The Uncrowned King by Michelle West

[meganbmoore]

Unlike The Broken Crown, The Uncrowned King is set almost entirely in Essalieyan, with barely any of the action in the Dominion. This, of course, means that Diora, marginally the main character of the first book, wasn’t in the second book of the series, aside from one passing mention. No, that was not a happy realization for me.

Replacing Diora is Valedan, a prince who has to prove himself worthy of being king in the middle of a House War. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that Jewel replaced Diora as the main character, and Valedan took Jewel’s place as secondary lead. I’m assuming (hoping) Diora is back in the next book. I admit, I’m not quite sure what I think of Valedan, at least partly because I spent a lot of his sections going “but where’s Diora?” I suspect he’s being set up to be someone’s love interest, though I don’t know who.

I have to say, without the contrast of the oppressive (and almost depressing) Dominion, Essalieyan isn’t quite as fascinating a place, as it stands out a little more that it’s a fairly normal medieval fantasy kingdom. So far, this sounds fairly critical of the book, but really, I don’t feel critical about it, it’s just that the way it dropped the main plotline of the first book to focus exclusively on the secondary plotline was something of a shock.

I did, of course, love Jewel’s storyline, dealing with her minions Den (and Avandar, of course) and her role in the house war. I can’t quite decide if Avandar is her pet bull dog or her self-appointed babysitter. Maybe both. Kiriel’s story, with her learning more about what it is to be human, is very interesting, but I’m not quite sure what I think of her. I like her, but in many ways, she’s a typical fantasy heroine, while Diora and Jewel aren’t. Diora is an extremely traditionally female character, with all the traits usually used to make female characters in fantasy weak and disposable trophies instead used to make her a strong survivor. Jewel is a former street rat and thief turned noble, with an excellent, functional, and practical take on both the den mother and seer tropes. Kiriel...is a spirited young warrior girl with a destiny.

And now I realize that I’m not sure if the next book I have is book 3 or book 4.

Comments

[estara.livejournal.com]

I was surprised at the time too, but then she already had big switches of viewpoint during the Hunter's Oath and Hunter's Death books, so I expected that a bit. I didn't realise this series was going to be such a big ensemble piece nevertheless.
I agree that Kiriel has more of the mysterious powerful warrior, but I did think her personal background made her fairly unique nevertheless and it made sense that what she is and what she will decide is going to be more important the longer the series goes on (although we have a sort of end after the sixth book there's enough open threads to enable books after that and Michelle West has posted on her LJ that she hopes to tell more stories after this series).

Her current hardcovers tell that Jewel storyline gap. I've got the first hardcover and am waiting for the second one, I want to read them in one go.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I thought the series was supposed to be 8 or so books, and wasn't finished yet.

I was expecting big POV changes and new characters, I just wasn't expecting Diora's story to be dropped completely.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Book 3 is The Shining Court.

The thing about this series is that Michelle does huge, HUGE shifts in character. It all comes together in the end, I think, but she will go far and wide with her characters. Not like Robert Jordan, mind you, but they are indeed huge jumps if you don't expect them.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yup. I really don't mind so much as I wasn't expecting it, and since Jewel didn't show up until later in TBC, I kept waiting and waiting to check in with Diora.

[morwen_peredhil]

I suspect he’s being set up to be someone’s love interest

*bites tongue hard*

I missed Diora, too, but she'll be back.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

You realize, of course, that I have spent the day analyzing</em? whose love interest he could be if he ended up that way... (I mean, not seriously, but...no...)

[morwen_peredhil]

Oh, Valedan. There will be at least one moment you will want to smack him upside the head really hard and shriek at him not to be so obtuse.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

That tends to happen with men in almost any fiction worth reading.

[morwen_peredhil]

TRUE.

I really did end up loving him by the end, but that boy has a lot to learn when we first meet him.