Jeff Wheeler

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This book was so amazing! Much more than I expected! Even though the main character is an eight year old boy, there is enough intrigue and secrets to make this a fantastic fantasy novel, especially as an introductory book to a larger series. The world building is small, focusing on the immediate area, but feels complete. There is a larger history outside of the book that makes the story feel real. The writing itself is great; I found myself highlighting so show more many passages as I read.

The Queen’s Poisoner by Jeff Wheeler starts with a worried wife, waiting for her husband to return to battle. When he does, she realises their political gambit has gone awry, and the King has punished them by killing their son and demanding they give him another hostage. They do, a meek eight year old boy named Owen, who miraculously survived his stillborn birth. Watching Owen grow in confidence as he navigates the courtly intrigue is great. He is the perfect focal character that readers can relate to. He has no idea where he is, or why he’s there, just like the reader. It makes what would otherwise be boring and dry exposition on important facts the readers needs to know, exciting and reasonable.

Apart from focal point Owen, we have a spy, Mancini, whom you don’t really recognise the importance of at the start. He just exists as a watchdog, but you grow to realise he is a key player thanks to the character setting all the pieces in motion, the Queen’s Poisoner, Ankarette. She is “fountain-blessed,” someone who was born with gifts such as the gift of foresight. It is Ankarette who sets everything in motion, beginning events that will have far-reaching conclusions in the third book of the trilogy no doubt. She takes over the protector role for Owen and feeds him the information he needs to survive what the King has planned for him. A King who cares little for the opinions of the people, so much so that the reader is left wondering whether the rumours of his kinslaying are true. The characters are all well-developed, fully fleshed, and leave you wondering if everything they say is face value.

Though the world building was constrained to castle life, I expect this to change with the following book in the series as events move North. That said, what we do see is great and feels heavy, as though there is weight to what is being written. There is a history here that the characters all know about and feel, which lends a gravity to the story.

Though this is a fantasy, expect it to be a bit more subtle than a Lord of the Rings, or even ASOIaF. The magic is in the fountain-blessed. I’ve not seen a dragon or a fire-toting wizard. What you do see, and much of, is intrigue! So much juicy intrigue! Everyone is plotting against everyone else for reasons unknown most of the time. Why does the Queen hate the King? What is the Princess’ ultimate goal? Why does Ankarette really want to help Owen? Does Horwath know something? There is so much going on, I just want to know it all!

Thankfully, author Jeff Wheeler plans on releasing the second instalment of the Kingfountain series in May, with the third one scheduled for September. A well-written fantasy series with actual dates for publishing?? Unheard of (I mean look at the Kingkiller series and ASoIaF) and amazing!! Definitely pick this one up, read it, love it, and get ready for the next one!

// I received this title for free in exchange for an honest review // show less

There are definitely a lot of positive things about this book (and the rest of the series, I'm sure). I enjoyed the writing style and, for the most part, the fast pacing- the way that there's very little detail about anything that's unimportant in setting the mood of any given scene (a common thread in most good young-adult novels). I enjoyed the characters, which, although not very deep, are at least distinctive and mostly interesting. I liked the protagonist in particular- she's show more self-confident in the kind of way only truly sheltered people can be, but she doesn't do kindnesses out of the good of her heart (in fact, she rarely thinks about other people at all unless the matter is life-or-death), and yet she isn't an annoying brat either. I also enjoyed the setting at the start of the book (the Abbey), the main character's role in it, and how everything there functions.

Now the slightly longer list: things that I didn't like.

I absolutely can't stand books and series that have some sort of absolute power (be it a god or otherwise) that sees everything, past and future, and influences events and people into semi-preordained situations. More than that, the idea of foresight itself bugs me to no end. Telling when an earthquake is going to happen is one thing, because there's nothing in the many millions and millions of variations of choice and coincidence that occurs from people interacting with one-another that's going to influence a natural disaster's occurrence, but seeing any man-made event further ahead of time than a few seconds is FAR beyond my apparently meager skills in suspending my own disbelief. Even if I accept your midichlorian god and its ability to calculate probabilities over an extended period with thousands and thousands of people involved, doesn't that rather defeat the concept of free-will? Why are we concerned about the story at all if it's a foregone conclusion? There's a sphere in the book that allows the main character not just to see what direction things lie in, but the fastest path to them (which isn't always the SHORTEST path), and even the fastest SAFE path to them (assuming she doesn't have a crisis of faith and lose its direction, oh my!). Seriously?

Another thing, call me a nerd, but I can't stand things that can't be quantified and/or measured, such as energy/magic which is only seemingly limited by emotion or necessity (even if something's never ACTUALLY measured, it should feel like it COULD be). It bothers me when there's always a cheap way out of any situation that doesn't need to be explained further than "trust in God and he shall deliver thee". Whether it's a half dozen seeming-coincidences all coming together in one moment to dramatically shift a situation to the benefit of the protagonist, or a completely hopeless situation that's overcome not through ingenuity, cleverness, strength-in-numbers, skill, or luck, but desperation tapping into an unlimited power supply (or faith, doing the same thing), I REALLY don't like it. I know that this is a young-adult novel, but if you don't ground your magic system (or should I say faith system?) in some sort of boundaries, how am I supposed to take it seriously? Not enough power? Pray harder. Still not working? God's procrastinating, give him time.

If you don't have any qualms with faith-based magic systems, oracles/seers, and very short rather shallow books/series, then ignore this review and read it. After it was all said and done, I didn't hate it (I finished it, which should say something), but I won't be continuing the series either. show less

Well written Young Adult Sword and Sourcery novel that I couldn't stay in sympathy with.

There are lots of good things to say about this book: the world is imagined in great detail and well described, it is well plotted, the main character is likeable, brave and compassionate, and the magic system is novel and well thought through. There are storms and babies abandoned on the Abbey steps, and swords and horses, an evil Sheriff, brave young knights, a corrupt King, a rebellion that turns into show more a war and of course, the fate of the world hangs upon the bravery of a very young girl.

And yet... I couldn't give myself up to this book.

As a book for young adults, I understand that some of the darker possibilities have to be toned down a bit, but books like "Divergent" and "Written In Red" or "Anna Dressed in Blood" manage to tap into a real sense of evil without have to get the splatter-movie level. "The Wretched of Muirwood" sells evil short. The bad guys are just that: bad guys. They are corrupt and brutal but they have all the reality of a faceless mob-boss in a Batman comic.

And the good guys are SO good, it's like biting into an over-sweet apple: it sets your teeth on edge.

But the real source of my lack of comfort with this book is the magic system. In this world, magic comes from accessing The Medium. Good Guys, born into the right bloodlines, do this by surrendering themselves to the will of The Medium, closing their mind to doubt and fear and doing what The Medium tells them to. Bad guys use an amulet-based technology to force the Medium to do what THEY want to do. The price they pay for this is a slow but inexorable poisoning of their souls.

In other words, the Good Guys in this a fanatical Jhadists that The Medium uses as magical suicide bombers while the bad guys are trying to level the playing field between themselves and an elite set of families who refuse to share either knowledge or power. I hate everything about this set of ideas.

The fact that this snagged at me badly enough to reduce my enjoyment of the book is. of course. a tribute to the quality of the writing.

I knew with absolute certainty that, if I was in this world, I would be a bad guy. I just hope I'd make a better job of it. show less

Summer 2018, Whispersync Audiobook & Kindle Books:

I blow straight through Wheeler's trilogy in what amounts to a little more than a book a day, so these are all going to end up running together.

I rather loved Lia's story, and getting to both read and listen to it. I love the Maston magic (even if it did ring a little too close to The Fountain from his most recent series I had picked up and run through). I loved Colvin's wandering, plodding uncertainty about everything, especially his show more feelings. I loved that this love story didn't end up looking like anyone of the clearly too-alike earlier ones in the Fountain Head double trilogy.

I mourned the descent of this gorgeous, glorious culture of virtues and faith as the handholds for real magic, and how the forcing of it was what spurned the world into blackness (which is in the reverse to what interests me about its centuries later follow-up trilogy). I believe people will enjoy these and run them rather fast. The characters are engrossing. The story goes everywhere, and I am left with a very clear feeling and idea of what this world looks like, and the fact its out there still living on, even though I'm no longer at the fire listening to its tale being told. show less