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A review by morgandhu
The King's Deryni by Katherine Kurtz
4.0
I fell in love with Kurtz's world of Gwynedd, and with her magical, endangered Deryni with her first book, Deryni Rising, the beginning of the chronicles of King Kelson's reign, published in 1970, and have followed her writing ever since, waiting patiently for each new volume in the Deryni series. And it has been such a long wait for this, The King's Deryni, the last volume of Kurtz' Childe Morgan trilogy - eight years, in fact. With this volume, Alaric Morgan, the half-Deryni Duke and loyal servant of the Kings of Gwynedd finally comes into his own, and Kurtz' work comes full circle. This concluding volunr to the Childe Morgan trilogy has brought the story almost back to where it started, with Alaric and all the key characters of Kelson's reign in place and Kelson's birth one of the last events of the novel.
While I truly enjoyed The King's Deryni because it brought me back to a beloved world, I must acknowledge that it may not suit everyone's taste. While there are definitely some dramatic moments and key events, highs and lows, it is a slow-moving book, full of everyday details and family life. Kurtz devotes considerable time to the minutiae of Alaric's progress as a page and then a squire, to his training both for knighthood and for his coming adult responsibilities as Duke of Corwyn and Earl of Lendour. We see him in the midst of his family - father, aunts, uncle, sisters and half-sisters, cousins, the most important if all being the young Duncan - and we meet both the friends and enemies of his youth. We follow him on travels around Gwynedd, to his own lands (which come to him through his mother's lineage), his father's family seat, his ducal uncle's holdings, and on various journeys both within Gwynedd and to foreign kingdoms as part of King Brion's entourage - and in so doing, we see elements of the political and religious situation both at home and abroad that he and the kings he will serve must navigate. It's a book rich in worldbuilding, scene-setting, and character development rather than action and complex plotting.
I'd love to see more of Gwynedd. There's still much to be explored about Gwynedd during Alaric's time - the shadowy Council of Deryni who watch Alaric closely, the mysterious knight of the Anvil who serves as Alaric's teacher, the events that lie between the birth of Kelson and the death of his father King Brion - and the future of Gwynedd still to come. And there is still a gap between the early post-interregnum books and the beginning of Alaric's story. I have heard that Kurtz has plans to write more about her Deryni - time will tell what comes next.
While I truly enjoyed The King's Deryni because it brought me back to a beloved world, I must acknowledge that it may not suit everyone's taste. While there are definitely some dramatic moments and key events, highs and lows, it is a slow-moving book, full of everyday details and family life. Kurtz devotes considerable time to the minutiae of Alaric's progress as a page and then a squire, to his training both for knighthood and for his coming adult responsibilities as Duke of Corwyn and Earl of Lendour. We see him in the midst of his family - father, aunts, uncle, sisters and half-sisters, cousins, the most important if all being the young Duncan - and we meet both the friends and enemies of his youth. We follow him on travels around Gwynedd, to his own lands (which come to him through his mother's lineage), his father's family seat, his ducal uncle's holdings, and on various journeys both within Gwynedd and to foreign kingdoms as part of King Brion's entourage - and in so doing, we see elements of the political and religious situation both at home and abroad that he and the kings he will serve must navigate. It's a book rich in worldbuilding, scene-setting, and character development rather than action and complex plotting.
I'd love to see more of Gwynedd. There's still much to be explored about Gwynedd during Alaric's time - the shadowy Council of Deryni who watch Alaric closely, the mysterious knight of the Anvil who serves as Alaric's teacher, the events that lie between the birth of Kelson and the death of his father King Brion - and the future of Gwynedd still to come. And there is still a gap between the early post-interregnum books and the beginning of Alaric's story. I have heard that Kurtz has plans to write more about her Deryni - time will tell what comes next.