The Born Queen

With 'The Born Queen,' Greg Keyes provides a suitably epic finish to his engrossing, endearing 'Kingdom of Thorn and Bone' books. Lush with well fleshed characters, mysterious figures and fantastic monsters, this series engrossed me since the start, and the conclusion was satisfying, fulfilling and poignant.

Anne Dare's quest to become empress is coming to a close, but she still must face off against her direst foes: her uncle Robert continues to make trouble, and Hansa continues to threaten military action. Meanwhile, Aspar struggles to survive while contending with the sinister Fend, and Stephen makes unsettling discoveries.

Magic, prophecy and destiny intermingle. The world is on the brink. And these characters, whom we've followed show more through highs and lows, against the gravest perils, square off against their biggest, most difficult challenges yet. For some of them, their ultimate fates are surprising.

Just really brilliant. The tome succeeds in casting an air of uncertainty over characters who were previously black-and-white. Until nigh the conclusion of the book, its unclear who's REALLY fighting for the preservation of all, which adds a lot of suspense. Keyes presents his usual colorful mix of action and mysticism, which makes for a lively read. Overall, I found it completely satisfying, and I think anyone who enjoyed the rest of the series will be pleased with how it ends. show less

I also admit to being a bit disappointed in this concluding volume to what remains none the less one of the better fantasy series in recent years.
I do not think the problem with "The Born Queen" is that it is rushed, for that would seem to involve some kind of sloppiness, and I could not find any of that here - quite to the contrary, as far as I could tell (though relying just on memory there, and without re-reading the previous volumes in the series) the various strands are all tied up quite deftly, without letting dangle any lose ends or having to resort to any kind of deus ex machina.
To me, the problem seems rather that the novel has been pared down to the bare bones of the plot - there is nothing at all superfluous here, pretty much show more every sentence serves to advance the action in some way. Which is not a bad thing in and of it itself - it does become one, however, if it reduces the characters (that used to be one of the strength of this series) to mere functions of the plot.
The Borne Queen reads for most of its length more like the abstract of a novel instead of the novel, and it's devoid of all the details and small episodes that give characters the necessary room to breathe and bloom. Instead, they appear hemmed in and restricted by the inexorable progress of the narrative that they are chained to like captives to the victor's chariot in a triumphal procession.
And considering everything that happens to the various characters in this volume, one really would have liked to have seen some of their reactions to those things, of the impact the unfolding have on them, and of how they are shaped and - gradually in some cases, quite abruptly in others - changed from what they started out as. Instead, all the novel offers is a bare statement of fact, and that is immensely frustrating to the reader.
While I appreciate that, counter to an increasingly common thread, an author tries to keep a series on course and doesn't let it sprawl into all directions and over many volumes, I think "The Kingdom of Bone and Thorne" would have profited if "The Borne Queen" had been fleshed out into two novels instead of being the bare skeleton of one. show less

Book four and the series completed. Overall, an enjoyable series. The final book did lose some momentum particularly from books one and three. And as the series wrapped up I found the storyline became complicated and at times difficult to follow. The book’s main weakness though - from my point of view - was the way the characters changed for the purposes of the storyline. The strengths of the previous books has come from the well written characterisation. In The Born Queen the personality of several key characters changed and reading their storylines became less compelling as a consequence. It’s a minor gripe in an otherwise excellent and readable series.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, I liked this series, even though it's too long. After four books, I had quite a bit invested in it, and I wanted a satisfying ending. I didn't entirely get it, and that bothers me a bit. To resolve some of the storylines, there seemed to be things falling out of the sky. How on Earth did Aspar become the briar king? The briar king was dead. Ok, there was the reveal about Aspar's past, but that doesn't explain anything.
And how or why did Stephen become the Black Jester? That was a little better explained, but it was still unsatisfactory.
On top of that, I didn't like the development of Anne. Sure, throughout the books other people describe her as selfish. Mostly Austra. And yes, show more she's a bit spoiled, and strong-willed, and there is no doubt that she is self-centered. But that is not the same as selfish. It's true that she thinks the world revolves around her, but that doesn't mean she doesn't care about others. In particular, it doesn't mean she doesn't care about Austra. She just has some trouble seeing things from others' eyes. Yes, that is a flaw, but it is an understandable one given her background, and perhaps it's partially an asset in someone who IS, or at least will be, more important than others around her. Throughout the books, Anne grows up, learning to accept responsibility, learning to carry the burden of command. And yes, clearly it is possible for her power to change her, but to the extent that she is a hair's breadth away from killing Austra? That is just not believable to me. That is not the Anne I've come to know, no matter what Austra thinks. Quite frankly, I cannot even believe that Austra thinks this, or she would not be able to love Anne the way she does. Who would love such a person?

As a sidenote, another thing I'm a bit disappointed by is the women. In the first book, I thought they were treated relatively well, but not much of that is left at the end.

• Winna Where she gets to save Aspar a few times in the first book, later on she becomes a tag-along, useful for giving Aspar a reason to be cautious and for getting pregnant.
  
• Anne Strongheaded, powerful, and strong, if a little spoiled in the beginning. I'd have nothing to say about the way she is covered, if it were not for the fact that she is duped in the end and then nearly decides to kill her best friend. At least she makes a good queen afterwards, but I think Anne deserved more than this.
  
• Austra Well, she can't help her position as maid, but she comes across as whiny. She's mostly there to temper Anne and make her less selfish.
  
• Leshya Oh, is she female? The only way to notice is that Winna gets jealous of her. She is amazingly competent, but change all the she's to he's and no-one would notice anything amiss.
  
• Muriele Does what she can, I suppose. She's brave, in letting herself get captured by Robert, but after that, her role is more or less finished. Yes, she goes to Hansa, but she doesn't accomplish anything and gets murdered. That's it.
  
• Brinna Competent and strong-willed, and despite being physically weak, perhaps the best portrayed woman of the bunch.
  

So, not completely happy about it. Still, I think this was a beautiful intricate series, well worth my time despite its flaws. show less

This was the final book in the four-book Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series. This was an epic fantasy series that started off with a seemingly-generic storyline, but good writing and interesting characters. However, the story took some interesting turns as the series progressed and it grew increasingly more detailed and complex. Meanwhile, the characters remained interesting and the writing remained strong. The author really did a good job of fleshing out the world he had created.

There were quite a few twists in this final book. Some were things I had suspected might happen, and others took me completely by surprise. There were some dark and/or unexpected turns for some of the characters and not every character I had followed through the show more series made it to the end. However, it wasn’t the bloodbath I feared it might turn out to be at one point and I was pretty satisfied with where things ended up by the end.

I think my only complaint with this book is with the last couple of chapters. Most of the characters' climatic moments happened at the same time, so a lot of things were happening very quickly and all at once. The author provided fewer details at this point in the book, I guess to make things seem more fast-paced and exciting, and sometimes it wasn’t clear how characters had gotten from point A to point B. There were a couple of times where I had to stop and re-read a section to try to wrap my head around what had happened. I thought that hurt the pacing more than if the author had slowed down a bit and maintained the same level of detail as in the rest of the story. I started to lose my mental picture of what was happening and it felt sort of like watching a TV show with sound only – you can understand what’s happening, for the most part, but you’re missing out on the visual details and clues that let you fully appreciate the story.

Things were still feeling a little ambiguous to me at the end of the last chapter, but there was a nicely-done prologue set a little ways in the future. It briefly revisited all of the remaining characters and cleared up questions about what had happened to them and what they were up to after the events in the series.

I do very little re-reading, because I don’t have enough time to read all of the new things I’m interested in reading as it is. However, if I were inclined to re-read, this is probably a series I would re-read in the near future. The story and the world it’s set in is so full of depth and nuance that I think I would gain an even greater appreciation if I read it again with the full knowledge gained from my first read-through. show less

As someone more attracted to science fiction than fantasy, I was surprised to like the first book of this series as much as I did. I also liked the second book, which was why I may have been particularly disappointed in the disjointed nature of the third book. This is the fourth and final book in the series and it is certainly back to its old form. Keyes has always been a lyrical writer. Some of the scenes in this book are heart stopping and his characters have always been memorable and true.

This is a story of elder gods awakening, including the last surviving alien of a conquering species. They are particularly adept at using the weaknesses for power and glory that many humans are prey to. Previously Anne Dare, the last of her ruling show more family, returned from exile with a growing power. But there are other powers, such as The Church and The Briar King, which have powers and agendas of their own. Power can be an easy path to change, but it can also be a corrupting one. In the end, the humans have to settle for human goals, human lifespans and human powers in order to retain their humanity at all. show less

WOW WOW WOW!! I was nervous about the ending to this book with so many characters, plots, and story lines going all at once. I did not think it would be possible to bring it all together none the less so beautifully. I will admit the book was complicated and confusing to read at points but so enthralling that I just could not put it down. So sad to see the series done and over with but a wonderfully executed way to go.