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Werke von Den Patrick

The Boy with the Porcelain Blade (2014) 139 Exemplare
Witchsign (2018) 98 Exemplare
The Boy Who Wept Blood (2015) 26 Exemplare
The Girl on the Liar's Throne (2016) 15 Exemplare
Stormtide (2019) 14 Exemplare
Nightfall (2020) 10 Exemplare
Orcs War-Fighting Manual (2013) 8 Exemplare
Dwarves War-Fighting Manual (2013) 6 Exemplare
Elves War-Fighting Manual (2013) 5 Exemplare
The Erebus Sequence (2017) 1 Exemplar

Zugehörige Werke

Best of British Science Fiction 2016 (2017) — Mitwirkender — 29 Exemplare
The Book of the Dead (2013) — Mitwirkender — 21 Exemplare
Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse (2011) — Mitwirkender — 11 Exemplare
Legends 3: Stories in Honour of David Gemmell (2019) — Mitwirkender — 10 Exemplare
Pandemonium Stocking Stuffer 2012 (2012) — Mitwirkender — 3 Exemplare
Pandemonium Stocking Stuffer 2011 (2011)einige Ausgaben2 Exemplare
Focus 69 (2019) — Mitwirkender — 1 Exemplar

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The concluding volume of the trilogy switches to the viewpoints of two women: Anea, half-sister of Lucien and Dino, the focal characters of the first two books, and Eris, a girl from a humble background who has taken on the role of Anea, the Silent Queen, as part of a secret coup d'état. As seen in book two, Anea had been so caught up in working on the late King's machines, with the help of her mentor, Vimyre, that she had been easy to replace.

As the story begins, Anea is imprisoned in the oubliette below one of the palaces of Demesne, a place where to drink the waters is to lose your memory, as in the Greek myth concerning the waters of Lethe, drunk by the dead. But help from a sympathetic guard, plus her own courage, leads her to find a way out and eventually to recruit allies to resist the controlling powers. Meanwhile, Eris is alternately bored, afraid and angry in her role of posing as Anea, which she has done in the mistaken belief that her brother would receive urgent medical attention. She hates and fears both the Domina, Anea's former friend Russo and now Eris' immediate superior, and their shadowy master, Erebus. He is the ultimate puppet master who seeks to manipulate events to bring about war in Landfall and thereby overthrow the rule of true humans in favour of the genetically modified underkin produced by the late King - a class which Anea and her two half-brothers had been elevated from to become privileged experiments.

I didn't enjoy this volume as much as the preceding two. Part of the reason was an extended gap between finishing the second book and starting this, so I had forgotten who quite a few of the more minor characters were, and found it difficult to keep straight the various noble Houses. There was enough dropped into the story to eventually enable me to recall some of the previous events, but I also missed my favourite character from the first two novels. I did wonder about a certain person in this book, and the revelation made about him was a slight anti-climax, plus given the changes in that character it was not really the same as having him back. I also found his survival rather cliched and unconvincing. However the concluding part was a bravura climax of sword play, pursuit through the dark and twisting corridors of Demesne, a mixing together of the parallel stories of Anea and Eris, and elements of horror. Plus there was more of the science fictional and technological backstory, which was intriguing, and I love the Renaissance Italian flavour of this series. Ultimately the conclusion was satisfying, although there were one or two plot elements that did not go anywhere such as the attempt by Anea's group to subvert the Myrmidons, the mutant guards who were instrumental in Erebus' plot. On balance therefore, I am rating this as a 3-star read.
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kitsune_reader | Nov 23, 2023 |
I was intrigued by this book's cover, title and cover blurb referencing Peake's Gormenghast series. I can see why that has been invoked given this book's setting of a rambling structure in which strange noble families live, presided over by a mad and reclusive king. It doesn't reach the literary heights of Peake's prose or conjure quite such unforgettable characters, but I nevertheless found it enjoyable.

The story follows the development of Lucien, one of the Orfano, mutants who appear at odd intervals seemingly from nowhere, are fostered by one of the noble families and have to survive 'testing' in order to apply for official adoption into one of the families at age 16. Although the rules are a bit unclear - Lucien's testing as a sword fighter goes on till age 18 and imperils his survival, and nothing was revealed of any equivalent for the female Orfano. Lucien's particular difference turns out to be minor compared to some of his compatriots, although it causes him embarrassment and loneliness - he has no external ears. Lucien has enemies among the nobility and one of the Orfano works for his chief adversary so it is difficult for him to trust anyone apart from his nanny and maidservant Rafaela.

Interestingly there is a definite Italian flavour to the names and some of the language and that, together with references to the island on which they all live being named Landfall and the apparent cryogenic sleep from which the passengers had to be awakened centuries earlier when their ships were wrecked there made me wonder if this was science fantasy - perhaps the inhabitants are descendants from colony spaceships. A main plot point certainly concerns the misuse of genetic engineering.

It is sometimes a little hard to keep the time line in mind because the book switches time between chapters, with every other chapter being set in the present and those inbetween showing what has happened throughout his childhood and adolescence to lead up to the current crisis.

The book features some graphic accounts of violence and conjurings of the increasingly revolting physical condition of the Majordomo, the King's mouthpiece, who sometimes appears to be on Lucien's side, though this is a misleading impression. At one point something happened which derailed my enjoyment of the story, but this was then mitigated later on: there are some rollercoaster moments. The only thing that held it back from a full 5 stars was the occasional confusion as to what had happened prior to the present and what Lucien should therefore have already known in the earlier present-time chapters so this is a book that might benefit from a re-reading. I have had to return it to the library; otherwise, it would have been a keeper, which is rare these days.
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kitsune_reader | 7 weitere Rezensionen | Nov 23, 2023 |
This is a great exercise in style and atmosphere - as I said while reading, the Gormenghast is strong with this one. For my tastes, though, that leads to too tight a focus. The world is too tightly drawn around its central spire, the characters have too singular and straight a line, and the plot was complicated only by the interweaving of present and past lines of revelation... which also didn't work for me, as I found there were no surprises in the past storyline as it started getting towards the finale, merely confirmations of things that had been referenced already in the present line. It never really dug deeply enough into itself to give a richness of world, of character, or of story. And while I liked Lucien and Dino, I was convinced by neither Lucien's relationship with Rafaela, nor his antagonism with Golia, which left the emotional core of the novel a little hollow for me.

Nevertheless, an unusual and interesting addition to what fantasy's doing these days.
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cupiscent | 7 weitere Rezensionen | Aug 3, 2019 |
This was an interesting first book in a series. In a world where a sign of magic will have you taken from your family and brought to a mysterious island where everyone assumes you're going to die, but that's not the whole story, the state wants to control magic and train people with the gift, some of them die, but the rest join the ranks of the Empire's elite. Wielding power and terrorising people in the name of the state. There were dragons but they have lapsed into the realm of myth and the Gods once worshiped are forbidden.
Steiner lives with his sister Kjell in a small village, off the beaten track with their blacksmith father and every year the Vigilants appear to test the children. He knows that his sister may have magic in her, and he fears what will happen if they discover it, when he's taken, even though he's older than most it starts a chain of events that with resonate throughout the empire and possibly the world.

It's using some Russian and Eastern European tropes and ideas and it quite interesting, it will be interesting to see where this is going to go. There were places where it felt like a first novel and I notice it isn't. Feels like a crossover YA/Adult novel.
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½
 
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wyvernfriend | May 20, 2019 |

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