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Set in Sherwood Smith's fantasy world of Sartorias-deles, The Trouble With Kings seems to be a one-off (so far) although there are enough loose ends to wonder if there's a follow-on planned. I haven't read all of Sherwood's books yet, though I am working my way through them. I like to read chronologically when an author has a lot of books in the same world, but I think I may well have skipped ahead on this one, so pardon me if there's some earlier tie-in with this book that I'm not aware of.
Flian awakes to find herself with a set of bruises, a hell of a headache and no memory. A man introduces himself as her favourite cousin Garian, king of Drath, and proceeds to whisk her off to his castle and look after her. There he feeds her a collection of half-truths and outright lies combined with a heavy sedative in the guise of healing medicine, and persuades her to go through with the marriage she has already agreed to - to the austere king of neighbouring Ralanor Veleth, Jason Szinzar. While not recognising any feelings for Jason she's bamboozled into agreeing, only to be abducted at the altar by Jason's rebellious younger brother, Jaim, and his volatile sister, Jewel. They warn her that once Jason had got his hands on her lands and money he intended to kill her. It turns out that she's not only a princess of Lygiera, she's a very rich princess. Once she gets her memory back, she realises that a major part of her life has so far been avoiding suitors who want her money. Despite being royal she has very low self-esteem and prefers to lose herself in her music rather than brave the intrigues of the court.
She makes it back home, but behaps a better title for this would have been 'The Trouble with Abductions' because poor Flian never seems to be able to stay in one place for long without someone snatching her. But despite being an intovert, much happier with her own music than the barbs of the court, and having a pretty low opinion of her own looks and worth she manages to acquit herself well, grow in confidence and step up to her royal responsibilities. She begins as a very passive character - becomes more active, learning to trust her own judgement. She's not a kick-ass warrior princess - and never will be - but she does show extreme courage, which in its own way is a gentle examination of the nature of heroism.
And since this is a romance as well as a fantasy, she gets the right man in the end - though for much of the book it's unclear as to who that right man might be. Sherwood Smith cleverly throws in something which deflects the reader from what might almost be an obvious conclusion if this were a standard romance with standard romance tropes.
The ending feels as though there were other stories to be written. There are a couple of strands undeveloped in this book, which might well be a sign that Sherwood Smith intends to revisit this particular corner of her well-developed fantasy world. One is Markham, Jason's liegeman who, it seems, has his own story to tell. It's tantalisingly set up from the early part of the book but when Flian finally asks him, we never get to hear the full story. It sounds like it may well be a book in itself - and that's a book I'd like to read. The other undeveloped strand is Flian's embryonic magical talent of seeing faces in water or fire. But she mostly does it accidentally and this never really develops as a plot mover. Is this a talent she might pass on to her children and will we see them in some future book? There are definite possibilities for ore books.
Flian awakes to find herself with a set of bruises, a hell of a headache and no memory. A man introduces himself as her favourite cousin Garian, king of Drath, and proceeds to whisk her off to his castle and look after her. There he feeds her a collection of half-truths and outright lies combined with a heavy sedative in the guise of healing medicine, and persuades her to go through with the marriage she has already agreed to - to the austere king of neighbouring Ralanor Veleth, Jason Szinzar. While not recognising any feelings for Jason she's bamboozled into agreeing, only to be abducted at the altar by Jason's rebellious younger brother, Jaim, and his volatile sister, Jewel. They warn her that once Jason had got his hands on her lands and money he intended to kill her. It turns out that she's not only a princess of Lygiera, she's a very rich princess. Once she gets her memory back, she realises that a major part of her life has so far been avoiding suitors who want her money. Despite being royal she has very low self-esteem and prefers to lose herself in her music rather than brave the intrigues of the court.
She makes it back home, but behaps a better title for this would have been 'The Trouble with Abductions' because poor Flian never seems to be able to stay in one place for long without someone snatching her. But despite being an intovert, much happier with her own music than the barbs of the court, and having a pretty low opinion of her own looks and worth she manages to acquit herself well, grow in confidence and step up to her royal responsibilities. She begins as a very passive character - becomes more active, learning to trust her own judgement. She's not a kick-ass warrior princess - and never will be - but she does show extreme courage, which in its own way is a gentle examination of the nature of heroism.
And since this is a romance as well as a fantasy, she gets the right man in the end - though for much of the book it's unclear as to who that right man might be. Sherwood Smith cleverly throws in something which deflects the reader from what might almost be an obvious conclusion if this were a standard romance with standard romance tropes.
The ending feels as though there were other stories to be written. There are a couple of strands undeveloped in this book, which might well be a sign that Sherwood Smith intends to revisit this particular corner of her well-developed fantasy world. One is Markham, Jason's liegeman who, it seems, has his own story to tell. It's tantalisingly set up from the early part of the book but when Flian finally asks him, we never get to hear the full story. It sounds like it may well be a book in itself - and that's a book I'd like to read. The other undeveloped strand is Flian's embryonic magical talent of seeing faces in water or fire. But she mostly does it accidentally and this never really develops as a plot mover. Is this a talent she might pass on to her children and will we see them in some future book? There are definite possibilities for ore books.
