The Mirror Prince, by Violette Malan
I read Violette Malan's debut novel The Mirror Prince last week. Since the mass market edition came out yesterday (along with Malan's second book The Sleeping God), I figure today's a good day to post a review.
The premise of the book will be familiar to more experienced fantasy readers. History professor Max Ravenhill discovers he's not who he thinks he is. He's not even human. He's an exile from the lands of the Fae, guardian of the Talismans that can select the next High Prince and end the cycle of death and corruption. Now, as Max's exile comes to an end, the Basilisk Prince is determined to capture him and use the Talismans to make himself High Prince. Fortunately, Max has a protector, a sword-wielding, butt-kicking warrior named Cassandra.
It took me a few chapters to get into the book. Malan jumps right into the action with a fairly brutal (off-screen) massacre, and it also took me a while to grasp the fantasy side of her worldbuilding. Having read issendai's post on apostrophes in fantasy, I also stumbled a bit over some of the fantasy terms. It wasn't until a few chapters into the book, when Max and Cassandra left our world and returned home, that I started to wrap my brain around everything.
With that said, I enjoyed the book a great deal by the end. Max and Cassandra were fun, and it was interesting to see the relationship between the guardian (who knows what's going on) and Max (whose memories have been altered, so he doesn't even know Cassandra at first). Malan even gives us glimpses of "humanity" from the Basilisk Prince. And I'm always up for conflicted characters.
While some elements of the story felt familiar, others were intriguingly original. I enjoyed Malan's take on enchanted weapons and armor, and the creative ways they can be used. Her revelation about the Hounds (hunting beasts, from the original Hunt) was fascinating enough I wanted her to spend more time on it.
Actually, that was my biggest frustration. Some of Malan's most fascinating ideas seemed to get skimmed over. I wanted to learn more about the Naturals and the Solitaries, the other "races" of Max's realm. I wanted to understand guidebeasts better. I've e-mailed the author to see if she has any plans for a sequel.
And if the biggest complaint about a book is, "I wanted more," then I think that's a pretty positive thing.