Customer Reviews

The Queen's Bastard (The Inheritors' Cycle, Book 1)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This is a simple story of a trained assassin who also happens to be the bastard daughter of a queen. Our heroine is Belinda Primrose, raised by the queen's spymaster. She kills her way around Europe, posing as a lower class girl, and is finally given a cushy but more demanding posting in an enemy country, where she becomes the prince's lover. Rather than killing, she must prove her wit by finding evidence of a political plot. Unfortunately for her, she finds that the prince is the only person besides her father to share her own magical powers, and in their mutual feelings of loneliness and their feelings of empathy for each other, real love blooms. The fantasy/sci fi elements are low key.

I want to like this book, I really do, but I have several problems with it. Firstly, the plot to take down the enemy queen because she has some claim to territory belonging to Lorraine, Belinda's queen, shows poor diplomatic planning. There's a real absence to heirs to most of the thrones in play, with almost all of them going to Javier, Belinda's prince. Lorraine has no heir, and without an heir to continue her own political interests after death, it would make more sense to naturalize Belinda and marry her off to Javier, or just plain naturalize Belinda and make her the heir to the throne. The problem of Lorraine's lack of an heir needs to be solved before she tries to remove the other queens from her playing board, but it never even comes up in the story. Big gaping plot hole here that nagged me through the entire book.

Secondly, the book often depicts the weakness of women's positions. Yes, historically women of all classes have held less power than men. I think, however, that they managed to get through their daily lives without constantly thinking about the injustice of the world toward their sex. It's great to draw attention to the dark ages before the sexual revolution, but I'd rather see the characters coping with their regular lives than going about like a Monty Python peasant constantly thinking about how oppressed she is. It gets old.

And of course there's the masochism of Belinda's repression and the dominance/submission issues that run through every sexual encounter and almost all of Belinda's flirting. For the most part, this added to the story, but there's an extended physical and emotional rape scene, at which point the characterization of Belinda and Marius falls apart at the seams some. From that point on, when sex comes up, Belinda changes personalities and is neither herself nor her assumed role of Beatrice. It's as if Murphy wanted to write a sexually aggressive woman, but failed to write it into the character early enough. It's a very abrupt change from the doesn't care about sex attitude she had before, and if its going to be blamed on her witchpower then it needed to either be more subtle or more answers provided for the reader.

I'm torn over whether I want to read more of this series or not. It set up some interesting characters (though by the end of the book I found myself unhappy with all of them), uses multiple perspectives to tell a broader tale (though the switch between past and present tense can be irritating), and has some interesting political and social moves that I really like (including some of the sexual politics).

On paper, this novel is right up my alley. Court intrigue plus magic plus sex? Where do I sign up? I've seen comparisons to the Kushiel series and it's not hard to see why; it's partly the intrigue/magic/sex combination and partly the prose, which is lush and has moments of exquisite beauty. It was the prose that hooked me from the first page.

Unfortunately, other factors "unhooked" me later in the book, and now I'm three-quarters of the way through _The Queen's Bastard_ and not really feeling the urge to go on.

First of all, having the Queen's secret illegitimate daughter become a spy is requiring a lot of suspension of disbelief on my part. One would think Queen Lorraine would want to overprotect Belinda, even if she didn't want to acknowledge her, in case there came a time when she needed to reveal her parentage and name her heir to the throne. So I don't think Lorraine would be sending Belinda into mortal danger. And even if Lorraine never planned to legitimize Belinda or name her heir, Belinda would be a valuable piece on the board in terms of dynastic marriages. So I can't see Lorraine sending Belinda to seduce in the name of espionage. She'd want to keep her untouched. Stifling, maybe, but such was the life of noblewomen of the time Murphy is evoking. Jacqueline Carey's Phedre was able to do the spy/courtesan thing because she was a commoner.

I managed to shove this out of my mind, though, and sink into the story, at least until Belinda lost my sympathy completely. I think what Murphy is trying to show is that Belinda's witchpower, once unleashed, takes over her in some way and goads her to dominate others, but I feel like it was taken too far in the scene where Belinda sets up her maid to be raped. Belinda lost me there. I put down the book for about a week after that, and when I started reading it again, I had to put the rape out of my mind in order to keep going and keep caring what happened to Belinda.

I agree with the previous reviewer who says that Belinda's sexual aggressiveness seems pasted on; if this was part of the character's personality, there needed to be hints of it sooner. As it is, the dominant Belinda fits uneasily alongside the daytime Belinda and her "stillness."

Now I find myself simply bogged down. I don't know if Belinda's supposed to be the heroine or the villain, and I've lost all my interest in the dramas of Prince Javier's circle of friends. It's a pity; I was so excited to read this book and now I can't seem to prod myself to finish it. Maybe I'll come back to it with fresh eyes another time and give it another try.

I will say that I am enjoying the conflict within Belinda about her motives for being with Javier. It's interesting watching her shift from doing it as a scheme to further Lorraine's ends, to wondering what she and Javier could do as a team.

I love the Urban Shaman series...I ADORE the Negoiator series so when I heard CE Murphy was putting out a new series about the [...] daughter of a Queen who is a spy/assasin, I was excited. I expected another series with supernatural elements and a new twist on the renaissance period.

I did not get what I was hoping for. I understand that as a spy the main character will have to do a lot of things to get the job done. But as the book wore on...I wasn't sure WHAT that job was anymore and it became obvious that this is not another urban paranormal novel: its an erotic novel. I have nothing against sex, but I don't like erotic novels, per se. I really wanted something like her other series. I feel like I was misled.

If you're looking for a book with a fair amount of sex, weak plot, and progessively unlikeable characters, pick this book up. If you want something like CE Murphy's earlier books...pass this one by. I hope Ms. Murphy does not become another Laurell K. Hamilton and starts writing books I can no longer stand. I'd hate to lose another author.

I can't believe I get to be the first to review this amazing book. I am a fan of C.E.Murphy's Urban Shaman series (not such a fan of the House of Cards), so I got this book as soon as it came out. I gulped it down in one setting staying up to 3am becuse it was so engrossing. This is nothing like the Urban Shaman or House of Cards series, it is hard to even believe it was written by the same author since the style is so different (in a good way).

The book is set in a version of Elizabethan England/Europe. Country names are changed (Aulun=England,Parna=Italy,Lanyarch=Scotlan),etc). Our heroine Belinda is the bastard daughter of the Queen of Aulun(aka, Elizabeth). The twist is that her father Robert Drake trains her to be an assasin at age twelve. The fantasy part comes in because Belinda, her father and certain other characters have powers called witchbreed.

Belinda is sent on various assasination/spy trips by her father. And on one of these meets another witchbreed powered character, our hero, Javier. The story, which is the first part in the series (? a trilogy) goes on from there.

What makes this story so amazing is the character of Belinda and the Machiavellan politics in which she is enmeshed. Belinda is not a sympathetic character- she uses sex as a tool, kills without remorse, and uses those around her to further her mission. There is a lot of sex because when she uses the witchbreed power she goes into an sexual frenzy. The things she does are not pretty, and at points I was disgusted/repelled and fascinated all at once. Hopefully there will be redemption (through love with Javier?)for her at the end of this series. The ending is a cliff hnager. There is mystery surrounding what exactly the witchbreed are (hints of some kind of alien race?).

All in all this is an intricate and amazing book.
The sex scenes(there are a lot) are not for the squeemish because of some graphic descriptions.

I can't wait for the next book!

It seems I'm the odd man out this time.
Let me first say I'm a CE Murphy fan. I've read all her stuff. I love Urban Shaman and I like the negotiator series. However, I did not like this one at all.
It completely missed the mark for me. I realize this is a series and the story line will be arcing through several books, but by the end of this book I disliked ALL the characters so much that I just don't care what happens to them.

I wanted to like this book. It's set in a sort of fantasy/alternate Elizabethan Age (with names changed and whatever other variations pleases the author), wherein Lorraine the "virginal" Queen of Aulun (England) secretly bears a child to her favorite, Lord Drake. Belinda Primrose is brought up to become an assassin to aid the Queen's plans. She also has some magical powers that are stifled by Lord Drake, for reasons of his own--hinting at some kind of magical conspiracy.

There are some great secondary characters--primarily Javier, the heir to several thrones--Lanyarch (Scotland), through his mother's marriage to the now deceased king and Gallin (France), through his mother's marriage to the now deceased king--his supposed father, and Essandia (Spain), through his childless Uncle, King Rodrigo. Javier is also a witchbreed, able to do magic. He's never known anyone else and has had to keep his ability a secret since witchcraft is punishable by burning in both Reformation Aulun and anti-Reformation Everywhere Else. Then Belinda Primrose comes to Gallin on assignment to spy for Aulun and he believes he has found a friend/soul-mate/lover/fellow witchbreed. Javier also has a circle of friends who are interesting...

Sadly, very few characters are actually likable. I liked Javier the most, but the heroine, Belinda, seemed immune to much feeling for him. Belinda herself is not very likable through most of the tale, but not horrible; that is, until she begins to use her magic and it seems to turn her in to a sexual sadist (perpetrated upon a poor maid she helps at one time and ties up and rapes at another time, and upon one of the prince's friends who has fallen in love with her--whom she is also sometimes kind as well as cruel to).

It is very hard to root for anyone here. I don't mind complex characters who may be amoral, but even when it comes to their motivations, things aren't clear. For instance, why are Belinda and her father so dedicated to the Queen of Aulun? True, she is lover to one and mother to the other, but not truly much of either to them. The Queen's character is not developed, so we can't tell why she inspires loyalty other than just being Queen. Drake's character is left barely sketched in, as well.

Very little is said about the religious motivations other than that one side wishes to bring Aulun back into the fold and that the Queen of Aulun mostly dislikes the idea because her older sister tried that and it lead to lots of persecution. The main characters don't seem to feel strongly either way (or at least, I couldn't see it). And there was the whole problem with the lack of heirs aside from Javier--and even he, unbeknownst to all but his mother, isn't truly even that. Yet, when there is some chance of actually subverting Javier himself, it's not done.

The ending left me quite frustrated because Belinda turned out to be so cold and nasty. She's loyal to the Queen, but I still don't know why--so it's not necessarily a point in her favor (and we don't know that the Queen is any better than the other royals, since we haven't been told much about her). There is a lot that hasn't been revealed, actually. There is that possible secret other business with the magic-users, for instance. There are hints of conspiracies and intrigues and double-crossings and betrayals amongst many of the characters. Only Javier and one or two of his friends didn't seem to have a very nasty hidden agenda (although, I'm sure the next book will see even them become cold and ruthless and back-stabbing!).

Javier and Belinda are set up to have lots of conflict in the future-- and love/hate with each other, or rather, love/hate on Javier's side and just coldness on Belinda's side. But since the characters are so unpleasant, and not terribly interesting beyond being unpleasant (Belinda, anyway... Javier comes off as being pretty decent, actually), I'm not sure if I'd care to find out what happens next.

The language and behavior is also very anachronistic (modern), but I can't say that is a mark against, since this is a fantasy... For me it did bump me out of the feel of the supposed period a bit, however.

But if you don't mind a main character that uses sex when she needs to, becomes particularly cruel sexually when she uses her magical abilities, and can kill people at the drop of a hat, then this book may be for you! It was an ambitious effort, and there was obvious potential here, but it will not appeal to everyone.

I had a hard time judging the book as a whole because I am so disenchanted with the heroine. At first, it seemed like she was going to be a touch woman who possesses redeeming qualities but just doesn't show them all the time. Oh no, this is a brat who uses her special skills to destroy everyone who cares about her. Even then, I can accept that because not every story written needs to revolve around a "nice" person. I think I would have still been able to connect with the character if she was driven by great loyalty to her queen, her mentor or even her country. She is loyal but it comes off as more of a habit than any true feelings of loyalty. She views everyone around her as expendable but there's no feeling of a remotely worthwhile reason.

I finished the novel and may even read the sequel. I don't know that I would really recommend it to anyone else though. I went ahead and rated it as a three because I think I may be so hard on the book because I have enjoyed the author's previous books a great deal.

I'm not sure where the author is going with this series. The main character (heroine?) is one of the most unlikable characters since Stephen Donaldson's whiny Thomas Covenant. Since she is trained as an assassin, it makes sense for her to be tough. However, her wanton cruelty to those who are no conceivable threat to her or her queen (the maid she sexually abuses, for example) is very off-putting. Like Donaldson's alternate universe, I found the side characters far more interesting and likeable than the main character. Prince Javier and his circle of friends has real promise, if they will just grow up a bit.

Clearly, there is a lot of back-story here which will presumably come out in the later novels. I'll give this series one more book to pull things together, and bring out more in the protagonist. At the moment, however, I am hoping that Belinda gets a major spiritual awakening. If not, she needs to be caught, executed and dropped from the series.

C. E. Murphy has become one of my favorite authors with her Walker Papers trilogy and the Negotiator series. This story fell completely flat. The heroine is incompetent, the romance is too thick, and the plot is too predictable. I couldn't finish it.

I was incredibly disappointed with this book and will not be reading the sequels.

Better luck next time, Murphy.

I enjoyed this book.

I was starting to lose sympathy for the main character, and then she raped Nina. At this point I lost all sympathy, and wanted her to get caught, stripped in front of everyone of all the false trappings of royalty she pretends to wear and revealed for the evil Queen's [...] she really is.

Oh wait...

I think that is the key to reading this book. It is a book about evil, and how evil sees itself. The "good" character of Javier is a fool, but hopefully he will come to realize this and rise up against Belinda as the series continues. I hope his friends, who each love him dearly in their own ways, come to his rescue and support him as he regains confidence, the crown, and crushes that little [...] Belinda.