One for the Morning Glory

by John Barnes

The Tale began when young Prince Amatus secretly sipped the forbidden Wine of the Gods, leaving him half the lad he'd once been--literally--for his left side suddenly vanished without a trace!

But, as is often the case in Tales of this sort, the young Prince's misfortune was also a sort of blessing in disguise. For a year and a day later, four Mysterious Strangers appeared, and, as Amatus grew to manhood, they guided him on a perilous quest to discover his true identity--not to mention adventure, danger, tragedy, triumph, and true love.

John Barnes has been heralded as "one of the most able and impressive of SF's rising stars" ( Publishers Weekly) for his widely praised novels including Orbital Resonance and A Million Open Doors.

Now, in One for the Morning Glory, John Barnes has crafted an artful and immensely entertaining fable that takes its place as a modern fantasy classic beside such enduring works as William Goldman's The Princess Bride and T.H. White's The Once and Future King.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, High Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction, Humor, Young Adult

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

John Barnes (born 1957) is an American science fiction author, whose stories often explore questions of individual moral responsibility within a larger social context. Social criticism is woven throughout his plots. The four novels in his Thousand Cultures series pose serious questions about the effects of globalization on isolated societies. Barnes holds a doctorate in theatre and for several years taught in Colorado, where he still lives.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bar...

Reviews

[Tobey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't you love that feeling when you're reading a book that you found on your own, that you'd never heard of anywhere, and as you read you realize that you've discovered something special that you'll carry with you all your life?

I bought One for the Morning Glory from my local used books store because it had a Charles Vess cover and a cool title. That's all. It set on my shelf for a few months and I picked it to read at random. The opening scene was strange and funny and a bit violent, and I knew I was in for a fun read. But it ended up being more than that.

In brief: As a child, Prince Amatus accidentally drinks the Wine of the Gods, which causes his entire left side to disappear. The four people held accountable, his Personal Maid, the Royal Alchemist, the Royal Witch, and the Captain of the Guard, are immediately put to death. A year and a day later, four applicants to the vacated positions arrive in the Kingdom, a Nursemaid, an Alchemist, a Witch, and a Warrior. These four companions raise Amatus, and define the course of his life in unexpected ways.

There is so much to enjoy about this book that I hardly know where to begin. It has the rhythms of an old fairy tale, and it reminded me a lot of Hope Mirlees' Lud-in-the-Mist. Only the author's wordplay gives away the fact that it was written more recently. There are twists and turns, and even when I thought I could see what was coming clearly, Barnes always ended up throwing in an unexpected surprise. The narrative is usually light and playful, but you never forget that there are some prices that must be paid, and every friend lost along the way really hurts. The cast of characters is broad, and all are fully developed treasures. I wish my time with the Prince and his four Companions, King Boniface and Prime Minister Cedric, the adventurous Calliope, the rascally Deacon Dick Thunder, and my two favorites, brothers-in-arms Duke Wassant and Sir John Slitgizzard, never had to end.

That being said, the feature that elevates this book to a higher level is the fact that these characters know they're in a fairy tale, and they are able to use this knowledge to help them out along the way. Prime Minister Cedric says that because they have a certain piece of information, it must be important, otherwise they wouldn't have it. Their goal is to reach "a happy enough ending". This could just come across as being clever, but it also clarifies the difference between reality and fiction. King Boniface says that, if events ever happened without a purpose then "the Kingdom would merely be real, and vanish to where your lap goes when you stand up." In real life, things just happen. In a story, everything happens for a reason.

[Cera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a few weeks ago, while I was recovering for awful virus, but I'm only now getting around to writing about it!

And, hmn, I'm not sure what to say. The novel is explicitly a fairy tale -- explicit in the sense that many of the characters recognise that they're inside a particular sort of story, and have expectations about what might happen in the future, or ways of understanding the past, based on their own understanding of fairy tales. But it's not a fairy tale of the reader's world, but of the world the book is set in, so while a character might sometimes say, "Since we're in a fairy tale we can expect X and Y," it's not always clear to the reader if X and Y can really be expected, or if this is wishful thinking. This may sound like an awfully pretentious post-modern conceit, but it really, really isn't; the story is touching and funny and wonderful. It's about a prince who has an accident early in childhood, and the things that happen to restore him, and also about the power of stories, and about love, friendship, honour and loyalty. It is a fantastic book, which is why I keep reading & reading it.

[Bryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have finally reread this! And it still holds up! I no longer love the playful vocabulary the way that I did in my 20s, and I cannot help but remember the older people on rasfw back in the day who disliked it then and how I was annoyed by them in 1996 and now I'm like 'yah I see the point' -- it just didn't add anything for me to have to keep tripping over 'stupor' as the word for tavern, plus it was too on the nose... I guess I didn't mind 'pismire' though, and 'gazebo' still seems like an entertaining reference to the ancient D&D story.

Anyway, I am glad to have read it again, and glad that it still works despite my vocabulary quibbles; the self-aware 'here we are in a fairy tale' is great, and there are some numinous moments for me with the idea that the older a story is, the more it has to be continuously true -- so no matter when someone finished Penna Pike, there would be a woman trapped by the goblins, and there would be the man she loved who failed to save her up in the world above, ready to be reunited with her by chance or luck or fate or narrative necessity. And this time around I see all the ways that Barnes pushes back against traditional models of masculinity -- there's not *enough* women by a long shot, but Calliope is fully realised, and the male characters are a much wider range than one might expect; Wassant is fat and that's fine and Dick Thunder is unwilling to do single-handled heroics and instead is good at administration and that's also fine, and so forth. None of it is remotely groundbreaking in the 2020s, but having been alive in 1996 I am retrospectively really impressed with it!

I wish Barnes was easier to get as ebooks, because I really want to reread my favourite of his sf (Orbital Resonance and maybe also A Million Open Doors although I suspect the last one might be tougher going since the main character is such a terrible person at the beginning) and see what I think of them! (Although I am starting to realise that most of Barnes' writing is about terrible men either learning to be less terrible, or failing to overcome their societal conditioning and remaining terrible to the end; clearly this is a theme near and dear to his heart and he is very much in favour of the 'become less terrible' route while thinking it is incredibly difficult to achieve.)

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magical.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantasy novel set in a land where they know they are living in a fairy tale. Unlike those lands that are merely actual. . . . Where everything that is very old is bound to be true. Where every tale that is told is bound to have happened.

Prince Amatus drinks the Wine of the Gods while only a little child, and "A child who tastes the Wine of the Gods too early is only half a person afterwards." The right half as it turns out. And King Boniface hands out prompt justice to the Prince's Personal Maid, the Alchemist, the Witch, and the Captain of the Guard who were to blame. (He was, after all, high, low, and middle justice to the land, which has a fairy tale court except where having a more realistic element works better. 0:)

A year and a day later, four mysterious people arrive to take these positions. And Prince Amatus grows up, and through adventures: underground where the goblins and the Riddling Beast live; in the face of a terrible plague in his own city; in an invasion from the usurped kingdom of Overhill.
Even though they know they are in a fairy tale, well
"This is not how these tales end," Calliope said firmly.
"This is not the way that things end when they get to be tales," Amatus said, "but since ours is not told yet, we cannot count on it. There were a hundred dead princes on the thorns outside Sleeping Beauty's castle, and I'm sure many of them were splendid fellows."
Tragic things happen in this novel

And the word play. I've never seen anything like it. For one thing, it would work only a work like this one, which isn't common. But he malaprops through the entire world. They fire pismires and fight with escrees. And it really has to be read to see how it works.

[Adobe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Four strange guardians come to young Prince Amatus after the prince loses half of himself -- the left half -- in a magical accident. Contending with monstrous disturbances and a looming war, Amatus and his Companions are conscious of being inside a story, but they all disagree on what kind of tale they comprise.

One for the Morning Glory is a gleeful exercise in epic quests and meta-narratives. It begins cleverly, and then it develops into something deep and genuinely moving, and then it...loses all momentum midway through and becomes a long, tedious slog. (But man! That first half!) Part of the problem is that One for the Morning Glory feels no need to wrap up plot points. Amatus' story is merely a lone thread in the middle of many other stories, but those other stories belong to other people and other books, and their beginnings-middles-ends only intrude incidentally on One for the Morning Glory. (Case in point: the Companions all have complicated secret motivations, and each of these complicated secret motivations receives one (1) dark allusion before dropping out of the story entirely.) Which would be fine and dandy were it not for the reader's nagging suspicion that Amatus' story is surely the most boring of all possible options.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is clever literature that makes for a good entry point into fantasy stories without really being a fantasy story. It's really a self-aware fairy tale (like The Princess Bride) using two literary quirks to make it so enjoyable.

The first is that it is indeed self-aware, both from the storyteller's perspective and the characters' perspectives.

The second is the author misuses relatively common words to describe things specific to the story's universe ('gazebo' for a game animal, 'pismire' for a pistol, and 'omnibus' for a rifle are but three of many examples).

Both quirks add charm to a pretty formulaic story. That said, there are enough character development, plot twists, and surprises to make this a quite enjoyable read.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Self-aware sword+sorcery fairy tale replete with witches, goblins, necromany, lost heirs, riddlemonsters, secret passages, potions, and the like.

Infuriating & awesome repurposement of existing english words, e.g. "For supper she had prepared piecemeal panbread, a platter of protons, and an ample haunch of gazebo" which is hilarious but sometimes to the detriment of understanding. Likewise, there are a lot of similarly-named characters who are not sufficiently developed to distinguish themselves from each other, and at times it becomes important to recall who is who by flipping back to the beginning and re-reading introductions. Awkward.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more creative than I thought it would be. Some parts were downright clever.
It feels like it's written at the junior high level, but the author made an attempt to make it palatable to adults as well. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I were younger.

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first part of this but it confused me the further on it got. Interestingly written, but I'm still baffled.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on the chorus of a song the Clancy Brothers simply called “Morning Glory,” One for the Morning Glory conveniently divides its story (slightly asymmetrically) by means of that chorus’ four lines. The song, at least in the Clancy version, tells the familiar seaman’s tale of seducing women ashore and coming back to find them all with babies which look amazingly like him. In the Clancy version, the last line, “And four for the love of you,” refers to four sisters waiting on the dock for him with four fine sons. One for the Morning Glory isn’t an expanded version of that story.

The story does have, almost, the conceit of a story within a story. The characters often break down the so-called fourth wall with each other, indicating that they consider themselves to be in a story themselves and indirectly breaking down the fourth wall for the readers. Something must happen in such and such a way because that is just the way it is done in a story. But it is the way those things happen that makes the relatively predictable ending fascinating.

One for the Morning Glory is, like many folk tales, the tale of a prince. In this case, the prince has done something he wasn’t supposed to do, and the result is that he functions with half of a body (not just half of a VISIBLE body, but a missing half). The king is so displeased that he executes those who were responsible, even the executioner himself. And so, it comes about that four strange characters with fates intertwined arrive at the castle to take the places of those four deceased servants.

The “two for the early morning” portion of the story takes the prince and his friends, including the four new servants, on an adventure. The adventure, as most are, proves costly in terms of one of their number and the death of this one reveals to the prince what he must do to be made whole. Just as the old saying, “All magic has a cost,” is used in stories, the cost of making the prince whole is not one that he is willing to take. The interesting thing is that the party of adventurers believe there is something wrong with the result of their adventure (besides losing one of their number), but they will find out in time that they are wrong. But before then, they will have to deal with an unexpected betrayal (although the reader will have some sympathy with the traitor and the actual betrayal is foreshadowed adroitly in a conversation prior to these events).

The third verse of the chorus is “three for the man who stands his ground” and, of course, this means war. The inevitable war arrives, the inevitable loss(es) occur, the prince learns to be more of a prince than a swordsman (despite his proficiency), and the story reaches its nadir. This book doesn’t sugarcoat death, grief, and guilt. There is a cost to standing one’s ground.

Naturally, the fourth verse, “and four for the love of you,” makes perfect sense as the climax of the story. If we see the story as the “U” of comedy, the third verse is the bottom of the “U” and the fourth verse is where the characters for whom we are rooting come back on top (right side of the “U”). Even here, there is a sacrificial price to be paid. And those who think the princesses get the short end of the deal in these stories of princes and princesses, there is more than one woman who is key to turning the situation around. And, although fraught with a price, the happy ending is worth the cost.

I was amused by a Latin quotation on p. 285 when a vassal tells his queen that he has more loyalty than brains, whereupon she says she will put Quam stultus sed quam fidelior on his family crest. The Latin is roughly “How stupid, but how faithful.” I also enjoyed a paragraph on p. 272 where the author, in narrative voice, spoke of a minister telling bad news to his sovereign, but knowing that one should never bring bad news to a sovereign without having some idea of how to solve the problem. I was amused because that was almost exactly what one of my editors-in-chief told me that he tried to do whenever he scheduled such a meeting with me as the group publisher of that magazine group. I share this not to help you decide whether to buy/read the book or not (I’ve already encouraged you to do so!), but to demonstrate that it features some real-world wisdom, as well.

[Daniel Millard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my typical fare, but very interesting, and one I think I'd come back to.

A story with characters that know they exist within a fairytale. Some elements, barely explained, leave me scratching my head (like the "Wine of the Gods") - and the author seems well satisfied to leave any number of things this way. Some things are also so sensical and turn out so happily well - such as Waldo the Usurper receiving his just due in the end in an almost pushover fashion after having worked so much evil. Some portions of the book are so silly that they're laugh-out-loud comedic and heartwarming. Then, abruptly, some scenes are abruptly violent, grim, and chilling.

All this turns out a brief fantasy tale that I've heard compared to The Princess Bride. If that comparison is true, it's a deeper and more intelligent story than I've heard out of that well-known book-turned-film. It's a story similar in some ways, in that the best moments are enjoyed by the side characters (Sir John Slitgizzard, Deacon Dick Thunder, The Riddling Beast, etc.) rather than the protagonists.

As a matter of fact, thinking back on the story, I am looking forward to reading it again, because I feel as if my expectations for a tale of this sort were somewhat broken by the oft-repeated tone of modern fantasy. One for the Morning Glory is something quite different, and I might even admit to it's being something special. Let's try this again in a few years.

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I no longer remember where or when I heard about this book, but I picked it up after it languished on my goodreads to read list for over a decade. It is a lovely playful fairy tale that lives up to the comparisons to The Princess Bride.

The characters are very self-aware of "typical" fairy tale themes and occurrences and reference them outright providing foreshadowing on upcoming occurrences in the story. This somehow works with the tone of the story and doesn't feel too contrived or meta to ruin the story. It's just a wink and nod to the adult reader.

The heart of the story is the bond between the prince and surrounding characters that all love and sacrifice for his growth and development. These characters were well developed and shaped with their own flaws, despite doing their best to care for the prince. It felt like an obvious allegory to the ideas that it takes a village to raise a child and that parents/guardians are often flawed, yet are still trying to do their best to raise their children or wards.

Anyway, I don't usually read fairy tales or fantasy, so it was a fun digression from my normal reading material and well written piece of fiction.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It should have been a warning to me that the book is described as echoing "The Princess Bride," a movie for which I am part of the apparently 1% of the population who doesn't find it funny; however, the concept of "One for the Morning Glory" -- that of a fantasy novel in which the characters know that they are in a fantasy novel -- was compelling. And I still give a lot of credit to the book for its concept. But it is a slog: after about halfway into it, I wanted it to speed up and end already. This was largely the result of flat prose, even flatter dialogue, and characters that, even when they twist and turn in their identities, are blandly one-dimensional. For a world that implies so much potential for vivid descriptions, there was none. Maybe that half of the book got lopped off somehow, just like the half of Amatus's body.

[Risa · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some reason when I started this I was skeptical, but it was damn good.
It's a story that the characters almost know they're in, which changes perhaps how they think about things, but not what they can do. It's self-referential - it reads a bit like a historical account, since characters write their accounts of it afterwards, and the novel refers back to those accounts but also gives you the thought processes of those characters at the time.

Possibly my favorite jokes: firing omnibuses and eating dried gazebo.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would give this 6 stars if I could. I can't believe it took me so long to hear about this delightful book! However, I'm glad I didn't find it too soon -- a reader needs to be steeped in the fantasy genre to really appreciate this book. Also, it must be read with a dictionary close to hand! Make sure you look up some of the unfamiliar words, because while the meaning is absolutely clear in context, the juxtaposition of the real meaning is part of the joy of reading it.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Opened so strong, bursting with creativity and meta-textual playfulness. Then it felt like what the author started as a playful meta writing exercise got carried away in thinking it was more standard fantasy without ever actually making the reader care about the characters and setting.

Would have been much more effective as a short story.

[Mark Dickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much thought was put into how to make this book self-aware fantasy and none was put into making the plot or the characters interesting.

I skipped the last two chapters (including the climax) but I’m still counting this one.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Went from whimsically charming (who doesn't love a good gazebo hunt?) to startlingly dark and serious in spots. Comparisons to The Princess Bride are apt, and I think Westley and Amatus might get along.

[Jonathan Pelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorite books. A modern take on classic fairy tales.

[Noah Funnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing book. It’s got the whimsies and silliness of Alice in Wonderland, the magic and medieval violence of LotR, and well-written characters to sway the heart of the reader.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delight. It was wonderful to find that fairytales still exist. This is well written and a fun time.

[Katherine]

Creative use of words.

[Jennifer Linsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be the perfect modern fairy-tale book. It has wonderful characters both noble and villainous, a quest, a prophecy, and a Doom. If any of that appeals to you, stop reading this review and read the book!

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One for the Morning Glory" by John Barnes is an deeply enjoyable fantasy that holds a special place in my heart. After being given a copy to read in high school, I read it in one sitting cover to cover. Ever since then, I have worn out one copy reading it two to three times a year. It is my favorite book of all time and I wanted to re-read it in order to write a review explaining why everyone should read it.

The plot is simple: in a mythical kingdom, Prince Amatus, the only heir to the Kingdom, drinks a full cup of the Wine of the Gods and looses his entire left side. A year and a day later (an auspicious time in fairy tales), four mysterious companions come to the City and become the Prince's loyal companions whose destinies are intimately tied to his.

The story plays on common folklore motifs like those in the work of Joseph Campbell, which make the story at once familiar and new. The tone is playful and self-aware, much like "The Princess Bride," though I believe the writing is much more inventive, the story more epic and enjoyable, and the plot more intricate, deep and full of mystery. Even after many readings, I still find myself contemplating the ideas in the book and trying to figures out its complexities.

Barnes is an inventive author, playing on common folklore motifs, especially the construction of fairy tales and stories about heroes. He creates interesting, well drawn characters who are as complex as they are enjoyable. The text is playful with words, using common english words in new and inventive ways.

The most important aspect of this book is that it doesn't try to be anything other than what it is: a story. And it calls for the reader to remember that in stories, everything has meaning and everything has a place. This is a book you will read again and again will pass on to your children. The only sad thing is that it is currently out of print but one can buy a copy on Amazon. Enjoy!

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ce livre raconte l’histoire d’Amatus, un prince puni pour avoir goûté trop tôt au vin des dieux, et qui va vivre presque tout le livre avec juste sa moitié droite.
Dans tout lecteur de fantasy, il y a un enfant avide de conte qui sommeille. Et ce livre a été écrit pour cet enfant. Sous couvert d’un roman de fantasy classique, on tombe dans une espèce de conte bizarre, muni d’une forme d’auto-dérision, où tous les personnages savent qu’ils sont dans un conte(1), et où l’histoire suit également les règles du conte. Ainsi, après une mise en situation très claire, où on voit notamment le capitaine de la garde capable de se trancher lui-même la tête avant de remettre son arme au fourreau, on suivra avec étonnement Amatus, et ses quatre compagnons magiques, recouvrer peu à peu son intégrité, ainsi que celle du royaume dont il est le prince(2).
J’avais découvert Barnes avec la mère des tempêtes, et ce récit change complètement la vision que je pouvais en avoir, car on trouve ici une vision distanciée tout à fait sympathique, et une approche du conte riche de nombreux aspects, de la nécessité des sacrifices (nombreux et souvent bien décrits) à l’humour un peu absurde qui peut transparaître dans certaines situations (notamment lorsque Dick Tonnerre explique la nécessité d’avoir des brigands mariés pour qu’ils soient efficaces), il y a de très nombreuses choses à découvrir dans ce roman, qui laisse lorsqu’on le ferme un goût de rêve, certes un peu enfantin, mais diablement agréable.
(1) d’ailleurs, ils utilisent à plusieurs reprises les règles du conte à leur avantage
(2) évidement, un héros ne peut être que noble, et quelle meilleure noblesse qu’un prince de sang ?

[John Loyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

One for the Morning Glory (1996) 319 pages by John Barnes.

I have to call this story a fairy tale. Even the characters in the story refer to it as such. The style reminds me of the old Saturday morning cartoons like Rocky & Bullwinkle or Fractured Fairy Tales. Don't let that make you think less of this book. Barnes crafts an excellent story to go along with the tongue in cheek humor.

It is said that a child who tastes the wine of the gods too early is only half the person afterward. In this tale Prince Amatus at the age of two drinks a cup and is literally half, having no left side. This doesn't seem to affect his mobility, eating or other functions, just his appearance. King Boniface then executes the ones responsible, and after a year and a day and many rejections of possible replacements a group of four come in and get the jobs.

Prince Amatus grows up, adventures begin, Amatus struggles with a personal problem, then a threat to the people, and finally a threat to the kingdom.

It's a fine story with the interaction of Amatus and his four companions, Duke Wassant, Sir John Slitgizzard, and Calliope. Characters from the early adventure are woven into the later story. It works, it was fun to read, and it felt meaningful.

When I mention tongue in cheek, a game animal in called gazebo and hunted with omnibuses. What one has with tea is a plate of protons and simile. Other weapons include escree, pismire, pongee, and trebleclef. The usage was so clear, that it took me a while to figure out that he was making up words or new meanings. I'm cool with how he did it.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

The jacket compares this to William Goldman’s The Princess Bride, and it is easy to see some resemblance. Both are fantasy stories in which the author speaks directly to the reader for humorous intent. The device of the book within a book in The Princess Bride allows Goldman to comment on the story itself; Barnes has his characters comment on it, as they realize that they are part of a tale. Post-modern fantasy. Whowouldathunkit.

And it works for the most part. Barnes deconstructs the typical fairy tale through his self-aware characters, yet also makes these same characters empathetic and keeps the tension of the story itself tight. Although you know that you are reading a story, you wonder just how much this new tale will fit the traditional, or if the author will suddenly veer off into unexplored territory. At its heart, the story is still your basic fantasy plot, and, unfortunately, no amount of tricks can avoid the fact that you’ve read this all before.

The Princess Bride succeeded because it exaggerated the standard cliches, making everything stand out as in bas-relief to the flat irreality of the normal story. Goldman’s fondness for the genre kept it light, rather than ponderous and heavy-handed. Barnes starts off well, and there are brief flashes of brilliance, but most of the time his post-modern experimentation takes a backseat to the plot. It thus feels schizophrenic. I like what he was trying to accomplish, though.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I barely finished this month’s challenge in time!
Birth month flower is morning glory
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I researched lots on good reads for this category and I’m so glad! I think it was a hard category to find a good one! I really enjoyed this book. I went through a huge fantasy phase for probably 15-20 years and this book reminded me of my old favorites. I don’t read much fantasy anymore, but I really liked this book. It reminded me most of The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander and also of The Princess Bride (which is even better than the fabulous movie). There’s also Christian symbolism. I think there might be symbolism in the names, but didn’t take the time to wonder about it because I wanted to finish it in time.

This book has all my favorite qualities in fantasy: most importantly-quality characters, also a happy ending, mostly clean with a little edgy innuendo, good monarchs, thieves with honor, lots of adventure, made up words that seem very real and have lots of description so you can imagine what they mean, no language. There was also a self-awareness that was fun. It kept referring to the fairy tale they might be in. This is a book my fifth-grader would love, but I wouldn’t have him read until he’s a mid-teen, probably. There was also lots of vocabulary that I got to look up, which I thoroughly enjoy.

I highly recommend this book if you like fantasy/fairy tales. Otherwise, you might hate it.

[Leons1701 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very atypical work for Barnes, who is best known for relatively hard SF coming of age and disaster stories. So a fairy tale fantasy is not his usual ballpark at all. Which isn't to say he does this poorly, Barnes always writes good stuff and this is no exception. He is clearly having fun playing with language here, introducing completely new and unexplained words is one of his trademarks, and he plays with it to extremes here. Everything is quite obvious from context and most of them are just mangled somewhat from a familiar term or sometimes an archaic one and most are actual words used out of familiar context (omnibus more or less used as arquebus, for example). Some of them may even be archaic terms themselves, who can possibly keep track of every single name that has ever be applied to a handgun?

Anyhow, it's a reasonably decent story about the Prince of a fairy tale kingdom who manages to lose his entire left side due to a very early mishap. There's adventure, mystery, valor and true love, all the stuff you'd expect, even if it isn't always done quite the way you'd expect.
I much wanted to rate this higher, 3 stars just doesn't feel quite right, but I can't really say I loved it. it's there, it's a good book and a fun read, but it seems to just be missing some extra little spark.