Prince of Dogs

Prince of Dogs is the second book in Kate Elliott's seven book Crown of Stars series. The first was King's Dragon (which I wrote about twice, most recently in this post). I know I've read Prince of Dogs before but that was a long time ago, probably in the early 00s, and I didn't remember much about it when I started it this time. As with my post about King's Dragon, this is not so much a review as a collection of thoughts.

The series is the sort where the books are really sections of one long story published separately so each one picks up pretty much immediately where the last one left off. And as such is both nearly impossible to talk about this one without spoilers for the first one, and the exact boundaries between the books are a little fuzzy in my head at times. In some ways this book is still setting up the epic fantasy "Save the World" plot that is going to come along in the later books - in fact, I'm not sure I realised there was going to be one at this point in the series. This is not in any sense a flaw. All the way through the series I was interested in the big epic plot because I wanted to see how these particular human characters were going to deal with it.

The plot in this book is still strongly rooted in the intrigues and military matters of a medieval court under seige from without and within. The king's bastard son - Sanglant - presumed dead in battle against the Eika invaders. Liath has found a place for herself in the Eagles, but she still can't tell who it's wise to trust. Alain's actually doing pretty well - he's been acknowledged as son & heir to Count Levastine, which is an incredible change in status. And by the end of the book he's even betrothed to the King's neice - perhaps a dubious prize (particularly as she's the daughter of the woman who had led the opposing side in the recent civil war) but nonetheless a mark of the King's favour (and Alain even fancies the girl!).

Click the link below to read the rest of my review.