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Seven Princes by John R. Fultz
The Blurb On The Back:
Seven princes
A sorcerer slaughters the King and his entire court in front of the disbelieving eyes of a young Prince D’zan. From that moment, D’zan is driven by one thought – the need to regain his father’s stolen throne.
Seven destinies
The lives of six foreign Princes are tied to D’zan’s fate, as he seeks allies for his cause. In a land where Men and Giants battle side by side against ancient monsters and chilling sorcery, only one thing is certain – war is coming. Kingdoms will clash and blood will run.
All will be legend
When the sorcerer Elhathym arrives at the court of King Trimesqua and demands that he give up his throne, no one takes him seriously, least of all 16-year-old Prince D’zan. But Trimesqua’s attempts to kill the sorcerer fail and Elhathym takes him revenge on the whole court – massacring all in the palace and seizing control of Yaskatha. Only D’zan escapes, helped by his bodyguard Olthacus the Stone. Together they look for sanctuary and support among the rulers of the other 6 kingdoms but few are willing to help until it becomes clear that Elhathym is not the only evil threatening the world and only an alliance of princes can stop it …
John R. Fultz’s debut fantasy novel (the first in a trilogy) is a traditional sword and sorcery tale with a wide cast of characters where the villains are cackling evil-doers and the heroes noble do-gooders. The plot unfurls at a reasonable pace but there are no twists and turns here – developments are all signposted well in advance and the characters are not particularly sophisticated and at times are somewhat two dimensional – particularly Fangodrel who has a simplistic character arc and D’zan who’s little more than an observer to events determined by others. I wasn’t particularly struck by the four female characters either – mainly because with the exception of the sorceress, Sharadza, they do not have a point of view about the events and are primarily there to support their men. There’s nothing inherently objectionable here, but there was nothing that really set my imagination on fire either and as such, I’m not going to rush to read the sequel.
The book is essentially an ensemble story with the plot split between D’zan’s attempts to build an alliance to take back his kingdom, Sharadza’s attempts to learn sorcery, Fangodrel’s descent into dark magic and Vireon’s budding relationship with the mysterious Alua and his forging of a new alliance between men and ice giants. I did enjoy the world building for the mixed kingdom of men and giants (which appears to have developed from a short story idea) and the background to Vireon’s family lineage but with so many characters here, it’s difficult to empathise with any of them and Fultz does descend to caricature at times to keep events moving – especially with the antagonists who leave no evil cliché unturned.
The Verdict:
John R. Fultz’s debut fantasy novel (the first in a trilogy) is a traditional sword and sorcery tale with a wide cast of characters where the villains are cackling evil-doers and the heroes noble do-gooders. The plot unfurls at a reasonable pace but there are no twists and turns here – developments are all signposted well in advance and the characters are not particularly sophisticated and at times are somewhat two dimensional – particularly Fangodrel who has a simplistic character arc and D’zan who’s little more than an observer to events determined by others. I wasn’t particularly struck by the four female characters either – mainly because with the exception of the sorceress, Sharadza, they do not have a point of view about the events and are primarily there to support their men. There’s nothing inherently objectionable here, but there was nothing that really set my imagination on fire either and as such, I’m not going to rush to read the sequel.
A sorcerer slaughters the King and his entire court in front of the disbelieving eyes of a young Prince D’zan. From that moment, D’zan is driven by one thought – the need to regain his father’s stolen throne.
The lives of six foreign Princes are tied to D’zan’s fate, as he seeks allies for his cause. In a land where Men and Giants battle side by side against ancient monsters and chilling sorcery, only one thing is certain – war is coming. Kingdoms will clash and blood will run.
When the sorcerer Elhathym arrives at the court of King Trimesqua and demands that he give up his throne, no one takes him seriously, least of all 16-year-old Prince D’zan. But Trimesqua’s attempts to kill the sorcerer fail and Elhathym takes him revenge on the whole court – massacring all in the palace and seizing control of Yaskatha. Only D’zan escapes, helped by his bodyguard Olthacus the Stone. Together they look for sanctuary and support among the rulers of the other 6 kingdoms but few are willing to help until it becomes clear that Elhathym is not the only evil threatening the world and only an alliance of princes can stop it …
John R. Fultz’s debut fantasy novel (the first in a trilogy) is a traditional sword and sorcery tale with a wide cast of characters where the villains are cackling evil-doers and the heroes noble do-gooders. The plot unfurls at a reasonable pace but there are no twists and turns here – developments are all signposted well in advance and the characters are not particularly sophisticated and at times are somewhat two dimensional – particularly Fangodrel who has a simplistic character arc and D’zan who’s little more than an observer to events determined by others. I wasn’t particularly struck by the four female characters either – mainly because with the exception of the sorceress, Sharadza, they do not have a point of view about the events and are primarily there to support their men. There’s nothing inherently objectionable here, but there was nothing that really set my imagination on fire either and as such, I’m not going to rush to read the sequel.
The book is essentially an ensemble story with the plot split between D’zan’s attempts to build an alliance to take back his kingdom, Sharadza’s attempts to learn sorcery, Fangodrel’s descent into dark magic and Vireon’s budding relationship with the mysterious Alua and his forging of a new alliance between men and ice giants. I did enjoy the world building for the mixed kingdom of men and giants (which appears to have developed from a short story idea) and the background to Vireon’s family lineage but with so many characters here, it’s difficult to empathise with any of them and Fultz does descend to caricature at times to keep events moving – especially with the antagonists who leave no evil cliché unturned.
The Verdict:
John R. Fultz’s debut fantasy novel (the first in a trilogy) is a traditional sword and sorcery tale with a wide cast of characters where the villains are cackling evil-doers and the heroes noble do-gooders. The plot unfurls at a reasonable pace but there are no twists and turns here – developments are all signposted well in advance and the characters are not particularly sophisticated and at times are somewhat two dimensional – particularly Fangodrel who has a simplistic character arc and D’zan who’s little more than an observer to events determined by others. I wasn’t particularly struck by the four female characters either – mainly because with the exception of the sorceress, Sharadza, they do not have a point of view about the events and are primarily there to support their men. There’s nothing inherently objectionable here, but there was nothing that really set my imagination on fire either and as such, I’m not going to rush to read the sequel.