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satwood01's review
5.0
A fun, engaging fantasy adventure that was a very nice change of pace, having read several grim-darkish books recently. This is the third Dave Duncan book that I've read, and I am finding his tales to be warm, rich, wonderfully written stories - fantasy comfort food, if you will. I've also discovered that his magic systems, while not overly complex, are creative, interesting, easy to accept, and grow and expand as the story progresses. By now you already know the premise -The princess and the stableboy, but you probably also know that it's more than that. Much more. The novel is a bit old-school, so the style, feel, and pacing may not appeal to everyone, but I enjoyed it a lot, and plan on beginning book two in about five minutes.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
hollydoesstuff's review against another edition
4.0
What the heck! This ended very abruptly. Luckily Book 2 is already out so I'm jumping right in.
charlibirb's review against another edition
4.0
Really fun world. Review of the 4 book series at the end.
impreader2023's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
hasf1998's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Intriguing fantasy world with a lot of moving parts, cliffhanger so good that I need to continue the series
namulith's review against another edition
3.0
After 20 years my memories are rather fuzzy and for the rest of the I might have thrown in some other books. So I expect this re-read to still hold some surprises.
This first installment, as many others have noted, starts off very slow, but ends at quite a pace. I enjoyed it about as much as I remember from the mid-90s. Good, somewhat epic, fantasy. On to the next one!
This first installment, as many others have noted, starts off very slow, but ends at quite a pace. I enjoyed it about as much as I remember from the mid-90s. Good, somewhat epic, fantasy. On to the next one!
masn's review against another edition
4.0
I'll give this one the benefit of the doubt based on the ending and bump it up to 4 stars. The big reveal on one of the characters was pretty good, and the cliffhanger is proving to be enticing for the rest of the series. The rest of the book was just kind of "ok".
joabroda's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
4.0
A book that has been buried on my TBR for years. I picked it up at a library sale. Each time I have reached for it the cover (so hokey-lol) has discouraged me. I suppose this is one of those times when you truly should not judge a book by the cover.
Dave Duncan takes us into the fantastic world of Pandamia. There are small Kingdoms laying in the shadow of a much larger one, One of the best things about this story , even though some characters look human, all of them come from either pure blood or mixed non-human Imp, Djinn, Trolls Elves, etc.
The plot of the story revolves around a dying King with no male heir. His decision to pass the kingdom to his daughter is not popular with some of the population. Not expecting to die so early in life, the King sends his daughter to the larger kingdom to learn the rules and etiquette of court and ruling a kingdom.
The characters and the magic system are all fantastic and I am so happy I finally got to this book. It was a quick fun read and I am also thrilled to have found book 2 in my stack.
Old time Fantasy readers will love this one.
Dave Duncan takes us into the fantastic world of Pandamia. There are small Kingdoms laying in the shadow of a much larger one, One of the best things about this story , even though some characters look human, all of them come from either pure blood or mixed non-human Imp, Djinn, Trolls Elves, etc.
The plot of the story revolves around a dying King with no male heir. His decision to pass the kingdom to his daughter is not popular with some of the population. Not expecting to die so early in life, the King sends his daughter to the larger kingdom to learn the rules and etiquette of court and ruling a kingdom.
The characters and the magic system are all fantastic and I am so happy I finally got to this book. It was a quick fun read and I am also thrilled to have found book 2 in my stack.
Old time Fantasy readers will love this one.
ashleylm's review against another edition
5.0
Entirely terrific.
I felt like I was reading a classic (in the best possible sense of the world) and am surprised this isn't better known--I chose it because it was on bestfantasybooks.com's list of under-appreciated books, and it sounded appealing, but I had no idea how much I would like this.
All the characters were interesting and well-developed (sadly, this happens all too rarely!), the rules for magic were very different and well-thought-out, the world building seemed strong and, joy of joys, parceled out as needed (rather than everything at once just because the author had gone to the trouble of creating it), the plot was exciting--I mean, it had it all.
And (I'm a delicate soul) it wasn't too grisly for me, so hurrah for that!
Reminded me in some ways of those marvelous sagas in the 19th century, like Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew, and in other ways like the rather breathless historical novels of the 1960s/70s (e.g. Jean Plaidy's Plantagenet sequence), rather than any particular fantasy novel I can think of--so that's a nice change. (I'm a bit bored of fantasy novels that are so very consistently in the vein of some particular progenitor or other).
So even though the raw elements do not seem like the freshest stuff imaginable (princess, sorceror, stable boy, etc.) the telling of the tale manages to be very new and very classic at the same time. It's a real treat.
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!)
I felt like I was reading a classic (in the best possible sense of the world) and am surprised this isn't better known--I chose it because it was on bestfantasybooks.com's list of under-appreciated books, and it sounded appealing, but I had no idea how much I would like this.
All the characters were interesting and well-developed (sadly, this happens all too rarely!), the rules for magic were very different and well-thought-out, the world building seemed strong and, joy of joys, parceled out as needed (rather than everything at once just because the author had gone to the trouble of creating it), the plot was exciting--I mean, it had it all.
And (I'm a delicate soul) it wasn't too grisly for me, so hurrah for that!
Reminded me in some ways of those marvelous sagas in the 19th century, like Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew, and in other ways like the rather breathless historical novels of the 1960s/70s (e.g. Jean Plaidy's Plantagenet sequence), rather than any particular fantasy novel I can think of--so that's a nice change. (I'm a bit bored of fantasy novels that are so very consistently in the vein of some particular progenitor or other).
So even though the raw elements do not seem like the freshest stuff imaginable (princess, sorceror, stable boy, etc.) the telling of the tale manages to be very new and very classic at the same time. It's a real treat.
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!)
jenybear's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5