Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this book when i was younger, and wanted to reread it as i never finished the series. I always thought it was more a middle grade book (like percy jackson) instead of YA, and i feel like that category fits better. Yes there is death and violence, but the 14 year old prince Jaron is definitely young. While i found him hnlikeable or annoying at times, i think that worked because 14 year olds CAN be selfish, or do things without thinking. I didnt enjoy the random “or this vial? that i stole from your bedroom? the vial of poison?” coming out as proof felt last minute and not thought through as we never saw him search for it, just that he roamed the grounds at night. it felt like the author made him roam at night just as a cover for whatever scheme she felt like building later on. it wasn’t thought through beforehand, just a built in loophole. It was also weird having a random couple chapters just telling us the full history and backstory. Was definitely disjointed, or more info-dumpy like you would see in Middle grade books. According to google it IS a middle grade book so storybooks has it wrong, which does validate my feeligns on it a bit hence the higher rating
A very fun book with a great first person narrator. I suspected there would be a twist at the end, but I was surprised at how it was handled. And now I want to reread it and look for clues. Recommended, especially for young teen boys and kids who may be too young for Game of Thrones. Oh, I also liked how real the stakes were - there was a real threat if death looming all the time, unlike in other recent fantasy-contest books like Throne of Glass or The Selection. The opening put you in the mindset of Battle Royale, in a good way.
DNF. Despite a great, fast-paced start that felt like the opening scenes to a movie, this slowed way down with pedantic, straightforward writing that explained what was going to happen before it happened and spelled out everything until there was nothing left to wonder about. Got bored. Ain't nobody got time for that.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read these books a while ago, when they first came out. But I know that they were great reads, since there once was a time I knew what happened on what page. I reread it something like 4 times?? Anyway, definitely recommend.
UPDATED:
Recently re-read this again after rediscovering it on my shelf, and I have to admit, even knowing what happens, I was on the edge of my seat at every short chapter. I forgot how important this was to me a kid and it’s still an important read for me now, highly recommend, it still held attention and my interest as an adult.
UPDATED:
Recently re-read this again after rediscovering it on my shelf, and I have to admit, even knowing what happens, I was on the edge of my seat at every short chapter. I forgot how important this was to me a kid and it’s still an important read for me now, highly recommend, it still held attention and my interest as an adult.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Basically just like The Thief? Hence, that plot twist was the least surprising of all plot twists. Despite that and some other clumsiness, I was engaged and interested. I liked the ending. I'd be happy to read the sequel.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
First Line: “If I had to do it all over again, I would not have chosen this life. Then again, I’m not sure I ever had a choice.”
Cover Story: Lessons in Perspective
Meh. The crown features in the story, but this is still a pretty boring and abstract cover, and the color shading on the crown messes with my depth perception. It doesn’t look quite right. Is it floating? Is it resting on something? Where is the light coming from?
Style & Substance:
There are some books that are always going to appeal to me, as long as they are moderately well executed. For example, if you have the misfortune of giving me a historical fiction novel about, say, a spunkier-than-thou girl living on a prairie, or a boy and his horse going to war, or a realistic fiction novel about mean girls backstabbing each other, it had better be damn good to overcome all the negative preconceptions I’m going to bring to it. But a fantasy novel about a vulnerable but smart aleck thief getting one over on the powerful people who “hire” him to do their corrupt bidding? Automatically starts out with a +10. Add in an unreliable narrator (however unsteady the attempt) with a hidden past, some clever plot twists (however telegraphed), and amp up the intrigue and corruption, and I’m golden.
Minor Spoilers Ahead For Non-Specific Discussion of Plot Twists
I’m explaining this because I don’t think this novel entirely succeeds in what it’s trying to do, but I enjoyed it so much anyway, and I can so easily see ways that it will charm and excite kids, that I can’t hate on it. As everyone else I know on GR has said, and with which I agree, it’s impossible to read this without comparing it unfavorably to MWT’s The Thief. But there are a lot of middle-grade kids that haven’t read The Thief, and for whom it might be too subtle or slow or confusing (I’ve met a couple) and they might really enjoy The False Prince because it is an easier, more obvious, more action-based version of a great comparable story. The False Prince has a fascinating premise, and though I think in more capable hands it could have been better, a lot of kids are going to have their minds blown. I can’t think of a lot of middle-grade books that use unreliable narrators like this, and how many of us fully understood or could see through an unreliable narrator when we were eight or ten years old anyway? (For the record, I still remember my mind being blown by The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when I was in junior high.)
Some of Nielsen’s technique is clumsy. It’s tough to write about a secretive character, and tougher to write it from the first person perspective; as Catie wrote in her excellent review, she pulls a lot of cheap tricks to keep her first-person narrator from divulging his secrets to the readers. (They’re cheap tricks not because they are tricks – there really is no way to tell a story like this without tricking the reader – but because it’s too easy to see the tricks for what they are. Obvious tells, so to speak.) MWT utilizes some of these tricks in The Thief, too, especially the “narrator does secret things that he doesn’t mention to the reader even though he is narrating while doing the secret things” technique,. She does them better, with more subtlety, but she does do them.
I don’t know that kids will see through these tricks right away. Sage frequently avoids direct questions with a seemingly adequate answer that, later, is seen to be deliberately evasive without being a lie. The first time he’s asked if he can read, for example, he changes the subject; the second time, he says “If you can give me anything worth reading, I’ll make my way through it” but only after he strongly implies that he is uneducated. After re-reading parts of this book, I noticed other instances where Sage is cagey or noncommittal, both with his dialogue with other characters and in terms of keeping things from the readers in his narrative, that I had missed before, especially in terms of how he talks about his family.
The biggest problem with this book is while it’s frequently clever with the little details, the overall story is pretty standard. The world-building is undeveloped – there’s hardly a sense of the kingdom the book takes place in, much less the neighboring countries – and the political tensions between the kingdoms is glossed over with a vague threat of war. The villain of the piece is who you’d expect and lacks complexity. Tobias and Rodan are pretty much foils for Sage, though I liked how their personality reversed from how they appeared originally. Imogen is mostly boring, there to make Sage look sympathetic when he might start to appear jerky. I’m hoping the world itself and the characters other than Sage become more developed in the next book.
Finally, I really, really hate how Nielsen switched to third person in order to give us Sage’s official background story. The story of how he ended up in the orphanage is compelling enough on its own and gives Sage’s distant narrative a needed emotional core, but I would have liked to see hints of it integrated better, without just dumping it in the middle of the book like that. It could have been so much more powerful a reveal.
Character Arcade:
Sometimes one character carries a story, and here it is Sage. I’m a sucker for the devious but honorable rogue with a smart mouth, full of schemes and dreams and equal parts ruthless and compassionate. I like how he is haunted by his past, his misunderstanding of his family, the death of a character, and I like how he is torn between his desires to become who is really is by participating in Conner’s dubious scheme or running away and staying “free”, but letting the kingdom suffer. He really is Eugenidies-lite, but Eugenidies-lite is still better than a world of other characters, and truthfully, thieves in fantasy novels do already follow a mold.
Vicarious Smoochies:
Nothing to see here, move along.
Random Asides:
You’ll Get Yours, Henry Higgins
Conner has only two weeks to whip three poor, dirty orphans into a convincing-enough semblance of royalty to fool an entire kingdom. His methods are more violent and his plot more insidious (Henry Higgins never locked Eliza in a dungeon!), but Conner’s mix of manipulation, coercion, education, and threats is pure Henry Higgins. And he does get his, just you wait.
Read-Alikess:
For older readers, at least junior high level, The Thief, obviously, and then the sequels. For even older readers, Incarceron and Sapphique deal with an orphan (in this case, a wrongly imprisoned one) who may or may not be a long-lost prince and his troublesome adjustments to royal life.
First Line: “If I had to do it all over again, I would not have chosen this life. Then again, I’m not sure I ever had a choice.”
Cover Story: Lessons in Perspective
Meh. The crown features in the story, but this is still a pretty boring and abstract cover, and the color shading on the crown messes with my depth perception. It doesn’t look quite right. Is it floating? Is it resting on something? Where is the light coming from?
Style & Substance:
There are some books that are always going to appeal to me, as long as they are moderately well executed. For example, if you have the misfortune of giving me a historical fiction novel about, say, a spunkier-than-thou girl living on a prairie, or a boy and his horse going to war, or a realistic fiction novel about mean girls backstabbing each other, it had better be damn good to overcome all the negative preconceptions I’m going to bring to it. But a fantasy novel about a vulnerable but smart aleck thief getting one over on the powerful people who “hire” him to do their corrupt bidding? Automatically starts out with a +10. Add in an unreliable narrator (however unsteady the attempt) with a hidden past, some clever plot twists (however telegraphed), and amp up the intrigue and corruption, and I’m golden.
Spoiler
(In case you are wondering, other general golden subjects include assassins, supervillains, curses, fairy tales, puppets and creepy dolls that come alive, necromancers, ghosts, queers, demons, antiheroes, detectives and private investigators, groups of paranormal people banding together to do stuff with clever acronyms, librarians, and cats.)Minor Spoilers Ahead For Non-Specific Discussion of Plot Twists
I’m explaining this because I don’t think this novel entirely succeeds in what it’s trying to do, but I enjoyed it so much anyway, and I can so easily see ways that it will charm and excite kids, that I can’t hate on it. As everyone else I know on GR has said, and with which I agree, it’s impossible to read this without comparing it unfavorably to MWT’s The Thief. But there are a lot of middle-grade kids that haven’t read The Thief, and for whom it might be too subtle or slow or confusing (I’ve met a couple) and they might really enjoy The False Prince because it is an easier, more obvious, more action-based version of a great comparable story. The False Prince has a fascinating premise, and though I think in more capable hands it could have been better, a lot of kids are going to have their minds blown. I can’t think of a lot of middle-grade books that use unreliable narrators like this, and how many of us fully understood or could see through an unreliable narrator when we were eight or ten years old anyway? (For the record, I still remember my mind being blown by The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when I was in junior high.)
Some of Nielsen’s technique is clumsy. It’s tough to write about a secretive character, and tougher to write it from the first person perspective; as Catie wrote in her excellent review, she pulls a lot of cheap tricks to keep her first-person narrator from divulging his secrets to the readers. (They’re cheap tricks not because they are tricks – there really is no way to tell a story like this without tricking the reader – but because it’s too easy to see the tricks for what they are. Obvious tells, so to speak.) MWT utilizes some of these tricks in The Thief, too, especially the “narrator does secret things that he doesn’t mention to the reader even though he is narrating while doing the secret things” technique,
Spoiler
like when Gen first steals the stone from the Magus during the attack and deliberately does not mention it, just mentioning that his horse brushed the Magus’ brieflyI don’t know that kids will see through these tricks right away. Sage frequently avoids direct questions with a seemingly adequate answer that, later, is seen to be deliberately evasive without being a lie. The first time he’s asked if he can read, for example, he changes the subject; the second time, he says “If you can give me anything worth reading, I’ll make my way through it” but only after he strongly implies that he is uneducated. After re-reading parts of this book, I noticed other instances where Sage is cagey or noncommittal, both with his dialogue with other characters and in terms of keeping things from the readers in his narrative, that I had missed before, especially in terms of how he talks about his family.
Spoiler
Sage is a real prince pretending to be an orphan pretending to be a prince, and the layers within layers are done well enough to be effective, especially once the truth comes out and Sage can speak frankly.The biggest problem with this book is while it’s frequently clever with the little details, the overall story is pretty standard. The world-building is undeveloped – there’s hardly a sense of the kingdom the book takes place in, much less the neighboring countries – and the political tensions between the kingdoms is glossed over with a vague threat of war. The villain of the piece is who you’d expect and lacks complexity.
Spoiler
I was really hoping Conner would turn out to not be the person who murdered the royal family. I think it would have been much more interesting if he’d not been so unrepentantly evil at the end.Finally, I really, really hate how Nielsen switched to third person in order to give us Sage’s official background story. The story of how he ended up in the orphanage is compelling enough on its own and gives Sage’s distant narrative a needed emotional core, but I would have liked to see hints of it integrated better, without just dumping it in the middle of the book like that. It could have been so much more powerful a reveal
Spoiler
, though I did like the reveal of the purpose of the imitation gold stone at the endCharacter Arcade:
Sometimes one character carries a story, and here it is Sage. I’m a sucker for the devious but honorable rogue with a smart mouth, full of schemes and dreams and equal parts ruthless and compassionate. I like how he is haunted by his past, his misunderstanding of his family, the death of a character, and I like how he is torn between his desires to become who is really is by participating in Conner’s dubious scheme or running away and staying “free”, but letting the kingdom suffer. He really is Eugenidies-lite, but Eugenidies-lite is still better than a world of other characters, and truthfully, thieves in fantasy novels do already follow a mold.
Vicarious Smoochies:
Nothing to see here, move along.
Random Asides:
You’ll Get Yours, Henry Higgins
Conner has only two weeks to whip three poor, dirty orphans into a convincing-enough semblance of royalty to fool an entire kingdom. His methods are more violent and his plot more insidious (Henry Higgins never locked Eliza in a dungeon!), but Conner’s mix of manipulation, coercion, education, and threats is pure Henry Higgins. And he does get his, just you wait.
Read-Alikess:
For older readers, at least junior high level, The Thief, obviously, and then the sequels. For even older readers, Incarceron and Sapphique deal with an orphan (in this case, a wrongly imprisoned one) who may or may not be a long-lost prince and his troublesome adjustments to royal life.
Loved this one! Very entertaining! I'll miss the characters!