The Trouble with Kings by Sherwood Smith Release Date: Buy it Today Ebook Print Book - December 2008 Samhain Publishing Ratings Action Romance Characters Overall Purchase on Amazon. Purchase on My Bookstore and More.(ebook)

Now Flian must determine who are really the villains and heroes in the political and courtly games that surround her, while all she really wishes to do is retire to her room and play music.

This was a very enjoyable ebook for those of us who love Sherwood Smith’s writing, her romance and politics, and who have read Crown Duel so many times we own a second copy. It’s hard for me to say what someone who isn’t familiar with her work would think, except that I worry this book might confuse them in parts and wouldn’t keep their interest long enough to get to all the great parts. Because I’ve loved her other books, I slogged through my format problems with it being an ebook, but with another author I doubt I would have had the patience.

My problems with this book almost all went back to format. See, this is an ebook, and it’s the first one I’ve read. Now, the price isn’t too bad at least–$6.50 for an ebook isn’t outrageous. But I’m just too much of a print book kind of person. I was tempted to simply print out the pages, but I hate spending paper like that. So I put it on my new little PDA that I won in a raffle and took three to four months to read a story that as a book would have taken me two days. Because I did enjoy the book. But I doubt I’ll reread it until it’s in print. For one thing, because with my PDA, what’s one page on the computer is three screens on my tiny screen. That alone makes the book far longer to read and made me set it down in the middle of a page quite often.

My second problem with the book was that it was very clear that there was a lot of extra information. I can’t help but think that if this had gone through one of the New York publishers, quite a bit would have been cut. Which is both good and bad. Good for the brand new reader for whom this is their first journey into Sherwood’s world, bad for the long time reader who wants to know more. Overall, the information was sometimes a little much but mostly just fine for me. When it did annoy me, it was probably as much because of the format I was reading in as the actual amount of information. Remember, one screen is only a third of a page, but my eye wants to think of it as a page. Sherwood writes most of her books in the same world, and name dropped a lot of countries from Crown Duel, though there was no real connection. So readers who enjoy Crown Duel would get what was being mentioned, but a new reader would just be lost and a bit irritated. I’ve read that book four times, and I still didn’t get all the references.

Now, I also had a few thoughts on the plot. It never really comes to a conclusion, except for the conclusion of the romances. The bad guy got no comeuppance; in fact soon before the end of the book he made more threats against the main character that were never carried out. I felt like we needed another good fifty pages, some kind of conclusion to the plot with the bad guy. And if a traditional publisher had taken this on, I can pretty much guarantee it would have had one. Still, I didn’t feel unsatisfied at the actual end of the book–it’s only as I think critically to write a review that the lack of ending bothers me. My other small issue with the plot was the vague uses of magic. Now in Crown Duel magic has a role. Here, Flian just occasionally is able to see faces in water or fire, but the magic never serves a purpose. That was one thing I felt a little let down about. I would have liked to see those bits of magic go on to have a more clear meaning. Instead, it’s kind of just a set up to the magic in Crown Duel.

It does look like this book will be available in paperback this December, so my personal recommendation would be to just wait until then, unless you enjoy ebooks. Fans of Crown Duel check it out.

Ratings Reasons:
Action 4 - The action was pretty good, and there were definitely some spine-tingling moments, but I think some of the political intrigue info drop sessions slowed down the in-between parts of the book.

Romance 4 1/2 - I really liked the main romance, though I would have been happier to see more of the secondary one. This is why you read the book though, the main couple went through a realistic relationship and range of emotions, and I was thrilled to see them get together.

Characters 4 - The cast were diverse and enjoyable.

Overall 4 - It had its slow spots and areas where I’d have liked to have seen more editing and a little less info dumping, but overall I came away from the book with a smile, and when I can get a copy in paperback, I’ll probably reread it. If you’re new to Sherwood Smith though, I’d recommend reading Crown Duel first.

Extras:

Sherwood Smith loves her world of Sartorias-deles and has written many books that take place in it, with Crown Duel being her most classic title and one of the books that I always recommend as a favorite. It also takes place only a few years after this one. Inda and The Fox (first two in a set of four books, the third, King’s Sheild is out this month) also take place in this world. Check out her website, live journal, and the livejournal community for more information about her books and the world.

Fans of Sherwood have put together a great wiki about the world of Sartorias-deles, and here is the entry for The Trouble with Kings, with more information about the kingdoms mentioned.

And here is a map for the book, which can be very useful for keeping your geography straight!

Parents: 13+ Mostly because the story gets complex and there are a few allusions to sex.

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