Customer Reviews

A Princess of Roumania

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This novel opens in a real place in the present (the quiet, rural college town of Williamstown, Massachusetts), but its main characters, three high school students, soon find themselves transported to an alternate world, in which Roumania is the heir to the Roman Empire, Christianity is an obscure fringe cult, and magic is a force of nature--not fully understood by those who wield it, and rife with unexpected consequences. The three teenagers begin to discover that they themselves have histories and identities in this world, ones very different from the selves they believe themselves to be. Miranda, the central character, who was adopted as an infant from a (this worldly) Romanian orphanage, turns out to be the heir to the throne in this other Roumania. The center of a passionate and violent power struggle, she had been sent by her powerful aunt to a magical refuge that is our world. Her companions, born and raised in Williamstown, carry the spirits of two faithful and resourceful military officers sent along to guard the princess. This is not Harry-Potter- style cookbook magic: its transformations produce errors and slippages no one expects, and its effects can be altered, but never quite undone,. The central characters find themselves between identities, or elsewhere altogether-- Miranda's best friend Andromeda, a popular high school Queen Bee at home, was originally a handsome young officer named Sasha Prochenko, but on her return, to everyone's puzzlement, takes the form of a yellow dog. Paul Park has conjured a vivid and strange world full of complex power struggles and larger-than-life personalities, but also one with the messiness, ambivalence and uncertainties of real life. By the way, the book has next to nothing to do with the real Romania. "Roumanian" characters in the novel run the full gamut from faithful heros to sinister plotters, as they would in any adventure story. Readers anxious about Eastern European stereotypes should read the novel before judging it!

Paul Park's new novel, the first in a trilogy, is an astounding work. When I turned the last page, I was stunned by the thought of how far the story had taken me in just 368 pages.

What is particularly remarkable is how Park takes some very familiar tropes (an adopted child from a magical world, tokens that are clues to her identity, warring conjurers) and shines them to such lustre that they seem not just fresh but entirely new.

The author's greatest feat is the way in which all of the characters appear as rich and interesting people -- even those who occupy the positions of villians. Baroness Ceausescu is identified by the narrative early on as "evil" yet the story itself resists such easy definitions. She has emerged, by the end, as a complex and vital character.

Much of the latter half of this wonderful novel takes place in a sort of alternate Europe and concerns a conflict between Roumania and Germany. In this conflict, a mess of betrayals, plots and diplomacy, there are also no stock villains.

All this, and I haven't even talked about about the three protaginists of the story. Many writers who do not normally write for young audiences fail to get the voices and emotions of teenage characters correct, but not Paul Park. As the lives of Miranda, Peter and Andromeda get more and more complicated by their translation into the magical world of the story, their personalities stay grounded and believable. Even when Peter and Andromeda begin to manifest new (perhaps "true") personalities as the Chevalier Pieter de Graz and war hero Sacha Prochenko, they still ring true as real teens in unreal situations.

However, I don't mean to suggest that this is solely a teen novel. It's dark and the politics are complex. I'd recommend this for those (of any age) who are ready for more meat than Harry Potter. It ought also to appeal to those who appreciate Neil Gaiman's _American Gods_ or Jonathan Carroll's _The Bones of the Moon_. It's complex, beautiful, magical and cool.

Too bad we're going to have to wait for the sequel.

I was extremely excited to sink into this book after spotting its striking cover at the bookstore, opening it up, and seeing all the praise the critics heaped on it.

After reading it, I can see what the critics loved about it, I suppose. It does exude a "different" sort of atmosphere - nothing is ever exactly as you'd expect. And yet...it is. There were many moments and aspects of the story that reminded me of other books I'd read, but it still had an atmosphere all its own. Here's a quick description, and really illustrates what I mean:

A teenager is brought to another fantasy world...based upon on our world, where England was overcome by a tidal wave and other countries - Germany - are dominant. She discovers she's the princess of an enslaved country...a POLITICALLY enslaved country - there's no true "villains" here, no smoke and chains, and only the girl and her family are truly in danger. Two friends from her own world came to this new world with her - a boy whose presence leads to many Tense Kiss-Me-Or-Not moments...but most often "not" because of a surprising...THING about one of his hands. Her other friend is a girl...who also goes through a surprising change that I won't spoil. Her allies in this new world are loyal to her aunt and family...and of the two, one doesn't last past one chapter, and the other is a coward, plain and simple. The main "villain" in the story is a woman who does some truly evil things...and cries about them afterward, and feeds herself anger to overwhelm any compassion she feels for her "victims."

Narration-wise, it was refreshingly adult for a teenage fantasy book. Just before you get tired of the whiny teenage characters, something happens and/or they do something surprisingly adult, and you're reminded once again that this book is truly a thing of its own.

I could go on for a while, but I think you get the basic point - overall, the story is pretty predictable, but still enjoyable to read because things are just "different." In the end, this is still the basic teenage fantasy dish, but the ingredients inside it are so different it's probably worth taking a bite anyway.

This remarkable book has turned out to be one of the most satisfying novels I've read in the past year. It blends archetypal themes from fairy tales, fantasy, science fiction, and the best of classic literature into something entirely new and refreshing. "A Princess of Roumania" is unique, enigmatic, and delightfully entertaining with it's fabulous characters and unexpected twists and turns. I'm looking forward to reading the remainder of the quartet of novels that includes "The Tourmaline," soon to be released in July.

Never predictable and always intriguing, "A Princess of Rumania" is a most unusual coming of age story where a normal high school girl's life is turned upside down when she finds herself suddenly thrust into an alternate reality where she is a legend come to life. A short description of the plot can't begin to describe the vividly drawn, complex characters and richly imagined world that Paul Park has created in this remarkable alternate history. It's a charming, compelling, and surprising work that is destined to become a classic.

To the reviews already posted I will add that one does not have to be a reader of fantasy/sf to love this book. My favorite writers are those who are able to capture the fine detail of every-day emotional and psychological states -- and who undertake thereby to say something true, about things that matter. On top of all of the things related to the telling of a compelling story, Park does this too.

I found this book to be an acquired taste. As it happens, I acquired the taste in the course of reading it.

At first I didn't think I'd make it through the book. Like many books that are highly praised by our literary betters, it started out quite heavy on "woe is me", introspective dialogue, and pretty light on anything of interest actually happening. (I should note that, at my advanced age, I only read for entertainment or education. I've had enough of narcisistic existentialism, which, although an apparent necessity for critical approval, really should be of no interest to anyone above the age of 30.)

But to continue ... the writing is professionally easy to parse so, not being forced to put it down by bad writing, I continued to glide through it, and found that as the plot started developing, the moaning became less frequent. New, and interesting characters were introduced and the plot itself became extraordinarily unpredictable.

Nothing happens that could be remotely predicted. Surprise follows surprise and yet at every turn I would feel that the author actually made a brave and useful move. The author never took an easy path ... all the paths taken were difficult, resulting in small wrapups of the loose threads but wide openings in the future possibilities.

And, to reiterate, it is "smoothly" written and not difficult to put up with, even when the protagonists spend a few too many paragraphs worrying about their inner turmoil.

I've just finished reading Paul Park's A Princess of Roumania (warning: mild spoilers ahead). The book deserves to become a modern classic; it's as good and as serious as the first two books of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials." I've been an admirer of Park's novels for a long time. His previous books are wonderful, but there's a clear progression from the gorgeous, baroque, but slightly undisciplined prose of his first book, Soldiers of Paradise and its somewhat inferior sequels, through Celestis to Three Marys which is written in language as plain and lovely as a stone. "A Princess of Roumania" is better again - strange images rendered more striking by the very matter-of-factness with which they are described. His first novel for young adults, it takes a standard plot - a girl and her companions catapulted into a strange new world of magic and enchantment - and does unexpected things with it. There are many novels in which the characters come to realize that they are inhabiting a fictional world, in which "the laws of the universe are the laws of genre." Much of the power of A Princess comes from its refusal of the cosiness that this all too often implies.

I've a theory, which I suspect is hardly original to me, that the magic in really good children's fantasy draws its resonance from a child's perception of what it must be like to be grown up. When you're a child or a pre-adolescent, the adult world seems an attractive and terrifying place. Adults have power, but are driven by forces and desires that a child can only dimly understand; wild magic. Thus, for example, when Susan rides with the daughters of the moon and the Wild Hunt in Alan Garner's The Moon of Gomrath, she's glimpsing for a moment what it will be like to be a woman. In contrast, the magic in mediocre children's fantasy is all too often domesticated, rationalized, and stripped of its real force. A Princess of Roumania seems to me to be an oblique rejoinder to the kind of children's fantasy in which magic is under control, in which the child goes home. There's no returning for Miranda Popescu; her entire world (our world) turns out to be an elaborate fiction, a shelter from reality that quite literally disappears in a puff of smoke. She and her friends are propelled, only half grown-up into the world of adulthood, of complex responsibilities and obligations. A world where magic exists, but isn't really understood, where adults lay complicated plans, but don't know what they're doing most of the time. In most fantasy, the hero or heroine is fulfilling a plot, a prophecy, a pre-ordained destiny - at the pivotal moment in A Princess, Miranda refuses the path that has been laid out for her, and the power of adults to decide what to do with her life, instead deciding herself. All this, and the Baroness Nicola Ceausescu, perhaps the most wonderfully described, and sympathetic villainess that I've ever seen in a YA book. I can't say more than to reiterate that the book is a delight.

Paul Park's A Princess of Roumania is the beginning of an ongoing fantasy series. On the whole I would say it has more commercial potential than his previous books. But in so saying I do not mean to say it is less ambitious than his earlier works, or less imaginative -- indeed, it is a very fine novel, and promises to open a fascinating series.

Miranda Popescu is a 15 year old girl in a college town in upstate New York in about the present day. She was adopted from Romania in the chaos following the uprising against Ceausescu. As the novel opens she befriends a lonely one-armed boy, Peter Gross. Her other special friend is a popular girl named Andromeda. Soon they meet a sinister group of teenagers who have just moved to their town, and suddenly their school is set afire, risking Miranda's special keepsakes from Romania: some coins and jewelry, and in particular a remarkable book called The Essential History, which describes world history from an unusual viewpoint.

In a completely different world we meet the Baroness Nicola Ceausescu, formerly a prostitute then a successful actress and dancer, who became the second wife of a much older man. This man was involved in an intrigue which led to the execution of Miranda's father, the exile of her mother to Germany, and the financial ruin of her Aunt, Princess Aegypta Schenk von Schenk, half-German and half a descendant of the White Tyger, Miranda Brancoveanu, who saved Roumania centuries before. It seems to be Aegypta's hope that Miranda Popescu is the new White Tyger, who will save Roumania from her corrupt current Empress, and from the threat of German invasion. Both Aegypta and Nicola are sorceresses, and Aegypta, we soon gather, has created an artificial world, our world, in which she has hidden Miranda, as well as two loyal retainers, who have been incarnated as Peter and Andromeda. Nicola has managed to send some people to that world, to find Miranda and bring her back -- both realize that if she is the new White Tyger, control of this teenager will be critical. Nicola, furthermore, is intriguing with a German envoy, thus betraying both her nominal political ally, the Empress, and of course her longtime enemy, the Princess Aegypta.

Nicola's schemes succeed in a limited manner, and Miranda, Peter, and Andromeda all end up in the "real world": our world, and its creating book, having been destroyed. (Apparently.) But they are marooned in the wilds of America, inhabited mainly by savage refugees from earthquake-shattered England. Nicola, however, loses control of her plans, and is forced to turn against her erstwhile German friends, though she does come into possession of a powerful gem, Kepler's Eye. She finds herself accused of a murder she didn't commit, while racked with guilt over a murder she did commit. Miranda, in dream contact with Aegypta, a woman she doesn't know, struggles to make her way with Peter, Andromeda, and an obsessed tool of Nicola's, Major Raevsky, to Albany and eventually to a ship to Roumania. Or, she hopes, perhaps back to "our" world. The German Elector of Ratisbon, an illegal sorcerer himself, is trying to find Miranda, and also Kepler's Eye.

It's a thoroughly interesting novel. In particular, the characters of the villains are wonderfully realized, especially Nicola Ceausescu, who is a certainly a bad person, but at the same time a person with whom we sympathize: and someone who is sometimes on the "right" side. The magical parts are very original, believable (in context), and impressive. There is no real resolution -- this is after all the first of a series. But I'll be eagerly reading on.

I'm not a huge fantasy reader, although I have enjoyed novels that involve magick in stories set in the "real world." If you're reading this and want to know if my tastes will line up with yours, I read and enjoyed Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon books, as well as her Witch Hill type books, but never got into Darkover. Beware, too, that this novel is the first in a trilogy, or at least I hope it stops there, and each novel stops without any sense of resolution at the point where the next novel will begin. The third novel, White Tyger is expected out in late January.

I think that the author, Paul Parks, has a lot of potential, but could really benefit from a writing coach. There's a lot of wonderfully visual writing that paints vivid pictures, and makes the characters come to life. Unfortunately, Parks tries to relate the speech patters of Romanians who speak English as a second language, and doesn't do a great job here. I don't speak Romanian, or know any native speakers off the top of my head, but I speak 4 romance languages, and know linguistics. Dialectic writing is tough, and should be dropped if an author can't do it well; like seasoning food. . .know what you are doing or ere on the side of caution. At times, Parks' attempts are OK, at other times it really interferes with the flow of a sequence, and at other times Parks forgets that a character should be speaking with an accent. If found myself having to reread pages here and there, because details got lost in the attempt at realistically accented speech.

Sometimes this book is very engaging, with a good story concept. Unfortunately, Parks takes so long to get where he's going, without enough story development in the process, which I find myself wishing that he'd just hurry up; and I'm not one of those that reads the last chapter to find out what happens before I get to it. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint, the books are just engaging enough and well written enough to get me to finish the series. Although, if there's a 4th novel, I may not finish the series.

I highly recommend this book. The premise is an original, surprising twist of a fantasy convention, the characters are engaging, and the journey is fascinating.

The book switches around the traditional alternative reality plot. Our reality, the reality the characters begin in, is fiction, and the world the young people are transported into is the real thing. It's a great twist, but the book doesn't rely on it. The characters, their believable reactions to strange occurrences, and their sincere, awkward interactions with each other, are what drew me in and kept me reading.

The book takes its time at the beginning, allowing the reader to meet and observe the characters in what they see as their reality before the characters are chucked into the unknown. Because of this, adrenaline readers might think the book isn't worth their time. They're wrong. Because the characters and their relationships are set up clearly at the beginning, the reader is better able to watch how the characters change in the new world, join the journeys they take, and empathize with their plights.

My favorite character is not the protagonist or one of her friends. I love villains, and this book has a couple of wickedly delicious ones. The Baroness Ceaucescu, my favorite, is spontaneous, selfish, now and then reflective but more often violent, and sinned against. She's terrible, yet in a creepy way, I feel for her. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her in the next book, and hope never to meet her in person.

The book also delivers strong, universal themes without being pushy, and deals well with issues of gender, class, and religion. It's refreshing to read a fantasy novel that shows an awareness of these issues without being overbearing.

Now and then a book surprises me, introduces me to vivid characters, and takes me on a journey. This book did all of those things. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and can't wait to continue with the next installment, The Tourmaline.