Jennifer A. Nielsen
has done it again! The Runaway King delivers all the excitement and thrills of its
best-selling predecessor, The False Prince.
[Warning:
this review contains some spoilers for Book 1.]
Things are not going
smoothly for the newly crowned King Jaron.
The neighboring kingdom of Avenia continues to make demands and
threatens Carthya’s borders. The Avenian pirates, aided by an old friend, are
still determined to kill Jaron after their failed attempt four years earlier. Jaron’s own regents are considering replacing him with a steward until he
comes of age -- and there might be another traitor within their ranks. When Jaron discovers that Avenia
and the pirates may join forces to wage war on Carthya, it appears his
only option is to find a way to neutralize the pirate threat… personally.
What I loved: Sage is back, as clever, secretive, stubborn, and
proud as ever. This time, however, the
traits that kept him alive as a prince-in-hiding are likely get him killed –
and possibly others as well. Imogen
plays a large role in this book, and we see Mott, Amarinda, Tobias, and even
Roden again as well. We also meet some
new characters, some likable, some decidedly not.
The plot of The Runaway King is every bit as convoluted and suspenseful as The False Prince, and the pace rarely
falters; it kept me on the edge of my seat.
Jaron/Sage’s narrative voice is perfect, and because I’d read the first
book, I continually wondered what he
wasn’t telling me. Watching him needlessly
alienate some of his friends for their own good was painful, but it fits his
character perfectly. So does the
rashness which nearly leads to disaster for both Jaron and Carthya – a closer
brush with failure and death than in the last book. Jaron’s relationship with both Imogen and
Amarinda also develops in this book, in expected and unexpected ways.
What didn’t quite work: There
comes a point at which a character makes an almost 180-degree turn. Nielsen gave several hints that this was a
possibility, and I was able to believe it of the character himself. However, it happens in a context involving a
number of other players, and I found it hard to believe that they would accept
this turn of events as easily as they did.
It didn’t spoil the book for me, but it left me a little
off-balance. It will be interesting to
see whether the status quo vis-à-vis those other characters still holds in the third
book. Jaron also makes a choice
regarding a traitor’s punishment that I felt uncomfortable with; I thought it
was both a little too ruthless and a little too indifferent (an odd combination,
I know) to quite fit with his personality.
Conclusion: I loved The
Runaway King! I tore through it in a
few hours and was sorry when I reached the end. The issues I mentioned above barely
dented my overall enjoyment, and I can hardly wait until the third book to come out (probably sometime in 2014.) Fans of The False Prince will not be disappointed: The Runaway King will pull you in and keep you reading late into
the night.
* * *
Rating: 4 ½ stars
Recommended if you like: The False
Prince (Nielsen); Megan Whalen Turner’s
The Queen’s Thief series
Category:
MG/YA fantasy
Series:
Ascendance Trilogy #2
Publisher:
Scholastic (March 1, 2013, but Amazon already has it in stock)
Book
Source: publisher’s review copy
receive through NetGalley
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love to hear what you have to say -- really! Unfortunately, I've been getting a lot of spam in addition to your wonderful comments, so I've had to turn on comment moderation. That means your comment may not post right away. I promise I'll post it -- and answer it -- as soon as I can!