Debut Graduate - The King's Daughters by Nathalie Mallet

Sometimes, when I read a book, it exceeds all my expectations. Nathalie Mallet achieved this with The King's Daughters. I enjoyed the ending so much that most of my nitpicky complaints that I had about it before that point have faded from my consciousness.

Which is just the way it's supposed to be.

I must admit that I didn't expect much from this book. This isn't to say that I did not enjoy reading The Princes of the Golden Cage. I did--immensely. And here's my review to prove it. But all too often, second novels in open-ended series like this become annoying. This novel had a couple of strikes against it. One is that the romance--which I didn't feel all that fired up about to begin with--seemed resolved. When a romance is resolved, the next book in the series often feels tacked on and unnecessary. That's why you end up with The Ever-Romance, a plot device that plagues the Mystery genre.

The other strike against it was that there were only two familiar characters from the first book--Amir and Eva. Now I understand that this was an asset to the book, not a flaw. By starting with a bunch of new characters, Ms. Mallet made it unnecessary to have read the first book to enjoy the second. Plus, she introduces some wonderful new characters.

But first, I suppose I ought to present you with the blurb.

Far to the north of the hot desert land of Telfar lies the frozen kingdom of Sorvinka . Prince Amir has traveled there, leaving his sultanate in the hands of his half-brother Erik as he seeks to ask the king, the father of the beautiful Princess Eva, for her hand in marriage.

But Sorvinka has grown dangerous during Princess Eva's absence, as she and Amir discover to their terror, when their force of guards and eunuchs is cut down by ruthless brigands. And upon their arrival, their welcome to Eva's family stronghold is as bitterly cold as the land itself.

Accustomed to the golden cage of his upbringing, Prince Amir must navigate his way through the strange and cold-blooded customs of the Sorvinkans, and somehow find the truth behind the kidnapping of the king's youngest daughter, the Princess Aurora, by the Sorvinkan’s traditional enemies, the neighboring Farrellians. But what can a stranger in a foreign land do?

With many apologies to Night Shade Books, I think the question at the end of this blurb weakens the blurb.

Oh, and I may as well get the one nitpick that I recall out of the way, and that is punctuation. This was also a problem in Princes. Ms. Mallet is Canadian and for the most part, the fact that English is her second language only enhances the novel. It is written in an exotic voice that works perfectly, filled with word choices that a native speaker might not make. But improperly punctuated questions continue to be a problem. We all make grammar mistakes, and usually that is the job of a copyeditor to catch them. I know that sometimes authors refuse to accept the input of a copyeditor. However, I have a hard time believe that such a new author would be so arrogant. In any case, I hope the next novel--which I'm greatly looking foward to--undergoes a more rigorous copyediting phase.

Back to the story. Amir and Eva's welcome at the Sorvinkan court is indeed, quite cold. Amir makes a terrible first imprssion, and seems to have absolutely no help from Eva, who is his fiance, and who lets him make some cringeworthy breeches of protocol. Eva, who had seemed so capable in Princes, because very princess-ly in this novel, which is OK because we didn't get to know enough about her in Princes for this to seem like a character inconsistency.

Eva became very annoying in this book. She did inexplicable things and left Amir hanging out to dry. I was going to count this as a flaw in the book . . . but it turns out that Ms. Mallet knew exactly what she was doing. And how she resolved it is one of the reasons I found the ending so satisfying.

One of the eunichs, Milo, becomes Amir's personal servant--indeed, Amir must make him his personal servant in order to keep him alive. Because the "cold welcome" to the court was actually achieved at the point of a sword. Milo has all the makings of a great sidekick. Another character, Diego, makes a great counterpart to Amir and Milo. Diego is a court dandy. One phrase from the novel sums up Diego perfectly: "He cringed so forcefully that one could've believe he had just sucked on a lemon."

As Ms. Mallet did with her first novel, she brings all the various plot threads together brilliantly. I can't think of anything left unexplained, except some new tidbits that she came up with toward the end for subsequent books. I recall in Princes that she did this almost to a fault. Here, it was just about perfect. She also brings in some Russian mythology and folklore into the story--some really strange stuff--weaves it brilliantly into the story.

She aimed the series squarely at an Eastern setting for the third book, and perhaps a Spanish for the fourth. I must admit that I can hardly wait.

In my opinion, you're not going to find such good entertainment for $7.99 anywhere else. If you like blends of mystery and fantasy, non-white protagonists, clashes of culture and open ended series, then this novel should be great fun. And the next book, Death in the Traveling City, intrigues by its very name!

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Links!

Nathalie Mallet's Website and Blog

Amazon USA - UK (appears to be sold out) - Canada 

Night Shade's Book Page and Interview with Nathalie 

Additional Reviews at Grasping for the Wind and Graeme's Fantasy Review

Giveaway - The Kings Daughters by Nathalie Mallet

Nathalie Mallet has offered to host a giveaway of her novel, The Kings Daughters, which is a sequel to her wonderful debut, The Princes of the Golden Cage (multi-part review here--start at bottom and work your way up).


Nathalie has three copies to give away, and she will send them anywhere in the world! One entry per person. I will close this contest next Monday. To enter, fill out this form, please.

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The contest is closed now. Thank you.

One Year Later - Nathalie Mallet

Yes, Nathalie Mallet was my not-so-mysterious mystery author. Her first novel, The Princes of the Golden Cage, was great fun. It was the first in a series of standalone fantasy mystery novels--the perfect blend of my favorite genres. The second book is called The King's Daughters, where Prince Amir moves from the cage to the outside world. She has a third book in the series as well, which she'll tell you about below.

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First, I must say thank you to Tia for inviting me to post on her blog again. So Thanks, Tia!

Alright, Tia asked me to talk about several subjects, and I chose three: how my life has changed since becoming a published author, my biggest surprise, and what am I up to now. 

How my life has changed since becoming a published author? Well, I must confess that my life hasn’t changed that much. The only real change since becoming published is that I am much busier than before—mainly with the promotion side of things.  It proved far more demanding that I expected it to be. (Promoting your book is extremely important, and that’s particularly true for debut authors.) I think this quote from William Randolph Hearst hits the nail on the head for me. “Putting out a newspaper without promotion is like winking at a girl in the dark—well-intentioned, but ineffective.” Okay, he’s talking about a newspaper, but the same can be said about books. But this said, every once in a while I feel the need to unplug in order to fully concentrate on writing.  

Tia wanted to know what my biggest surprise was.  Believe it or not, it is that a number of people liked the book enough to want to talk about it. So I was shocked, and rather thrilled, to receive emails from readers almost immediately after the book’s release. And when later I read that the charming and immensely talented L.E. Modesitt jr. mentioned having enjoyed my book in an interview, well, I was so surprised I nearly fell off my chair. Although the initial shock has now passed, I’m still thrilled to get emails from readers and answer each one diligently. I also had the chance to thank Mr. Modesitt in person at the WFC in Calgary. Yeah, I gushed like some blabbing groupie, but I’m sure that he didn’t hold it against me.

Tia asked me to talk a little bit about what I am doing now, which is very exciting for me because I am presently working on a new project. With The King’s Daughters, the second book in the Prince Amir series, scheduled for release soon, the third—titled Death in the Traveling City—fully completed and the fourth well on its way, I thought it was time for me to start something new.  It’s still fantasy, but not historically inspired like the books in the Prince Amir Series. A thriller rather than a mystery, this one is an urban fantasy set in modern-day LA where magic does exist, but is only wielded by very few and kept secret from everybody else. (Apparently a great number of wizards work in the movie industry.) Also, it’s written in the third person, with multiple points of view—which is new to me. Wish me luck! 

By the way, the electronic version of The Princes of the Golden Cage is now available through Baen Books’ e-publishing site, webscription.net.

Interview with Nathalie Mallet

Nathalie was kind enough to answer ten questions for Fantasy Debut.

According to your blog, you based the world of PRINCES on the Ottoman Turk's Kafes system, which you learned about on a documentary. However, your writing betrays a significant amount of research on the Ottoman culture. You appeared to have researched everything from the type of clothing worn by different social classes to the type of pastries that were popular. How much research did you have to do to write so convincingly? Did you go to Istanbul to see the Kafes for yourself?

I did quite a bit of research, which for me isn’t a chore at all because I have a true passion for history and culture. As for visiting Istanbul, I wish I could say that I had. By all accounts, it is a fabulous city. No, what I did instead is use the Topkapi palace’s virtual tour set up by the Republic of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. (One can also download a very detailed map of the palace. A very helpful tool when you’re building your own imaginary palace.)
All the other details I found in books and websites. I conducted my research in two waves: the first I did before starting the book and the second, more specific that one, when I had two drafts penned down. By then I knew what I was missing or wanted to add to the story to give it its Arabian Night flavor.

The pastry-eating demons were my favorite. How can you hate a demon who likes sugar? Did you make that up or did it come out of legend? And if it did come out of legend, which one? And if you did make it up, how on earth did you think of such a thing?

Glad you loved it, Tia. The idea didn’t come from a legend but from one of many folklore and mythical books I read—I can’t recall which one it actually came from though. Anyway, these volumes are seeded with little-known facts concerning mythical creatures. Djinn, for example, are known to relish eating bones and to be allergic to salt. I found only one mention of these creatures craving sweets. It was enough. The image of a powerful winged demon stuffing his face with pastry was just too appealing to pass up. I had to use it, even though it was never specified what type of demon it was—one of the pleasures of writing fantasy it that it allows you the freedom to take small liberties with things.

What is your favorite scene in THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE?

I’m really fond of the scene where the kitchen’s old servant tells Amir about the different kinds of honey. I also love all the scenes involving Amir and Darius, especially the one where Amir, disguised as a baker, is rescued by Darius.

What scene gave you the most trouble?

In the first chapter, the scene where Amir looks out the window, wishing he was free. It wasn’t a difficult scene to write in itself. But at this stage in the story you need to give background info on your protagonist and on the world he’s living in. At the same time one doesn’t want to kill the pacing of the story and bore the reader with this. Then again, not clarifying these points can lead to confusion. It’s a juggling act. Amir’s secret meetings with the Princess were also a bit challenging. I didn’t want the story to become too “romancy”, so I had to be careful to keep this aspect of the story under control.

Can you give us a small teaser about the sequel, KING'S DAUGHTER and can you tell us the release date, if you know it and are permitted to say?

THE KING’S DAUGHTERS has a Russian inspired setting. Yep, I went from burning hot desert to a cold snowy landscape. For Amir, who has never stepped out of the luxurious comfort of the cage, this is quite a shock.

Now free to see the world, Amir travels to the frozen kingdom of Sorvinka to meet the King. The trip is most unpleasant; this land is harsh, cold and infested with brigands. Sadly, things only get worse once he arrives at the King’s castle. Amir discovers that he has made a terrible diplomatic faux pas. Devastated, he fears he will never gain the King’s approval. But when he learns that the King’s youngest daughter has disappeared, Amir sees some hope. Perhaps if he can solve this mystery, he may win the King’s esteem.

The tone of KING’S is quite different than PRINCES. A fish-out-of-water tale, it’s fast and filled with humor. Also the fantasy, magic and mythical elements will play bigger roles in the sequel. THE PRINCES, was Amir’s introduction to magic, so to speak. Nothing will ever be the same for him now.

The King’s Daughters is coming for summer 2008

Is this an open-ended series? If not, can you say how many books you plan on writing in this world?

Right now I have plots for eight books, but I would love to do ten in all.

Have you finished any other novels besides PRINCES and KING'S DAUGHTER and can we expect to see them in print?

I have a couple more—all science fiction. There is no plan to market those for now. At the moment, my priority is to develop and promote the Prince Amir Mystery series.

Do you have a day job, or are you in the author's nirvana of writing full-time?

Pure nirvana! I don’t have a day job…at the moment.

How often must you remove a bear from under your patio (as mentioned in your bio)? And how do you go about it? Here in Florida, we must summon an alligator removal service for similar alarming situations. Are there such services for bears in Canada?

Conservation Officers usually take care of it. Unfortunately, bears tend to come back, and that can spell trouble for them. Our bear didn’t come back because we blocked the access to the nest he made underneath our patio and got rid of the blueberry bush that had attracted him in our yard in the first place.

Please share your publishing story and any writing advice that you may have.

I always wanted to write. Throughout the years, I made several attempts at writing, but life got in the way, and I could never finish a novel. Back then my priorities were different. (What can I say, I like pretty things.) When I decided that it was time to make the plunge, I quit my job and put all my energy into my writing—I’m an all-or-nothing type of person. It drives my husband crazy.

Well, the first thing I did was to write a story, a sci-fi action-adventure called The Digging Crew, which included all the elements that frightened me, such as moving large groups of people within one scene, fast action, etc. Once that novel was completed, I set it aside and wrote PRINCE then started other projects. A friend of mine read my first novel and encouraged me to send it out. I did, and it was picked up by an e-book publisher, which wound up closing its doors soon after the novel’s release date, so the book got reviewed but was never really out. Still, I thought it was a good omen. By then we were moving to another city, so THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE stayed in a box for eight months until I was ready to send it out to agents. A couple months later, I was signing with Jenny Rapapport, now of the L. Perkins Agency. Shortly after Jenny called me with the news that Night Shade Books were interested in THE PRINCES, and that they would like a sequel. I was jumping for joy!

Read and read some more! Write and rewrite! Be persistent! The writers who get published are the ones who do not quit. Rejection is part of this business, so shrug it off and continue.

Thank you again!

THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE - Final Review

Reading THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE came at a good time for me. I was in the mood for something lighter. Every once in a while, I like reading what I think of as literary bonbons. Something not too intense. PRINCES fit the bill. It provided a suspenseful good time, yet Nathalie Mallet did not pile on too much tension. The balance was just right and the plot did not drag anywhere. Sometimes, I think authors can overdo it in either direction. You reach a point where you think, "Oh, please!" and you just want to throw the book across the room. That did not happen with PRINCES.

Through the process of elimination, I was able to figure out who the villain was ahead of time. But, to Mallet's credit, I didn't figure it out too far ahead of time. The position of a certain name in a registry made me think "Hmm," but I didn't put it all together until a certain other character was definitely eliminated. Plus, there were many other surprises in the ending that I did not see coming, but which made sense after-the-fact.

PRINCES is a delightful little mystery story that takes place in an intriguing and exotic setting. It is somewhat light on fantasy, except for fantastic creatures. I don't think I saw the actual working of a spell anywhere in the book (although you do see the results of such spells). The ending of the conflict is just the sort of ending that I am a sucker for. Overconfidence in villains and self-comeuppance -- gotta love it.

I did have some quibbles. The punctuation could have been more tightly copyedited, especially where question marks are concerned. When a question ends with a period or a comma, I usually think, "Huh?" and I go back to reread to be sure it was a question. Also, there were a few too many instances of "Ohhh!", "OUFF", "Yewww!" and other phonetically rendered vocalizations for my taste.

Mallet did a good job making me like Prince Amir, Erik, Darius and even poor Jafer. The princess was not really around long enough for me to form a strong impression of her. I also liked Erik's servant. Erik's complete faith in him made for a nice mini-mystery in a setting where servants are usually not to be trusted.

Mallet did a fabulous job in weaving together intricate bits of information and bringing them all together in the ending. I always have admiration for writers who can pull this off. This is the sort of book that I like to reread in order to see if I can spot clues as I go along. I did wish that a certain other prince didn't have to die. It would have provided for interesting conflict over the succession of the throne, but it also probably would have dragged the ending out too much.

If you like a lot of drama, angst and gritty writing, then THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE is probably not for you. But if you're in the mood for a light mystery-fantasy that is a fast read, then you will probably enjoy it.

Links!
THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE (Canada, UK)
Nathalie Mallet's Website and Blog
My other posts on this title

Princes of the Golden Cage - Unpredictable!

Reading THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE is like reading with your eyebrows perpetually raised. A visit to one's brother might end in a duel. Alliances form and dissolve with each setting sun. Powerful brothers turn out to be cowards. Even romance is not straightforward.

I'm about 3/4ths of the way through. I have a few quibbles, but I'll keep them for the final review. So far it is a very entertaining story which keeps one wondering what happens next!

Princes of the Golden Cage - Halfway Point

I read halfway through PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE tonight. Things sure took an interesting twist.

For quite a while, it almost seemed like Prince Amir had become a sort of narrator for his brother Erik's activities. But with the advent of a certain princess, all that changed and now Amir is once again front-and-center.

I'm impressed with the way Mallet keeps control over Amir's voice. This novel is written first-person, and I've yet to encounter a modern colloquialism (that I recall anyway). There's just enough exoticness in the voice to make it really seem like some sort of foreign prince is telling you a story. She has really immersed herself into the part. And except for Amir having a bit too much self-control for a young, hormone filled man (he manages to avoid the harem, which is at his disposal, but which also is extremely dangerous to visit), I find her rendering of a male voice convincing. I'm not a man, of course, so I can't say for certain. :)

Amir has reached an unexpected (and probably temporary) accord with a previously hostile prince-brother. I'm hoping it lasts. I also sense an aura of tragedy around Erik. For some reason, he seems doomed to die. Maybe he's just too nice and aren't the nice allies the first ones to die? We will have to see.

The Princes of the Golden Cage - Two Brothers

I'm about 1/5th of the way through PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE by Nathalie Mallet. The story is moving along at a steady pace. Amir is beginning to get to know his mysterious half-brother, known only as Erik. Erik has this to say about one of their recently-deceased brothers:

"Hamed and I were more than brothers, we were friends."

And that characterizes the typical relationship between brothers in PRINCES. Brothers are not to be trusted, but friends are.

At this point, Erik, who has access to detailed maps of the labyrinthine palace, is taking Amir on a tour through all the forbidden places . . . now, while it is safe, before the Grand Vizier returns. They are supposed to be exiting the palace to go into the forbidden outer city itself, but I have not reached that point yet.

I have not read Arabian Nights, but this book might just inspire me to do so.

Graeme recently put up a review of PRINCES as well.

THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE - First Few Chapters

From the first few sentences of THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE, you know right away that something is up.

I sat straight up in my bed. I knew someone was coming because my two insane brothers, Jafer and Mir, were screaming bloody murder.

Screaming bloody murder isn't a phrase that we encounter a lot in the United States. Imagine someone screaming just as loud and hard as they possibly can. What a way to wake up.

However, Prince Amir is savvy. He has positioned his room between his insane brothers to act as a sort of alarm system. A servant has brought the grim news of the death of one of Amir's 117 brothers. They think magic was involved, so they brought Amir to investigate since he is known to be a scholar. However, he is also a suspect.

Prince Amir is a captive in a cage, where all the princes are kept until an heir is decided upon. There's not a lot of brotherly love here. Amir's thoughtful caretaking of his insane brothers is as close as it gets.

Therefore, Amir goes to investigate his brother's death. Here is where I had a small quibble with the plot. He barely recognized his brother. If you lived with 117 people all your life, you should know each of them by name. In a typical high school, a student has 6 classes with 25 students per class. That equals 150. Well before Christmas, I always knew each person by name, and everyone else in all my classes did as well.

I was willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps each prince is isolated, so that they hardly know each other. At this point, I'm not sure so I had a "huh?" moment.

What follows is a deepening mystery. The dead prince had some sort of spell on him. The plot quickly turns into a murder mystery, complete with a mysterious locket, a prince-brother who seems to be up to something, rivalry between Amir and his brothers, and intrigue galore. PRINCES is told in first person from Amir's point of view. The writing is straightforward and transparent, sucking you into the setting. The dialog flows well, occasionally becoming a tad melodramatic. However, the melodrama might be appropriate to the setting. Will comment on this more as the plot progresses.

I like Amir, mostly because he looks out for his insane brothers in a touching manner. I too, want him to be able to escape his golden cage and venture out into the city beyond, a city famed for its beauty, but which Amir has never even glimpsed. I also like the setting because it's so different from what I usually encounter in fantasy. Just a few posts ago, I asked for a setting besides medieval European, and now I have it!

My excerpt ends when Amir meets his mysterious brother, who wants to talk. I'll have to wait until I have the book before I find out what they are going to talk about.

This - n - That

An anonymous tipster (my first ever!) sent a link to a Lane Robins interview in her local paper. If you're not familiar with Lane Robins, my original shout-out on her novel, MALEDICTE, is here (my shout-outs weren't very good back then, I'm afraid). The tipster has also supplied her website, and since then I've found her blog, which she occasionally updates.

Nathalie Mallet, author of THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE, now has the first chapter available as a PDF file.

I've written most of my announcement for THE BOOK OF JOBY by Mark J. Ferrari, but I'm going to hold off on posting it until I can find some more reviews. I plan on posting it later tonight or early tomorrow.

THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE by Nathalie Mallet

The editor at Night Shade Books is sending me a review copy of PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE. This is my first experience with an ARC and I admit to mixed feelings. On the one hand, it seems to validate my small-yet-growing niche as a blogger. On the other hand, it makes it feel more like *Literary Criticism* and less like fun.

However, I'll do my best to banish those feelings. He also emailed me the first three chapters, which I've already read. I'll try to get a post up on it tomorrow morning. In the meantime, here's a link to my original shout-out about her book, where you can find all the usual links.