Book #164 of 2021:
The Briar King by Greg Keyes (The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone #1)
This early 2000s fantasy series is a real hidden gem, one that I’ve always been surprised isn’t more popular. I wouldn’t call it a ripoff of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, but that feels like the best object for comparison, due to its similarly sprawling narrative and the worldbuilding that starts as a genre-standard medieval Europe flavor but then goes into intricate and distinctive depths of history and culture that seem to inform every moment of the story. The result is an immersive reading experience, and is particularly fun for how author Greg Keyes uses his academic background in anthropology to showcase slight regional variations in traditions and construct elaborate historical sound changes that become plot-relevant as characters research and translate ancient texts. (Also amusing: part of the backstory of this setting is that Virginia Dare and the lost colony of Roanoke ended up here, two thousand years before the main events.)
In this first title, there’s a dawning apocalypse that has been prophesied, and certain people are beginning to see the signs and/or fall into the machinations of others who are more aware. With around a dozen protagonists across the course of the novel it would be difficult to succinctly summarize everyone’s arc, but I enjoy how the writer brings them together and sends them apart in sometimes-surprising fashion. Three particular favorites: the monk and linguist who uncovers most of the critical lore for us, the initially spoiled young princess forced by hardship to grow up fast in a Malta Vestrit kind of way, and the dashing duelist as concerned with perfecting his fencing and wooing his intended as with the larger danger that stumbles upon him. I’m impressed as well by how everything builds to a natural crisis point for the climax of this book, given the disparate strands that need to unfold to reach it.
TV networks looking to adapt the next Game of Thrones would be wise to check out this quartet, especially since it was completely finished back in 2008 and contains far less misogyny and rape. (There are a few threats of sexual violence and a minor figure who mentions being abused as a child, but nowhere near Westeros levels of such atrocity on the page.) And if you’re one of the many readers who have missed it until now, the four volumes are probably waiting on your library shelf anytime you’re ready.
[Content warning for torture, gore, underage sexuality, and potentially problematic romantic age gaps of 15F/19M and 19F/43M.]
★★★★★
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