enemies outside Britain, and the convolutions of their own too human hearts.

If you liked Ms Tarr's earlier fantasies, if you have a fondness for Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Reward and Fairies, if you just enjoy a good historical fantasy then grab a copy, curl up on the couch with a small dog or two (I recommend a Jack Russell terrier) and settle down to enjoy a rouse-- and touching-- fantasy.

(By the way, the title is a pun. It refers to both the feeling of pride, and a collective noun for all the young lions who make up the actors in this book.)

Judith Tarr has taken fictional characters and woven them in with historical characters to make the story line plausible. The plot lines, primary and secondary, are strong and well written. The characters are well developed and believable, even with the knowledge many of the characters are fiction. This was a well told story and a well written book.

Judith Tarr has written some great books, but this isn't one of them. Ms. Tarr seems to have cobbled together some notes and thrown out a half-baked novel. Her characters are usually brilliant, here they are muddy. Her world is often well realized, here it's slapped together.

Still, it's better than half the SF/Fantasy pumped out and spat at the market.

Oh, don't you tell the priest Our plight,
He will think it a sin.
We have been out in the woods all night
A-conjuring summer in;
Now we bring good news by word of mouth,
Good news for cattle and corn;
The sun today came up from the south
By Oak and Ash and Thorn.
--Rudyard Kipling

I love seeing Judith Tarr writing fantasy again. Her grey mare's daughters series was ok, but she is at her best when describing the swirl of Wild Magic about Riders who have gone beyond the boundaries of the mundane world.

Henry is dead, Richard the Lionhearted is to be crowned King of the English, but there is another crown waiting for him, did he but accept it: the crown of the King of Britain, guardian of the mystical realm that is the spirit of Britain, warded by four guardians who are more than human. However, Richard's eyes and heart are set on Jerusalem and his Crusade. He has no use for Pagan ceremonies and spurns the Crown, breaking the Walls of Air that protect Britain and making it imperative that a new King be found. This sets in motion a magical chain of events that resonate in the real world.

In Anjou, Arslan, young bastard son of a dead lord waits with his two Seljuk servants. He had been born and raised in outremer, the son of a mortal lord and an Ifritah, a spirit of fire. In him the magic runs high. A Crusade is gathering and he intends to return to the East. However, he is given a prophetic dream, in which he is told that he must go to Britain, where he is needed. There comes riding into his brother's keep a company, one of whom is recognizable as William, a bastard Plantagenet. The other, who seems less worthy is pushed aside while William is feted. The one who is pushed aside is John Lackland, the very legitimate son of Henry and Eleanor of Acquitaine. He is pleased to be amused by it and when he rides out, leaving a discomforted Lord of Anjou, he takes Arslan with him.

The mystical forces that protect Britain offer John a bargain. They offer him a chance to rule as overlord of the spirit of the place, but he is to pay a price. That price is that the world will see him as his brother's usurper and would not know of the service that he had performed to save Britain (and England, from the forces arrayed against it.

The book though focuses mainly on Arslan, on his love for one of the Guardians and how two people both blessed and cursed with magic come to an understanding. Arslan, the son of a spirit of fire, is beautiful and strong. His name means lion. The Lady Eschivra, the daughter of Morgana and a river god, is older than him in years, wiser than he in magic, but more tangled in her thoughts and emotions. Together they must face the forces of the Wild Magic, of Sorceries sent against them by enemies outside Britain, and the convolutions of their own too human hearts.

If you liked Ms Tarr's earlier fantasies, if you have a fondness for Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Reward and Fairies, if you just enjoy a good historical fantasy then grab a copy, curl up on the couch with a small dog or two (I recommend a Jack Russell terrier) and settle down to enjoy a rousing-- and touching-- fantasy.

(By the way, the title is a pun. It refers to both the feeling of pride, and a collective noun for all the young lions who make up the actors in this book. Try to pick them all out.)

Britain needs a king and Richard the Lion Hearted wants nothing but his crusade. When Britain selects John in his place, trouble follows quickly--but can Britain's wild magic save itself. Phillip of France is threatening and Germany has captured Richard.

Tarr does a wonderful job re-introducing us to some of the most important historical figures of medieval England. Richard, who was the last hope for the crusades, John, who signed the Magna Carta creating the basis for Britain's modern government, and Eleanor of Aquitaine, who brought half of France as her bridal gift when she married Henry II of England (and launched both kingdoms into a war that would last over a hundred years).

Interesting, but less impressive was Tarr's job describing the magic that binds men to their land and the land to its kings. I would have liked to see more dimensionality in these magical characters.

Overall, I recommend this book highly.

BooksForABuck

One presumes there has to be a reason for the fact that there's only been one English King named John. Read the Robin Hood legend or watch almost any filmic version of it, from the early British TV series with Richard Greene The Adventures of Robin Hood: The Complete Series to Errol Flynn's Technicolor classic Adventures of Robin Hood to Disney's animated one Robin Hood, and you see him portrayed as a usurper eager to steal his brother Richard Lionheart's throne; look into English history and you find him so ticking off his barons that they finally band together to force him to sign Magna Carta and recognize their rights. In this wonderfully complex yet surprisingly quick-to-read historical fantasy, Judith Tarr suggests a hidden reason for it all. Richard, chafing at the bit to be off on Crusade, is eager to be crowned "King of the English" and set out, but not so eager to accept the seemingly pagan crown of "the real Britain" offered him by the island's four sorcerous Guardians--William the Marshal, King's Forester Hugh Neville, the "famously holy" Bishop Hugh, and the Lady Eschiva, who's more Old God blood than she is mortal (her grandfather was Cerenus and her father a sea-deity). The guardians, however, aren't ready to take no for an answer: without a "consecrated king" their powers to defend Britain from all manner of peril are seriously diminished. So they turn to the only other adult male Plantagenet available to them--Prince John. And though he's warned up front that to accept their offer will cause his name to be blackened for all time to come, John genuinely loves England as Richard never has, and he consents. Soon drawn into his orbit and the affairs of the isle is Arslan, son of a French crusader knight and a female ifrit, who has some peculiar powers of his own, and his two Seljuk Turk bodyguard-companions, Yusuf and his brother Karim--who's actually his sister Kalila in disguise. What follows is a sidewise look at English history, including Robin Hood (who in this version isn't exactly human), Richard's abduction by Leopold of Austria, and a threatened invasion by Philip of France. The human interrelationships--Kalila's love for Arslan, John's peculiar ties to his brother and parents (he was his father's favorite, but his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, dislikes and distrusts him almost more than anyone not kin to him), Arslan's developing romance with Eschiva and Kalila's with Neville--add a rich tapestry to the story, and the undercurrent of Old Magic running undetected side by side with Christianity is a splendid realization of the potential I saw in Tarr's Kingdom of the Grail; besides the Guardian-Bishop, one of the most important characters is a churchman who's so utterly devoid of magic that he's an empty vessel waiting for anyone, or anything, that decides to use him, as something not clearly explained does very early on. There's also tantalizing reference to the Plantagenets as "the Devil's brood of Anjou," descendants of a "demon Countess," which I hope I'll find expanded on in some other book of Tarr's. If you enjoy Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters (The Fire Rose (The Elemental Masters Fairy Tales) and others), Doubled Edge This Scepter'd Isle (The Doubled Edge, Book 1) and sequels), or Heirs of Alexandria (The Shadow Of The Lionand sequels) series, you're sure to find Tarr just to your taste.

Judith Tarr's Pride of Kings is a most interesting read. I found it intriguing. A story where John is not a power hungry king, who loves England, unlike his brother Richard. All the characters were very thought provoking. There was no reason this could not have happened. Why could Britain not have its own king and protectors. Yea! for Judith!

Judith Tarr has wonderful imagery. The story she tells is based on history and she makes it alive and exciting. A wonderful continuation, if you will, of the movie "Lion in Winter"

A really great read. I wish I had the words to say more. Get the book, enjoy it.

This book was utter and complete garbage, a waste of money. Poorly written and the plot was not all that compelling. The characters were flat and were not developed. It was actually painful to finish this book. For people interested in an excellent historical fiction...