Cons: When I read books really fast I don't remember them as well.
The Bottom Line: Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy is the only series I've ever given straight five-star ratings. The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone is looking to match that record.
panguitch's Full Review: Greg Keyes - The Blood Knight: Book Three of the K...
The Blood Knight is the third book in Greg Keyes's four-book series The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone. It is, quite simply, the best fantasy series I've read in the past five years. It is richly articulated, expansive, exciting, fearsome, and ambiguous. I thoroughly resent waiting eight months for him to finish the next and last volume, The Born Queen.
The Blood Knight begins shortly after The Charnel Prince ends. It's a small gap, but it's jarring because we share Anne's confusion as she drifts between disturbing visions and the realization she's been taken prisoner. She escapes through the dark power growing within her, unsure whether she is becoming a monster or the prophesied savior.
She rejoins her companions and they seek reinforcement from her aunt Elyoner. But it's never clear just who Anne can trust, even as she leads an army across Crotheny to challenge her uncle Robert for the throne.
Meanwhile, Anne's mother, Queen Muriele, is about to lose her last ally to Robert's vicious humors, and in a bizarre twist Robert brings Leoff, the court composer, out of the torture chambers and forces him to begin a new work. The Holter Aspar White and Steven the one-time monk are once again racing through the King's Forest, this time chasing and being chased by a woorm which will lead them through revelations and mysteries to meet an old enemy.
We don't wait a lifetime for a perfect kiss from the perfect person, because then we die alone.
Keyes's characters continue to entertain with their contrasting personalities and complex motivations. In The Blood Knight romance takes a step forward in the midst of all the action. Cazio makes his choice between Anne and her maid Austra, Steven admits to his jealousy over Winna, with whom Aspar is having his usual difficulties, and even Leoff gets some. Thankfully, Keyes rarely portrays these relationships simplistically, and just when it seems he's given one of his characters a free pass he reveals the complications and hurt that invariably accompany love and sex.
In contrast to these affairs looms the increasingly pessimistic mood. The heroes each struggle, never knowing exactly if they're doing the right thing, and the knowledge they gain after each victory makes it feel like a defeat. Faith and hope is stripped from them, leaving desperation for some, and naked courage for those like Neil, who volunteers for the certain death of leading a charge: "Just get me a few spears and a broadsword that won't break at the first swing. Then find me some men who love death, and I'll give you Thornrath."
When a turtle takes a breath in a pond, you only see the tip of his nose.
As the characters are stripped to their barest souls the reader is left grasping for anything that will give them hope. But we are just as lost ourselves. Unlike the standard quest fantasy, where the objective is laid out early on (e.g. the Ring must be carried to Mordor and destroyed), we're now three-fourths of the way through The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone and we're still not sure what has to happen for the good guys to win, who might help or betray them, or even if they're the good guys to begin with.
Keyes's makes significant revelations in The Blood Knight, but the catharsis of understanding is quickly replaced by further unease as he redefines this new knowledge, twisting it into doubts and mysteries. This frustration is alleviated by the character developments and by the sense that things are indeed progressing, like a roller coaster in the dark, toward an unseen objective.
That this confusion increases our excitement instead of damping our interest is a good indication of how well Keyes has succeeded in engaging us with a deeply realized world, complexly sympathetic characters, and superb storytelling. With so many mysteries awaiting resolution the question is whether the final book will satisfy our pent-up expectations.
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