Captive Prince » Series Review

What if a lion and panther met in the jungle?  There might be some vicious spats at first, but you know those big cats would wind up feeling admiration for the other.  Because although they're intensely different creatures, each is a remarkable beast in his own way...

Damianos, Prince of Akielos, is a hero to his countrymen.  He's famous for his defeat of Auguste, the heir of a rival kingdom, on the field of battle. His skill in combat is unparalleled, and his future kingship will continue a noble legacy of generations.

But despite his grandeur, Damianos has a soft and loyal heart.  So when his own brother moves to betray him, Damianos doesn't see it coming.  Forced into slavery, 'Damen' is gifted to Laurent, the younger brother of Auguste, the very man Damen is famed for slaying.

Thus begins an epic tale of war, politics, and power.

I began this series because it comes very highly rated.  And I would have stopped at book one, if not for the encouragement of other reviewers.  You see, reading book one in this series, Captive Prince, was terrible.  The writing itself was very skilled; it wasn't an issue of quality.  The problem was, the content was utterly horrific — slavery, rape, and pedophilia are depicted unflinchingly and with excruciating detail. I wanted to pitch the book away from me and scrub my brain.

Regardless of the depravity, you do get the sense, while reading, that foundations are being laid and that great events are brewing, about to boil over.  And, indeed, in book two, matters culminate in a way that is truly spectacular writing. Really, I can't praise book two, Prince's Gambit, enough. It will go down as one of the best fantasies that I've had the joy of reading.

Book three, Kings Rising, continues the momentum of Prince's Gambit.  I won't say that it was a perfectly stunning conclusion, but it left me very happy overall.

Perhaps the thing I loved most about this series was the characterization, which was incredibly rich, for both major and minor players.  Damen, or Damianos, 'Prince-Killer,' is our narrator, and my favorite character.  He's not unlike a classical hero — an Achilles or an Alexander. Damen's arc throughout the series was wonderful and distinct.

You get the sense that before his enslavement, Damen lived life as a bit of a simple jock.  Despite having a very big heart, he's been unable to put it to good purpose.  After being put through the ringer of book one, however, Damen blooms into a powerful man with strongly empathetic feelings. Because of this, he's able to befriend and love Laurent, who is so damaged by life and circumstance, that he's become an icy and unpleasant person.

Oh yes, and how could I finish this review without mentioning the romance?  Readers, it was scorching.  Whoa, Nelly. In regards to M/M romance, I haven't read anything else yet in the genre that compares to this eroticism. C. S. Pacat knows when to get wordy and when to get crude. Moreover, so much of the characters' individual journeys are at play when they're having sex; it makes the encounters so much more than 'hot scenes.'  It bears saying again — I've never read explicit writing quite of this caliber. And if that's the hook that drives you to pick up this series, good!

So, have you read this series yet?  Heard of it?  It's so exciting when you find an amazing piece of writing, not by keeping up with mainstream media and journalism, but by following bloggers and internet reviewers. The Captive Prince series is special like that — a wonderful and subtle surprise.

 

The Walled City Review

Desperation practically ekes out of Ryan Graudin's The Walled City.  These are characters gambling with enormous stakes — much more dire than simply staying alive.  Jin, Mei Yee, and Dai are dangling above the precipice of human agony. 

Jin Ling lives in Hak Nam Walled City of her own volition, surviving by stealing food and necessities, and running like hell. She is also searching for her sister, sold, by their father years before, to a drug lord.

Mei Yee, forced into sex work, lives caged in a brothel, under constant threat. Mei Yee has no other option but to sit, stagnant, in her prison, and let waves of horror and misery wash over her.

Dai cannot bring himself to set foot outside of the Walled City.  He is trying desperately to free himself from a cage of his own making, and he must enlist Jin Ling's talents to do so, by compromising the drug lord Longwai.

A note on the book's setting... Based off of Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, Graudin's Hak Nam Walled City is a gritty, compelling backdrop.   Like its real world inspiration, Hak Nam is a re-purposed fort adjacent to a larger metropolis, turned into an over-packed mess of people stacked up on top of each other. It's a cluster of anarchy — full of gang activity, drug running, and human trafficking.  In regards to time and place — it was a little confusing.  It's my deduction that The Walled City is set an indeterminate Asian country, during an indeterminate period of modernity.

At this point, after detailing the characters and setting, it might seem like I'm going to make a glowing recommendation. But, this is not the case.  In fact, I believe that this book was more promising than successful.  There were definitely some admirable aspects to it, but I would strongly hesitate in recommending the book to other readers.

One reason for this concerns the book's style. On one hand, Graudin's voice utilizes effective dirty realism.  The setting of the walled city — its grime, its poverty, its depravity — sprung to life on the page. On the other hand, there was an extraordinary amount of purple prose. I felt like I was drowning in a sea of similes and and conceits.  At best, I felt some appreciation for the imagination of Graudin's writing. At worst, the prose was so clogged with stylistic elements that I was jarred out of the story completely.

Then, there was the pacing.  This is a story that could have benefited from a break-neck pace.  Instead, the plot was structured around an 18-day countdown.  A mistake, in my opinion.  I slogged through the story. My attention struggled to find a grasp.  Instead of propelling the plot forward, the narration got bogged down in reminisces and extraneous tangents.  

Another complaint — Graudin falls into the tired trope of instantaneous attraction. (AKA — insta-love)  As if I wasn't rolling my eyes enough over the melodramatic prose, all of the hot flashes and abdominal tingling of the love-struck characters sent me over the edge.  What made this nascent relationship extra questionable is that it involved a horribly abused girl who had been forced into sex work.  Giving her such a shallow plot-line really diminished the utter gravity of her situation.  I could not switch over emotionally from descriptions of horrific, sexual abuse to scenes of giddy young love.  It caused me to withdraw emotionally from the story.

It's a shame that this book had such fatal flaws.  If the style had been plainer, the plot brisker, the relationships more thoughtful, I could see myself enjoying this book for its resonant setting and high-stakes storyline.  As it is, I give The Walled City two north stars out of five.