The Liar's Key stands proudly as
the second installment in a dark epic of three parts, The Red
Queen's War. This trilogy, grim in its story but humorous in
its tone, features a very fascinating world, where readers follow the
misadventures of two unlikely friends; a cowardly prince known as
Jalan, and a fearless Viking warrior called Snorri. The journey of
Jalan and Snorri opened with an excellent novel, Prince of Fools,
and continued in The Liar's Key. This sequel exemplifies the
modern fantasy literature, where it creates a wonderful fusion of
science fiction, grim dark fantasy and Norse mythology.
Synopsis:
In Trond, inside a tavern that stands
wavering against the chill blast of the northern wind, prince Jalan
rose from a warm bed to greet another wintry morning. He desires
nothing more than returning to the luxurious and the decadent life of
his southern palace. But the winter stands in Jalan's way, turning
the land into a frozen tundra and putting all travels to the south on
hold.
However, Jalan is not the only one who
is burning with the desire to journey south. His friend, a Norse
warrior called Snorri, is also eager to leave, to embark on a
suicidal quest to challenge all of Hel, for the sake of bringing his
murdered family back to the mortal world.
Snorri holds an ancient gift from Loki,
The Liar's key, and it can open every door. Including the door to
Hel. Jalan, on the other hand, does not like his friend's mad plan of
rescue in Hel. After all, Snorri's quest may entangle them in a
bagful of life threatening situations, none of it can be considered
prosperous in the eyes of a craven like Jalan. But a series of
unforeseen circumstances banded Jalan to Snorri, so a cowardly prince
and a fearless viking once again, set out on a misadventure and
becoming pawns in a game of Red Queen's war.
My thoughts on this book:
On Goodreads, I rated Prince of
Fools five out of five stars. So how does one rate a sequel that
is even better than its 5/5 predecessor? If I could award The
Liar's Key with six out of five stars then I would do it. If you
liked Prince of Fools, then you will love The Liar's Key.
Prince of Fools gave readers an
initial impression that Jalan and Snorri lived in a pseudo, medieval
European world, one that is typical in the fantasy genre. As the
story unfolded, however, readers gradually came to realize the story
is actually set in a post apocalyptic world, our world. Where a
thousand years has passed since an apocalyptic event destroyed our
civilization, and mankind has once again climbed to a phase
equivalent to the medieval era after spending centuries in recovery.
Meanwhile, we were also told that people in Jalan's world use magic.
So how does the magic work, and where did the magic come from? This
is where the story of Jalan takes a twist and blends fantasy with
science fiction. Prince of Fools gave off some hints and clues
about the origin of this “magic”, but it did not fully reveal its
history. In The Liar's Key, its author provided further clues
to solve this puzzle, where he introduced readers to an extinct group
of people known as the builders, an apocalyptic event called The Day
of Thousand Suns, and a “magical” place known as The Wheel of
Osheim.
With a bit of imagination and
deduction, most readers should be able to figure out those terms are
referring to us, and our technology. A reader comes to realize, a
pre-scientific civilization would use those terms to describe the
inventions from a world of advanced technology (for example, imagine
in a pre-scientific culture, if a group of desert nomads encounter a
spacecraft then how will they describe it? A chariot of fire, perhaps?).
Having said this, while The Liar's Key did provide further
clues for piecing together the history of Jalan's world, but it did
not reveal everything. Instead, the author cleverly shrouded the
origin of its magic in further mystery, giving his readers a glimpse
of what really happened in the past. Meanwhile, we get a sense that
everything in this book is paving the way to a grand finale, and the
answer to this puzzle will play a major role at deciding the fate of
Jalan's world. This book added suspense to Jalan's story, and by the
end of it, I was very eager to read the sequel.
Other than mounting suspense, The
Liar's Key also excelled in its character development. As its
predecessor, the story here continues its narration in the first
person – that is, Jalan is telling the story. The first person
narration takes readers into Jalan's head, witnessing his thoughts
and feeling. This narrative worked especially well here because we
are following the story of a coward on a dark adventure. Yes, in this
book Jalan is still his cowardly self. He is still the kind of person
who would hold out a child as a shield. While Jalan is not the most
despicable protagonist in the fantasy genre (Stephen
Donaldson's creation, Thomas Covenent, holds that title), but he is
definitely not a paragon of virtue. Far from it. However, Jalan's
flaws and cowardice also made him a very relatable character. I mean,
how many adult readers can relate to a flawless and mighty hero such
as Aragorn? In The Liar's Key, Jalan didn't become more
heroic, he became wiser. Jalan also matured and he begins to see
things differently, sometimes even selflessly. It is amusing to see
that Jalan felt disturbed at finding himself developing a conscience.
In the first book, Jalan was the prince of fools. Is he is still a
prince of fools in this book? I leave my gentle readers to decide for
themselves, after they spend sometime with our dear prince. But it
suffices to say, Jalan's misadventure often tickled my funny bone.
Aside from Jalan, The Liar's Key
also cast Snorri as the second protagonist. In this book, our
fearless viking takes on a role of a support character, albeit an
important one. Snorri continues to surprise me, as the story revealed
this unstoppable viking is not just a barbarian warrior of the
fantasy archetype. This novel also introduced two new characters,
Kara and Henan, both of them played major roles in the story. These
two characters developed a dynamic friendship with both Jalan and
Snorri. Together, this band of mismatched adventurers set out on a
remarkable journey, and this book told their story in a perfect pace,
not too fast, and not too slow.
It is very rare, when the quality for a
middle book in a trilogy surpasses the first one. The Liar's Key
is bigger and better than Prince of Fools in every way. This
book not only expanded all the good things from the first book, but
it also paved the way to a promising finale, titled, The Wheel of
Osheim. If you like fantasy novels but you haven't read The
Red Queen's War trilogy, then I really think you are doing your
reading world a disservice. Meanwhile, if you have already read
Prince of Fools, then you MUST, I repeat, must, read The
Liar's Key.
No comments:
Post a Comment