Customer Rating: 
Summary: A Nice Viewpoint
Comment: Judith Tarr's Pride of Kings is a most interesting read. I found it intriguing. A story where John is not a power hungry king, who loves England, unlike his brother Richard. All the characters were very thought provoking. There was no reason this could not have happened. Why could Britain not have its own king and protectors. Yea! for Judith!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Very Good Story
Comment: Judith Tarr has taken fictional characters and woven them in with historical characters to make the story line plausible. The plot lines, primary and secondary, are strong and well written. The characters are well developed and believable, even with the knowledge many of the characters are fiction. This was a well told story and a well written book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Going through the motions
Comment: Judith Tarr has written some great books, but this isn't one of them. Ms. Tarr seems to have cobbled together some notes and thrown out a half-baked novel. Her characters are usually brilliant, here they are muddy. Her world is often well realized, here it's slapped together.Still, it's better than half the SF/Fantasy pumped out and spat at the market.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Guardian of Mystic Britain Fight to Protect Her
Comment: I love seeing Judith Tarr writing fantasy again. Her grey mare's daughters series was ok, but she is at her best when describing the swirl of Wild Magic about Riders who have gone beyond the boundaries of the mundane world.Henry is dead, Richard the Lionhearted is to be crowned King of the English, but there is another crown waiting for him, did he but accept it: the crown of the King of Britain, guardian of the mystical realm that is Britain, warded by four guardians who are more than human. However, Richard's eyes and heart are set on Jerusalem and his Crusade. He has no use for Pagan ceremonies and spurns the Crown of Britain. This sets in motion a magical chain of events that resonated in the real world.
In Anjou, Arslan, a young ... son of a dead lord waits with his two Seljuk servants. He had been born and raised in outremer, the son of a mortal lord and an Ifritah, a spirit of fire. In him the magic runs high. A Crusade is gathering and he intends to return to the East. However, he is given a prophetic dream, in which he is told that he must go to Britain, where he is needed. There comes riding into his brother's keep a company, one of whom is recognizable as William, a ... Plantagenet. The other, who seems less worthy is pushed aside while William is feted. The one who is pushed aside is John Lackland, the very legitimate son of Henry and Eleanor of Acquitaine. He is pleased to be amused by it and when he rides out, leaving a discomforted Lord of Anjou, he takes Arslan with him.
The mystical forces that protect Britain offer John a bargain. They offer him a chance to rule as overlord of the spirit of the place, but he is to pay a price. That price is that the world will see him as his brother's usurper and would not know of the service that he had performed to save Britain (and England) to, from the forces arrayed against it.
The book though focuses mainly on Arslan, on his love for one of the Guardians and how two people both blessed and cursed with magic come to an understanding. Arslan, the son of a spirit of fire, is beautiful and strong. His name means lion. The Lady Eschivra, the daughter of Morgana and a river god, is older than him in years, wiser than he in magic, but more tangled in her thoughts and emotions. Together they must face the forces of the Wild Magic, of Sorceries sent against them by enemies outside Britain, and the convolutions of their own too human hearts.
If you liked Ms Tarr's earlier fantasies, if you have a fondness for Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Reward and Fairies, if you just enjoy a good historical fantasy then grab a copy, curl up on the couch with a small dog or two (I recommend a Jack Russell terrier) and settle down to enjoy a rouse-- and touching-- fantasy.
(By the way, the title is a pun. It refers to both the feeling of pride, and a collective noun for all the young lions who make up the actors in this book.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Surely You Sing of No Little Thing by Oak & Ash & Thorn
Comment: Oh, don't you tell the priest Our plight,
He will think it a sin.
We have been out in the woods all night
A-conjuring summer in;
Now we bring good news by word of mouth,
Good news for cattle and corn;
The sun today came up from the south
By Oak and Ash and Thorn.
--Rudyard KiplingI love seeing Judith Tarr writing fantasy again. Her grey mare's daughters series was ok, but she is at her best when describing the swirl of Wild Magic about Riders who have gone beyond the boundaries of the mundane world.
Henry is dead, Richard the Lionhearted is to be crowned King of the English, but there is another crown waiting for him, did he but accept it: the crown of the King of Britain, guardian of the mystical realm that is the spirit of Britain, warded by four guardians who are more than human. However, Richard's eyes and heart are set on Jerusalem and his Crusade. He has no use for Pagan ceremonies and spurns the Crown, breaking the Walls of Air that protect Britain and making it imperative that a new King be found. This sets in motion a magical chain of events that resonate in the real world.
In Anjou, Arslan, young bastard son of a dead lord waits with his two Seljuk servants. He had been born and raised in outremer, the son of a mortal lord and an Ifritah, a spirit of fire. In him the magic runs high. A Crusade is gathering and he intends to return to the East. However, he is given a prophetic dream, in which he is told that he must go to Britain, where he is needed. There comes riding into his brother's keep a company, one of whom is recognizable as William, a bastard Plantagenet. The other, who seems less worthy is pushed aside while William is feted. The one who is pushed aside is John Lackland, the very legitimate son of Henry and Eleanor of Acquitaine. He is pleased to be amused by it and when he rides out, leaving a discomforted Lord of Anjou, he takes Arslan with him.
The mystical forces that protect Britain offer John a bargain. They offer him a chance to rule as overlord of the spirit of the place, but he is to pay a price. That price is that the world will see him as his brother's usurper and would not know of the service that he had performed to save Britain (and England, from the forces arrayed against it.
The book though focuses mainly on Arslan, on his love for one of the Guardians and how two people both blessed and cursed with magic come to an understanding. Arslan, the son of a spirit of fire, is beautiful and strong. His name means lion. The Lady Eschivra, the daughter of Morgana and a river god, is older than him in years, wiser than he in magic, but more tangled in her thoughts and emotions. Together they must face the forces of the Wild Magic, of Sorceries sent against them by enemies outside Britain, and the convolutions of their own too human hearts.
If you liked Ms Tarr's earlier fantasies, if you have a fondness for Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Reward and Fairies, if you just enjoy a good historical fantasy then grab a copy, curl up on the couch with a small dog or two (I recommend a Jack Russell terrier) and settle down to enjoy a rousing-- and touching-- fantasy.
(By the way, the title is a pun. It refers to both the feeling of pride, and a collective noun for all the young lions who make up the actors in this book. Try to pick them all out.)
