It's been nearly a month since my last blog post, so naturally I was able to finish my book The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen. Initially, I thought the book was monotonous, but later found it to be intriguing. Allow me to summarize the premises of the book:
The book is about an orphan named Sage, an average street urchin, and is unnaturally quick witted and has a tongue of silver. In the midst of a theft in a local market, Sage meets a mysterious government official known only as Conner, who collects Sage without any explanation. Upon being captured, Sage meets three other boys with similar experiences: Latamer, who is killed early on in the novel, Roden, and Tobias. The boys soon learn that they are participating in a scheme where only one of them will survive: they are being trained to impersonate the kingdom's lost prince. Flash forward, we find out that Sage is actually the real lost prince, fooling all those around him.
Flash back: Conner takes the boys to his fortress, Farthenwood, where he continues to train the boys. Meanwhile, Sage begins to earn the trust of Conner's henchman, Mott. Additionally, Sage soon finds out that it was Conner who commissioned the murder of the royal family, AKA Sage's family. Choosing day comes and initially Roden is picked as the False Prince, until Sage persuades Conner to pick him instead. Sage proceeds to inform the Prime Minister of Carthya of Conner's treason and that he is the legitimate Prince Jaron. Eventually, Conner is imprisoned and Sage becomes the king. Tobias gets Conner's old job as the regent and Roden mysteriously disappears.
I believe that any mystery or fantasy lover would enjoy this novel. It has a lot of plot twists and is definitely a page turner. I would rate this book 4.5 stars out of 5 stars, only losing points because it had a slow opening.
The book is told in first person narrative, from Sage's point of view. This type of writing enhances the story because it amplified Sage's experiences. Additionally, the first person point of view adds to the plot twist because, though the readers feels as if they know the narrator well, the truth about Sage's identity comes to more of a surprise to the audience.
Overall, I definitely recommend this book.
The book is about an orphan named Sage, an average street urchin, and is unnaturally quick witted and has a tongue of silver. In the midst of a theft in a local market, Sage meets a mysterious government official known only as Conner, who collects Sage without any explanation. Upon being captured, Sage meets three other boys with similar experiences: Latamer, who is killed early on in the novel, Roden, and Tobias. The boys soon learn that they are participating in a scheme where only one of them will survive: they are being trained to impersonate the kingdom's lost prince. Flash forward, we find out that Sage is actually the real lost prince, fooling all those around him.
Flash back: Conner takes the boys to his fortress, Farthenwood, where he continues to train the boys. Meanwhile, Sage begins to earn the trust of Conner's henchman, Mott. Additionally, Sage soon finds out that it was Conner who commissioned the murder of the royal family, AKA Sage's family. Choosing day comes and initially Roden is picked as the False Prince, until Sage persuades Conner to pick him instead. Sage proceeds to inform the Prime Minister of Carthya of Conner's treason and that he is the legitimate Prince Jaron. Eventually, Conner is imprisoned and Sage becomes the king. Tobias gets Conner's old job as the regent and Roden mysteriously disappears.
I believe that any mystery or fantasy lover would enjoy this novel. It has a lot of plot twists and is definitely a page turner. I would rate this book 4.5 stars out of 5 stars, only losing points because it had a slow opening.
The book is told in first person narrative, from Sage's point of view. This type of writing enhances the story because it amplified Sage's experiences. Additionally, the first person point of view adds to the plot twist because, though the readers feels as if they know the narrator well, the truth about Sage's identity comes to more of a surprise to the audience.
Overall, I definitely recommend this book.
