Customer Reviews

The Mirror Prince

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

 

 

The premise of the book will be familiar to more experienced fantasy readers. History professor Max Ravenhill discovers he's not who he thinks he is. He's not even human. He's an exile from the lands of the Fae, guardian of the Talismans that can select the next High Prince and end the cycle of death and corruption. Now, as Max's exile comes to an end, the Basilisk Prince is determined to capture him and use the Talismans to make himself High Prince.

It took me a few chapters to get into the book. Malan jumps right into the action with a fairly brutal (off-screen) massacre, and it also took me a while to grasp the fantasy side of her worldbuilding. It wasn't until a few chapters into the book, when Max and his protector Cassandra left our world and returned home, that I started to wrap my brain around everything.

With that said, I enjoyed the book a great deal by the end. Max and Cassandra were fun, and it was interesting to see the relationship between the guardian (who knows what's going on) and Max (whose memories have been altered, so he doesn't even know Cassandra at first). Malan even gives us glimpses of "humanity" from the Basilisk Prince, and I always like conflicted characters.

While some elements of the story felt familiar, others were intriguingly original. I enjoyed Malan's take on enchanted weapons and armor, and the creative ways they can be used. Her revelation about the Hounds (hunting beasts, from the original Hunt) was fascinating enough I wanted her to spend more time on it.

Actually, that was my biggest frustration. Some of Malan's most fascinating ideas seemed to get skimmed over. I wanted to learn more about the Naturals and the Solitaries, the other "races" of Max's realm. I wanted to understand guidebeasts better. And if the biggest complaint about a book is, "I wanted more," then I think that's a pretty positive thing.

The plotline of this book is what caught my interest. The action begins in our world-the Shadowlands. The protagonist is a Faerie Prince whose memory has been taken and has been banished to our world. He is long-lived and his memory fades every 15-20 years. His time of Banishment is ending and his old enemy has sent the Great Hunt to track him down. He is rescued by a Warden sent to watch over him. Unfortunately, she is given the unhappy task of convincing him of his identity and bringing him back to the Faerie Lands.

The beginning of the book lacks much of the atmosphere and character building that makes the best novels work. The plotline is extremely fast-paced and without the initial framework in place, it is difficult to really empathize with the main character. The writing improves towards the end. Overall, it seems like this was a great novel that was hurried a bit too much.

This is a fast paced novel. For such a stand alone book it has
has unsually well-developed fantasy world. Such development usually takes a longer book or a multiple volume series. Unlike the profssional review, I like time Malan spent develping the faerie culture and history. It has a good mistusre of humor and seriousness, plus a few unexpected surprises.

At first, it is hard to figure out where the author is headed with The Mirror Prince. The pace and setting moves so quickly that sometimes it is difficult to follow. Fortunately, the plot becomes clear, and the story complete. For Max Ravenhill, his life is but an illusion. And his leading position in another world becomes more apparent as he discovers why someone wants him captured badly, and everyone treats him with either deference or scorn, while his true memory is not yet returned. Leading him onward is a lady protector who seems to know a lot more about him than she would let on.

The plot basically goes running from a chase to restoring the hero to final confrontation with the villain. Fairly simple plot in and of itself. While giving a life-and-death urgency to the chase, the author is hard pressed to find time to fully develop the relationship between the hero and his protector. Yes, bits and pieces of his past lives are thrown in. And her perspective of Max is injected in a chapter or two. Furthermore, the enormous world beyond the Shadowlands (or our world, if you prefer) is not adequately explored. And to me, that is a shame.

Overall, The Mirror Prince is an impressive debut novel. While there are flaws that other Amazon reviewers have already noted, the novel is an enjoyable read and highly recommended.

The Mirror Prince is a clever take on some old themes - cosmic imbalance caused by an evil ruler, a seemingly ordinary man thrust into an important role in a world he doesn't understand, adventure in a fantasy world. Malan draws on some old fairy folklore and Irish legend but isn't afraid to change it - as one of her characters remarks early on, there is some truth and some falsehood to the old stories. Our plucky hero Max finds himself in a world of Riders (fairies similar to the trooping fairies or Sidhe of Irish myth), Solitaries (magical creatures) and Naturals (embodiments of natural landscapes). His quest is to stop the evil Basilisk Prince from taking over the world, a goal that can only be achieved by restoring his old memories.

The writing ranges from fair to good and the characters are engaging. The Basilisk Prince is evil, but not apocalyptically so; Cassandra, Max's protector and inevitable love interest, is charming enough to stand on her own as a protagonist; even characters who show up only briefly prove to be interesting. Max himself is sadly underdeveloped; he often seems more like a pawn being moved around than a prince (even one with amnesia) who can choose his own path. The plot is a bit convoluted (made more so by the fact that everybody except Max can magically travel great distances in a matter of minutes), but remains manageable even if it requires some time to untangle.

If there is a problem with the book, it is that although the setting clearly has had a lot of thought put into it, we don't ever really get a full glimpse of it. To name only a few examples: Most of the characters are highly concerned with social family-like units called fara'ip but what exactly a fara'ip IS never becomes clear. There seem to be a variety of magics at work from spell-like Chants to teleportation (called simply Movement) to promises magically binding, but we are neither shown how to differentiate between them nor do they receive much screentime. Everybody talks about which magical creature "guides" them (it's even part of how they introduce themselves) but we are never given any clear indication of how one's Guidebeast is identified if they're never seen... Arguably, keeping all of these details in the background makes them more magical and intriguing, but on the other hand it also makes the plot rather confusing at times.

I had to force myself to finish this. If I get it right, Max is a fae who has had his memory taken away and has been knocking around in our world for several centuries (think Highlander). Now it's time for him to go back to save the land with the help of his bodyguard. The trouble is, I just couldn't care. These characters are so shallow and the story moves so fast, that the reader doesn't get involved in the story. The characters are bland, the world is ill-defined and uninteresting, and my brain got tired of making all the author's leaps of logic.

Then there's the whole thing with names. I mentally flinched every time I read a name like Sword of Truth or Blood On The Snow. I half expected to meet Dances With Wolves and Too Many Bucks in this tortured narrative. Uninteresting characters with uninteresting names. Fitting. And who would ever trust someone who calls himself "The Basilisk Prince"? Please. And what's with the "Mirror" in the title? I must have missed that too.

If your literary taste runs to potato chips, you might be able to handle this. If you're looking for something with more substance in the same vein, check out Donaldson's Covenant Chronicles or Zelazny's Amber.

This book moves at a fairly quick pace, one of its major virtues. It also presents a creative and likeably systematic fantasy world while using very readable, very modern English.

This one has some flaws, however: there are many interactions and scenes that just AREN'T THERE, but should be. In short, the characters all have great potential to be deeply developed and dynamic, but are not always given enough time. For instance, the friendship between the three main male characters that dissolves into enmity/uncertainty later deserves more attention; developing this friendship (as it used to be) would have made its degeneration and change more meaningful to readers. The relationship between Cassandra and Max is a better tool for development, simply because it is continually fleshed out throughout the book.

The well-thought-out plot kept me reading (and the clear writing style helped). However, the characters, while showing great promise, did not deliver as they might have. This book was like jello--fun and easy to finish, but not very substantial. Still, I recommend it to anyone who wants to read the work of an author with a unique, likeably simple voice and sample an innovative fantasy world.

Max Ravenhill works as a professor of history and lives what he thinks is a normal life until Cassandra appears, rescuing him from the attack of a strange and deadly beast. She informs him that his many human lives have all been illusions, and that his true identity is that of Dawntreader, the Prince Guardian and protector of the Talismans that hold the key to their world.

He had been banished to Earth after losing a great war to the Basilisk Prince, an ambitious and ruthless ruler. Appointed to guard him were several wardens, one of whom was Cassandra. As the banishment draws to a close, strange things begin to happen and it becomes clear that the Basilisk Prince is after Max and the precious secret that he holds. It is up to Cassandra, with help from her sister and Max's cousin, to protect Max long enough for him to reconnect with his identity as Dawntreader, reclaim his authority as the Prince Guardian and face the Basilisk Prince one final time.

Their quest is filled with action, suspense and betrayal, as well as the usual fantasy characters of elves (or faerie), trolls, ogres, sprites and dragons. Each hero is conflicted from within, fighting their own internal battle in addition to the growing evil that threatens their world. The villains are equally intriguing, and also rather frightful. Perhaps none more so than the mysterious and vicious Hunt, a group of ravenous predators that obey the command of the Basilisk Prince and are motivated only by their deep thirst for blood. Eventually, the story culminates in an epic showdown that will have the reader turning pages in a flurry to reach the end.

This will no doubt be a hit for those who love the fantasy genre. But what separates it from the typical fantasy is the human factor from which the story begins, and the main character's struggle with his banishment and false identity in the Shadowlands (human world). This will add appeal and broaden the book's audience. It gets a thumbs up from this reader.

First of all, I'm not a fantasy reader. At all. In fact, I'm allergic to fantasy. When authors have characters like "Sir Gorf of the Elkar Dominion," I just shut down. No thank you.

The Mirror Prince, however, engaged me from beginning to end. Why? Because it began in the world I already know and understand, then gradually let the fantastical trickle in. By the time Violette takes you to the Realm of the Faerie, that world feels just as real to you as the one you live in because you're experiencing it through the eyes of someone with the same kinds of hopes, dreams, and fears as you.

Violette writes eloquent, yet 'no nonsense' prose. She spares not a word, each one propelling you gracefully through the tale.

So, if you like fantasy literature, read it; if not, still...read it. Violette has created something that's up to speed for the most seasoned fantasy enthusiasts, yet it's still accessible to the rest of us. And perhaps, The Mirror Prince will leave you wanting more. Hey, it did me.

Max is a professor, living his life and getting to a point where he is ok with who he is. His life seems fairly normal, until the moment he sees a beautiful woman across a crowded room and is drawn to her. Soon after, we find that his life is far from ordinary, as we learn that the beautiful woman is a martial arts expert calling herself Cassandra, and she is one of his wardens. As a warden, her task is to guard him during his time of banishment from The Lands of faerie, since he is without the power that we call "magic" while he is here in the "Shadowlands." He doesn't remember the woman, the love they have shared, or the many lifetimes he has lived as a human. When she tells him that he is a prince whose time of banishment is coming to an end, he doesn't really believe her. As he comes to accept the possibility that his past might have been more than he realizes, he struggles with what that means for him. Max doesn't want to lose his memories of who he is. It is all he knows and giving it up would be like voluntarily dying to walk into the unknown. Facing that fear is made worse when he learns that another prince has designs on all that is faerie, and the decision Max faces has consequences far beyond his own life or even that of his new-found friends.

Although the premise would lend itself to some very formulaic plot twists, the author manages to lead you along, only to veer to the side at the last minute. The characters are intriguing and well-developed. I recommend this book highly for those who enjoy high fantasy. Needless to say, I will be looking for more books by this author.

The ending of the novel does leave an opening for a possible sequel, and I join my vote to those who are wanting to read more of these characters and their world!