fyvel's Full Review: J. V. Jones - Master and Fool
Master and Fool is the third and final book in the Book of Words trilogy by J.V. Jones.
This book continues the story started in The Baker's Boy and A Man Betrayed.
Warning: the following review may contain spoilers (especially pertaining to events that occurred in the previous two books).
Toward the end of A Man Betrayed, the assassin Traff managed to make his way into the duke's rooms, lying in wait for the duke and Melli to return after their wedding. He succeeding in killing the duke by taking by surprise, but Tawl, the Knight of Valdis, sworn to protect the duke's wife and heirs, showed up in time to save Melli. Fleeing accusations that Tawl murdered the duke (set up by none other than Baralis, of course), Tawl and Melli go into hiding in a small house in the city. There, Melli realizes she is carrying the duke's heir, and that this baby is the only way to defeat Kylock's hold on the city of Bren.
Kylock's marriage to Catherine, the duke's daughter goes trough, but certainly not as planned. For on their wedding night, Kylock is seized by a fit of rage and murders Catherine. This death is also made to look like it was caused by Tawl.
Meanwhile, Jack is residing in a small cottage owned by a man named Stillfox. Stillfox is unsuccessfully trying to teach Jack how to control and use his sorcery. But Jack is impatient, he is desperate to get to Bren and confront Kylock, so he leaves Stllfox and his potential knowledge behind.
While in Bren, Jack meets up with Tawl. Together, they decide that their best course of action is to travel to Larn, the island of the seers, so Jack can destroy it as prophesied. Soon after they leave, Melli is captured by Baralis and Kylock, and is locked deep within the palace for safekeeping. Kylock does not want Melli's child, the duke's heir, to take his place as the ruler of Bren. In his madness, Kylock feels that Melli can redeem him, but not until after her child has been born and destroyed. So he waits, often visiting Melli, and Melli is forced to endure his ravings and abuse for many months.
Tawl and Jack, hearing of Melli's capture on their way toward Larn, make the decision to go to her rescue, but not until after the business with Larn has been completed.
Throughout the story, Tawl struggles with his oaths, both to the knighthood, and to the duke of Bren. He relives his failures, and regrets his defeats. He must come to terms with the corruption of the knighthood and try to save it, but first he must save himself.
Jack tries to come to terms with knowing that it is him that the prophecy speaks of, and the betrayal of Rovas and Tarissa. The questions surrounding his birth and life still eat away at his soul, begging for answers. But as the prophecy says, only the fool knows the truth.
I see character building as one of J.V. Jones' strong points. She does an excellent job of making their struggles seem real and their adversity valid. Her strongest character, in my opinion, is Tawl. Throughout his life he goes through so much grief, and is the victim of so many lies, that I couldn't help but feel for him.
Jack, who is supposedly the main character doesn't have as much history built up around him. After all, he was nothing but a baker's boy before this whole ordeal started, and most of his wounds are new.
Melliandra (Melli) has her own set of problems to deal with. She goes through her pregnancy essentially alone. She is regularly abused by Kylock, but she takes it all in stride. She is obviously the token strong female character of the story (who could expect less from a female author?).
One thing that really irritates me is problems with continuity... when something changes, even if it is a relatively small detail. At one point there is a man with a bad leg. On one page his left leg is the bad one, on the next page it is his right one. There was also an incident where I think a similar thing happened in A Man Betrayed when Jack is wounded: I could have swore the wound switched sides, but when I went back to try and find the original reference to it, I couldn't find it. Little things like that irritate me, it shows that both the author and the editor weren't paying close enough attention.
The ending is satisfactory enough, and as expected it is a happy one - almost too happy, but I am not going to complain about that! As far as I can recall, all loose endings are tied up quite nicely (almost too nicely?).
All in all, the Book of Words trilogy is a decent fantasy trilogy. The story carried quite nicely and everything fits together in the end, which is more than can be said about many books out there.
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