Fallon, Jennifer. The Immortal Prince.The first in the Tide Lord Quartet, this fantasy novel has an interesting premise concerning the Tide Lords, whose magic waxes and wanes in cycles. At low Tide, they have almost no power, but since they are immortal, they simply wait for the Tide to turn. Unfortunately, the Tide Lords have much in common with the Greek gods-- they are arrogant, petty, jealous, frequently bored, and have a tendency to destroy countries and people when they are in power.
It is still low Tide when the book opens, and Arkady Desean, Duchess of Lebec, has been asked to interrogate a prisoner who survived being hanged. He claims to be a Tide Lord, but Arkady and the Duke believe him to be a spy. Kyle Lekesh is, however, not only a Tide Lord, but Cayal, the Immortal Prince.
Duke Stellan, Arkady, and Declan Hawkes, the King's Spymaster, all have secrets that add interesting twists to the narrative; their relationships are complicated by all of these secrets. Cayal, the Immortal Prince, is less complicated, he has simply grown tired of immortality and wants to die.
The story moves back and forth in time as Cayal tells Arkady about how he became a Tide Lord; his story does not completely correspond with the myths of the present day population. Cayal corrects misconceptions and explains events from his viewpoint in his attempts to convince Arkady that he is not insane.
I enjoyed this novel, but the Crasii disturbed me. Created by the Tide Lords, the Crasii are human/animal hybrids bred to be completely subservient to their Tide Lord masters.
Fiction. Fantasy. 2007. 512 pages.
This sounds like something I might like. I have another Fallon book, but I don't believe it's a part of this series.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Fallon is an author I have been meaning to read for a while. I have another of her trilogies but I haven't got around to it. This book looks good, though, so I have added it to my TBR pile!
ReplyDeleteLF - I liked it well enough to want to continue the trilogy...which is not always the case!
ReplyDeleteKailana - I'll be looking for your review of the Fallon book you have. Her other trilogies sound good, too!
This definitely does sound interesting. It is easy to imagine becoming tired of immortality. The end comment you made reminds me a little of The Island of Dr Moreau which is a very creepy book.
ReplyDeleteRhinoa - Not written in the same creepy way, but still...something disturbing about the god complex that allows that kind of callous creation.
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