In the King's Service (Hardcover)

by Katherine Kurtz (Author) "FAR from where the Camberian Council sat in secret session, crafting their careful, deliberate plans for the future of their race, the wife of one..." (more)
Key Phrases: next duke, future duke, Sir Kenneth, Father Paschal, Duke Richard (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this exquisitely detailed Deryni fantasy, her first since King Kelson's Bride (2000), veteran Kurtz lays out the history of the Deryni before the time of King Kelson, focusing on the characters whose heirs will become important players in the Kingdom of Gwynedd, modeled on medieval Wales. Donal Haldane, the king who appears fair and just, has hidden agendas and sometimes uses his power to insure his own dynastic needs regardless of other's feelings. Lady Alyce de Corwyn, the daughter of one of the last Deryni gentry, must master the art of court intrigue. Lady Jessamy, a co-conspirator with the king, helps fulfill his wish for a protector for his son. The Camberian Council-the group of secretive Deryni who rule over their magical brethren-instigate their own secret plans regarding both Deryni and humans. Everyone follows paths strewn with danger, difficulties, misjudgments-and the agonizing possibility of death. Despite a somewhat static plot, the scenes of daily life at court, plus the usual church versus magic conflict, will keep fans turning the pages.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In her first Deryni novel since King Kelson's Bride (2000), Kurtz reverts to the time of Kelson's grandfather, King Donal Haldane, who was of necessity a ruthless lord. Donal's mother was the Mearan princess whose marriage led to periodic uprisings that weren't settled until Kelson's day. Donal wasn't at open war with Torenth, but Gwynned suffered periodic raids. Donal's first marriage was childless. His second was anything but, yet he knew he might not survive to see his successor's maturity. Despite the hostility of the church toward Deryni, King Donal needed trusted men and women of that magical race to protect his kingdom and his heirs. In relating all this ancient history, the book also shows the workings of the Camberian Counsel of an earlier era, revealing to faithful Deryni readers as well as newcomers the reasons the counsel is so hostile toward Alaric Morgan. A vital continuation of the saga. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover; 1 edition (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441010601
• ISBN-13: 978-0441010608
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,145 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not among her best but still pretty strong, January 7, 2004

By	B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In the King's Service is the beginning of a new trilogy which details the recent history of the kingdoms that led to the events of her original series focusing on King Kelson, Alaric, et. al. (beginning with Deryni Rising). Though I suppose it could be read independently, I certainly wouldn't recommend it and advise people new to this world to start with her first trilogy (or possibly go chronologically starting with Camber series depending on taste). For most of us long-time readers of Ms. Kurtz's series, this begins to fill in one of the more interesting gaps in its timeline. While we see a few minor familiar characters, the ones we are probably most desirious of seeing (Alaric, Duncan, Kelson) don't yet appear in this work, which is a generation earlier. Well, one does but as a baby and not until the very end and since his dialogue would pretty much be "uurp" and "bbbllhttt", it doesn't really count. Kelson's father appears as a young child and one looks forward to seeing how his relationship with Morgan evolves over the trilogy's action.
King's Service doesn't reach the higher levels of the Deryni works, an admittedly quite high standard, but it doesn't fall far below. Probably the biggest reason for its falling short is its time setting and structure. Unlike many of her other novels, which focused in sharp, vivid detail on a lot of characters over a relatively brief period of time; King's Service keeps the plethora of characters but stretches out the events over years and years. Unfortunately this lessens the overall emotional impact of many of the scenes as we quickly move on to more action, sometimes months or years later. It is also difficult to really get to know most of the characters because we move so freely and widely in time and space and number of characters. Some of them have potential were they to be carried into the next book, but as many readers will know, Ms. Kurtz is not leery of killing off major characters and she does so several times here, though she does tuck a few away for safekeeping until the next book.
Alyce Corwyn, who will be Morgan's mother (as fans will know so nothing given away here), stands out as the strongest and most vividly realized character, though still not in the vein of earlier Deryni inhabitants; her appearance in the next book may raise her to that level however.
Other characters remain a bit shadowy and tenuous. One character in particular stands out as a bit two-dimensional, seemingly brought on stage only for a needed major plot point, making her appearance and actions seem a bit forced. King Donal is portrayed as a man torn between his desire for justice and right and his desire to protect his kingdom and especially his heir. Here again, the characterization falls a bit shallow; it would have been nice to have seen his torment more often and more fully. As it is presented, it reads a bit hollow since it occurs so quickly.
The various plot lines will seem familiar to fans: Mearan rebels, Torenthi incursions, church antipathy toward Deryni, a king trying to protect his lineage, various coming-of-age stories. Their familiarity bleeds them a bit of intensity, as does the fact that Kurtz is showing the earliest stages of many of these problems which lead to the full blow-up of most of them in Kelson's time. But if they pale somewhat in intensity and originality, they still retain the ability to compel interest and at times move the reader. I can't say I avidly and breathlessly turned every page, but I still wanted to and enjoyed reading it in a single setting. A few plot points felt forced and I have to say the closing scene involving Brion I found utterly implausible which coming at the end left a little of a bad taste. But she manages to mostly avoid the pitfall of many prequels--the sense you sometimes get that writer is simply working mechanically backward filling in the blanks to come. As always, she is a master of ritualistic detail, which some will revel in and others probably skim through.
The frequent, lengthy, and important delineation of bloodlines can get a bit overwhelming; the opening chapter is especially taxing in this regard but if you can fight your way through that discussion you'll do fine the rest of the way.
Mostly one gets the sense that this book is in fact more necessary prequel than a full-fledged Deryni novel. The sweep of years and characters has cleared the historical table so to speak and managed to put the reader at the point where Alyce, Morgan, Duncan, Brion, etc. will be able to take more full stage in the next book while setting the trendlines in place for the actions we know as fans are to come. In that regard, King's Service does its job and if it isn't a top tier Deryni novel, it has ambitions for being more than just serviceable exposition, ambitions that it mostly achieves. One of the ways it goes beyond simple exposition is the way she drops references to seemingly important people and groups and magic systems that are not at all familiar and that will clearly be explained in the next book. So rather than just give the reader comforting background information, she offers up tasty hints of things to come leaving the reader wanting more information. Recommended with a strong sense that book two will be much better and in that top level.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What Deryni Fans Have Been Waiting For, November 14, 2003

By	Steven Barnhart (Westminster, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Katherine Kurtz's latest forray into the world of the Deryni is sure to be well-received by her many fans. The book's action takes place some thirty years prior to the events of the series' first trilogy which began with Deryni Rising. It is a time when the gifted Deryni and their powers are still feared by the normal human inhabitants of the Gwynedd who have enacted both secular and ecclesiastical sanctions against them.

Even so, the ruthless King Donal Haldane sees value having those powers at his disposal and protects several well-born Deryni in his court. But little does he suspect just how many Deryni there really are in his court. Because while the king is manipulating everyone to his design, other groups such as the Camberian Council are doing some manipulating of their own.

For long-time fans of this series, the book is a welcome treat as we are introduced to many of the ancestors of favorite characters. Likewise the origins of some later plotlines are revealed. First-time readers, however, will have difficulty following the geneological lines which make up so much of the earlier chapters. All in all, though, a very welcome addition to the Deryni canon.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars There's not a lot of plot here, but i couldn't put it down, November 18, 2003

By	Joe Sherry (Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is the newest Deryni novel and is the first book in a proposed trilogy (The Childe Morgan trilogy). The Deryni novels have long been one of my favorite series, and I'm always eagerly awaiting a new Deryni novel. Despite what the book jacket suggests, this novel takes place during the era of King Kelson's grandfather King Donal. Kelson's father Brion is only a young child during this novel, and this is more than a hundred years after the Haldane Restoration of 917. This is one of the time periods that when I looked at the genealogy of the Haldanes, I wondered "what was happening then? Who is Donal?" We get an answer in this book.

There is a story here, but there is no true plot, if that makes any sense. We are given a fantastic look at Donal's court and we spend some time with the Camberian Council. Characters mention the Airsid, Orin, and Jodotha (three things I would love to have explored in detail), and there is even a brief mention of my favorite Haldane: Javan (from King Javan's Year). The main story of this novel, spanning several years, however, is that of Alyce de Corwyn and who will be the heir to the duchy of Corwyn. All the while, King Donal needs to have a magical protector for his son, Brion, and he will do anything to get one. To be honest, that's about it. There is plenty of action, several characters are killed off, and I did not want to put the book down, but there is still not a whole lot of plot in this novel. It is more like a series of scenes rather than a story that is truly leading somewhere.

Even so, I began to care for some of the characters. Alyce is a very sympathetic character and looks like she might be one of the stronger female characters since Evaine. There are several interesting supporting characters, but one of the most interesting characters in the novel is Donal himself. He is a conflicted character. On one hand he wants to do what is right for Gwynedd, his subjects, and his family. On the other hand, he is absolutely ruthless and is willing to do anything and everything to get his way (which he thinks is right and proper as King and that it is for the good of the realm). I wish that more time would have been spent dealing with the Camberian Council and I only hope that the next two novels will focus more on the Council. There are a lot of ways for this series to go and despite the lack of plot, I loved every minute of this book and I can't wait for the next one.