The Charnel Prince: Flawed but moves story along

The Charnel Prince by Greg Keyes

The Charnel Prince succeeds in what should be the immediate and least of goals for second books in series — it moves the plot along. The book is well-paced, moving quickly through various storylines and transitioning nicely from one point-of-view to another. The shifts occur smoothly and repeatedly act to increase suspense (some may tire of the tactic; it never really bothered me). The different stories are mostly well-balanced, each carrying its own weight in terms of plot and character. Though I’d say one is noticeably weaker than the others, it doesn’t act as much of a drag on the book as a whole.

There is no “recap” of The Briar King, but Greg Keyes does a nice job of refreshing the reader’s memory without being too obvious and without slowing the book down with a lot of early exposition. The main characters all return, some showing signs of growth, others performing their roles somewhat perfunctorily. Queen Muriel is perhaps the best example of a character who exhibits subtle and continuing signs of natural growth. Some of the characters instead have their changes “announced” to us, either by internal monologue, narration, or the somewhat clumsy remarks of other characters. Keyes also introduces a brand new major character, a composer, who is one of the more interesting characters of the series and whose personal storyline is certainly one of the more unique ones I’ve seen in fantasy.
The boil of internal and external politics and the conflict between pagan and institutional religion, along with the typical individual grasp for power, makes for a stimulating ride. The more personal relationship issues aren’t handled nearly as well, but since they remain mostly understory, they don’t cause too much damage.

Overall it’s a well-constructed and mostly well-written book, with several very strong scenes (especially those involving the composer), but it lacks somewhat a true spark. Some of the characters play out their roles a bit too robotically, some of the character shifts are too quick, the storyline involving Aspar and friends is weak in comparison to the others, and some of the plot points a bit too well-worn: secret passages in the castle, brilliant plotters allowing themselves to be overheard plotting (twice), mysterious aid coming out of nowhere at just the right time. None of these are major flaws, none of them bring the book to a screeching halt or make it a bad book. But they do make it a flawed book, one that despite its quick readability doesn’t tug the reader along or make him/her ache for more. Having seen these characters through two novels now, and with all the pieces seemingly in their place, the time is ripe for the third book to transcend the first two in inventiveness and characterization. The composer character in this one is a good sign.