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Three Princes
Lord Scott Oken, a prince of Albion, and Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke live in a world where the sun never set on the Egyptian Empire. In the year 1877 of Our Lord Julius Caesar, Pharaoh Djoser-George governs a sprawling realm that spans Europe, Africa, and much of Asia. When the European terrorist Otto von Bismarck touches off an international conspiracy, Scott and Mik are charged with exposing the plot against the Empire.
Their adventure takes them from the sands of Memphis to a lush New World, home of the Incan Tawantinsuyu, a rival empire across the glittering Atlantic Ocean. Encompassing Quetzal airships, operas, blood sacrifice and high diplomacy, Three Princes is a richly imagined, cinematic vision of a modern Egyptian Empire.
Their adventure takes them from the sands of Memphis to a lush New World, home of the Incan Tawantinsuyu, a rival empire across the glittering Atlantic Ocean. Encompassing Quetzal airships, operas, blood sacrifice and high diplomacy, Three Princes is a richly imagined, cinematic vision of a modern Egyptian Empire.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published February 4, 2014
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1169 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
January 27, 2014
Since I found out that Three Princes is set in an alternate reality where Egyptian empire never ceased to exist, I was looking forward to reading it. I’m crazy about Egyptian culture, history and mythology, so I was dying to learn how Ramona Wheeler imagined that the world would develop if the awesome empire who built the pyramids still existed. But when I actually started to read Three Princes my excitement soon died down and slowly became replaced by indifference. Finally at 42% (around 150 pages) I officially decided to mark this book as DNF and proceed to the next one. As some wise person said: Life is too short to waste it on books we don’t like.
As always, I will try to explain why Three Princes didn’t work me me and hopefully it will help some other reader with similar taste to avoid trying to read this book, or even intrigue someone with opposite taste to give it a try.
From the start, I encountered my first problem with Three Princes. Main hero: Lord Scott Oken. At 27, he’s an Egyptian spy and reminded me most of James Bond. He’s always at the right place at the right time, somehow against all odds survives and observes all women as sexual objects.
And we’re already encountered my second issue with this book. Lack of strong female characters. If we make an exception for the Queen of Egypt, all women are just there for decoration, sex or to be exploited by our smart and handsome spy. As I already said, it’s all very reminiscent of famous 007 agent. In fact, I was surprised that Three Princes was written by a female writer since to me it seems like it’s oriented for male readers.
Maybe I would have ignored my antipathy for the hero, if the world charmed me as I expected. But, although this book is full of descriptions, the main things I was looking forward was missing. How come Egyptian empire still exists? This is the main question I wanted answered and I got nothing except mentions from time to time about some union between Caesar and Cleopatra. But there were a lot of totally unnecessary details about life in towns and tribes Lord Oken encounters on his travels. Knowing the exact pattern of painted colors on naked woman’s chest was not my top priority, so I was mostly bored with these attempts of world-building.
And I won’t even start to comment of so-called ‘steampunk’ – since there are no steam engines I would never label this novel as that genre. There are some weird flying machines but trying to understand ‘scientific’ background how they fly will only give you a headache. It would have been better if it was left a mystery…
In The End…
If you are a male fantasy fan and are looking for an alternate history novel about young spy who travels a lot, encounters a bunch of pretty women and nefarious villains – then Three Princes is the book for you. Readers looking for complex characters where everything is not black and white or more to the story than how awesome Lord Scott Oken is, will probably be disappointed.
My rating: 1 star
Disclaimer: I was given a free eBook by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. This text is also posted on my blog Bookworm Dreams in a little bit more styled edition.
As always, I will try to explain why Three Princes didn’t work me me and hopefully it will help some other reader with similar taste to avoid trying to read this book, or even intrigue someone with opposite taste to give it a try.
From the start, I encountered my first problem with Three Princes. Main hero: Lord Scott Oken. At 27, he’s an Egyptian spy and reminded me most of James Bond. He’s always at the right place at the right time, somehow against all odds survives and observes all women as sexual objects.
And we’re already encountered my second issue with this book. Lack of strong female characters. If we make an exception for the Queen of Egypt, all women are just there for decoration, sex or to be exploited by our smart and handsome spy. As I already said, it’s all very reminiscent of famous 007 agent. In fact, I was surprised that Three Princes was written by a female writer since to me it seems like it’s oriented for male readers.
Maybe I would have ignored my antipathy for the hero, if the world charmed me as I expected. But, although this book is full of descriptions, the main things I was looking forward was missing. How come Egyptian empire still exists? This is the main question I wanted answered and I got nothing except mentions from time to time about some union between Caesar and Cleopatra. But there were a lot of totally unnecessary details about life in towns and tribes Lord Oken encounters on his travels. Knowing the exact pattern of painted colors on naked woman’s chest was not my top priority, so I was mostly bored with these attempts of world-building.
And I won’t even start to comment of so-called ‘steampunk’ – since there are no steam engines I would never label this novel as that genre. There are some weird flying machines but trying to understand ‘scientific’ background how they fly will only give you a headache. It would have been better if it was left a mystery…
In The End…
If you are a male fantasy fan and are looking for an alternate history novel about young spy who travels a lot, encounters a bunch of pretty women and nefarious villains – then Three Princes is the book for you. Readers looking for complex characters where everything is not black and white or more to the story than how awesome Lord Scott Oken is, will probably be disappointed.
My rating: 1 star
Disclaimer: I was given a free eBook by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. This text is also posted on my blog Bookworm Dreams in a little bit more styled edition.
September 1, 2016
2.5 to 3.0 stars
In the beginning, there were only Two Princes - Oken and Mabruke, apprentice/journeyman and master spies of the Egyptian Empire, an empire that never fell and where Cleopatra didn't kiss an asp. The offspring of Caesar and Cleopatra multiplied and prospered across the centuries, bringing us to the golden age of culture and civilization we normally associate with the Victorian era. Never fear, Victoria and Albert have their parts to play in the political theatre bubbling across Europe and between the two Empires of the Old and New Worlds.
And that's where our Third Prince, Viracocha, makes his dramatic entrance, as a member of the royal family of the Inca/Aztec Empire of the New World. Logically, to the author at least, if Spain never rose to prominence, then the South American continent wouldn't have been invaded and devastated by the Conquistadors. Instead, they flourished and prospered just as their Egyptian peers did in the Old World.
I struggled with most of this book. Too many plot holes. Not enough character development. Events resolved to quickly and easily. No strong female characters until more than halfway through the novel. Too many things left hanging or seemingly discarded and forgotten. The Epilogue also left me scratching my head. And I definitely wanted more details from the Oesterreich rebels.
I should probably give this a two star rating because it really was just 'okay,' but I did find myself turning the pages more quickly as the end approached. I had high hopes for Three Princes as my first foray into an alternate history with an Egyptian twist.
My thanks to Netgalley and Tor for allowing me to read an advanced reading copy of this ebook.
In the beginning, there were only Two Princes - Oken and Mabruke, apprentice/journeyman and master spies of the Egyptian Empire, an empire that never fell and where Cleopatra didn't kiss an asp. The offspring of Caesar and Cleopatra multiplied and prospered across the centuries, bringing us to the golden age of culture and civilization we normally associate with the Victorian era. Never fear, Victoria and Albert have their parts to play in the political theatre bubbling across Europe and between the two Empires of the Old and New Worlds.
And that's where our Third Prince, Viracocha, makes his dramatic entrance, as a member of the royal family of the Inca/Aztec Empire of the New World. Logically, to the author at least, if Spain never rose to prominence, then the South American continent wouldn't have been invaded and devastated by the Conquistadors. Instead, they flourished and prospered just as their Egyptian peers did in the Old World.
I struggled with most of this book. Too many plot holes. Not enough character development. Events resolved to quickly and easily. No strong female characters until more than halfway through the novel. Too many things left hanging or seemingly discarded and forgotten. The Epilogue also left me scratching my head. And I definitely wanted more details from the Oesterreich rebels.
I should probably give this a two star rating because it really was just 'okay,' but I did find myself turning the pages more quickly as the end approached. I had high hopes for Three Princes as my first foray into an alternate history with an Egyptian twist.
My thanks to Netgalley and Tor for allowing me to read an advanced reading copy of this ebook.
November 30, 2014
Despite what looks like some interesting world-building, the actual novel is borderline unreadable because of the poor quality of the prose. With this one I barely made it less than 10% in before giving up.
Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!
Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!
April 9, 2015
By forty pages in, I had decided that I wouldn't be taking this book seriously and as a result I enjoyed it immensely. I loved Three Princes in the way that I love movies like Tremors, Independence Day and The Fifth Element. Go into reading it with these sort of expectations and a healthy dose of patience for ridiculous handling of female characters and you might enjoy it, too. Might. I have terrible taste.
Three Princes is less an "alternate history" and more a Monty Python sketch. My best in book example of this is that at one point early on, in Memphis, Egypt, the characters were taken to an emergency room where the physicians were called 'sekhmeticians', but nurses were still just 'nurses.' I pictured the cast of Monty Python in lab coats with stethoscopes and Hollywood costume headdresses from the set of Cleopatra. This "Western culture stuff but with a foreign word and some costume jewelry tacked on to make it more Egypt-y or Incan-y" theme persists throughout the novel. It's steampunk dressed up in props from Legends of the Hidden Temple. Throughout the middle of the novel, the main character makes several references to Horus Scopes in place of 'horoscope', which becomes unintentionally hysterical.
A lot of people have described the book as Steampunk James Bond, and while I do feel that that was the original intention, the finished project is more of a travel log through a fever dream. The plot holds few surprises for those who have heard someone else explain the plot of a spy movie before, and considering how high the stakes are in theory, they don't feel very high in practice. The author spends more time describing meals, furniture or the body paint on naked women than she does on the climax of the story. The setting is the real star of the show, but it shines only in brief moments. There are a few brilliant, evocative descriptions that pop up between difficult to follow prose littered with poorly explained jargon, absolute silliness (scarlet macaws that border on magical in a setting that is otherwise non-magical) and just kind of Tolkeinesque descriptions of food or bath tubs.
I feel like perhaps the story could've used a bit more editing. There are multiple instances where the same adjective/adverb is used twice in one sentence. An example from the book: "[he] was once more sleekly attired in a silk suit, his hair oiled and sleek..." I'm not entirely sure if this was a stylistic choice or not, but it happened at least three times that I can remember and each time it was jarring, pulling me out of the story. Similarly, there was an instance where a character came to a specific conclusion about something that had happened and then just a paragraph later, came to the exact same conclusion again as though the first epiphany had not happened.
My greatest annoyance with the story was its treatment of women; reading this book was like being back in my first year of college. Three Princes is that girl who lives on your dorm floor who laughs and says, "Oh, all of my friends are guys. I don't have female friends." It wraps you in its casual dislike of women like a warm, obnoxious, paranoid blanket. There are two types of female characters in this story: the sexy wildcat and the demure innocent. Often characters will phase between the two states. All female characters are little more than dick holsters: bullet points tertiary to the main plot, intended only to drive home the fact that Scott Oken IS TOTALLY HETEROSEXUAL U GUYZZZZ and also SUPER DESIRABLE TO EVERYONE AROUND HIM ESPECIALLY THE LAYDAYZ (this point comes up so frequently as to border on offensive). There are multiple female characters who could either be replaced with messenger pigeons or removed wholly from the story to save on word count. Two of the three key female characters in the book are literally married off within a page right before the end, "falling in love" with men they have made little more than eye contact with. For what it's worth, and this is speaking as someone who will stop reading books that don't have any female characters in them, I feel like the plot would have been improved by cutting most of the female characters (as their portrayals are so unrealistic as to be offensive) and actually committing to a romance between the two male leads.
Ruminating on it, I also don't actually get why Mabruke was so fond of Oken. He's kind of a twit. For being a master spy he seems more reliant upon luck than skill and the constant insistence that he is straight and that Mabruke somehow desires him above all else was insufferable. By the end of the book I was convinced that Oken's belief that Mabruke was just madly in love with Oken to be entirely in his head.
Three Princes is less an "alternate history" and more a Monty Python sketch. My best in book example of this is that at one point early on, in Memphis, Egypt, the characters were taken to an emergency room where the physicians were called 'sekhmeticians', but nurses were still just 'nurses.' I pictured the cast of Monty Python in lab coats with stethoscopes and Hollywood costume headdresses from the set of Cleopatra. This "Western culture stuff but with a foreign word and some costume jewelry tacked on to make it more Egypt-y or Incan-y" theme persists throughout the novel. It's steampunk dressed up in props from Legends of the Hidden Temple. Throughout the middle of the novel, the main character makes several references to Horus Scopes in place of 'horoscope', which becomes unintentionally hysterical.
A lot of people have described the book as Steampunk James Bond, and while I do feel that that was the original intention, the finished project is more of a travel log through a fever dream. The plot holds few surprises for those who have heard someone else explain the plot of a spy movie before, and considering how high the stakes are in theory, they don't feel very high in practice. The author spends more time describing meals, furniture or the body paint on naked women than she does on the climax of the story. The setting is the real star of the show, but it shines only in brief moments. There are a few brilliant, evocative descriptions that pop up between difficult to follow prose littered with poorly explained jargon, absolute silliness (scarlet macaws that border on magical in a setting that is otherwise non-magical) and just kind of Tolkeinesque descriptions of food or bath tubs.
I feel like perhaps the story could've used a bit more editing. There are multiple instances where the same adjective/adverb is used twice in one sentence. An example from the book: "[he] was once more sleekly attired in a silk suit, his hair oiled and sleek..." I'm not entirely sure if this was a stylistic choice or not, but it happened at least three times that I can remember and each time it was jarring, pulling me out of the story. Similarly, there was an instance where a character came to a specific conclusion about something that had happened and then just a paragraph later, came to the exact same conclusion again as though the first epiphany had not happened.
My greatest annoyance with the story was its treatment of women; reading this book was like being back in my first year of college. Three Princes is that girl who lives on your dorm floor who laughs and says, "Oh, all of my friends are guys. I don't have female friends." It wraps you in its casual dislike of women like a warm, obnoxious, paranoid blanket. There are two types of female characters in this story: the sexy wildcat and the demure innocent. Often characters will phase between the two states. All female characters are little more than dick holsters: bullet points tertiary to the main plot, intended only to drive home the fact that Scott Oken IS TOTALLY HETEROSEXUAL U GUYZZZZ and also SUPER DESIRABLE TO EVERYONE AROUND HIM ESPECIALLY THE LAYDAYZ (this point comes up so frequently as to border on offensive). There are multiple female characters who could either be replaced with messenger pigeons or removed wholly from the story to save on word count. Two of the three key female characters in the book are literally married off within a page right before the end, "falling in love" with men they have made little more than eye contact with. For what it's worth, and this is speaking as someone who will stop reading books that don't have any female characters in them, I feel like the plot would have been improved by cutting most of the female characters (as their portrayals are so unrealistic as to be offensive) and actually committing to a romance between the two male leads.
Ruminating on it, I also don't actually get why Mabruke was so fond of Oken. He's kind of a twit. For being a master spy he seems more reliant upon luck than skill and the constant insistence that he is straight and that Mabruke somehow desires him above all else was insufferable. By the end of the book I was convinced that Oken's belief that Mabruke was just madly in love with Oken to be entirely in his head.
November 5, 2014
I requested THREE PRINCES from Tor because Egypt is one of my NEED NOW topics and the fact that this book takes a concept, what would the world look like if Egypt hadn’t fallen, something I’ve often thought about, and did something with it. That got me doubly excited and I started salivating a little bit so I pounced. Unfortunately it fell a bit short for me.
Oken is a womanizing spy, a James Bond of this advanced Egyptian era, if you will, and Mabruke is your token wizened espionage agent and together they set out on a mission to spy on the Incas to learn how they anticipate getting to the moon, steal their ideas and use them to get Egypt into space first. Rather Russian versus US in that regard, just maybe 150 years earlier or so. However, this overarching plot is buried under a world that the author wants in the forefront so badly the plot itself is hardly visible.
I’m a world whore. I love world building and that’s probably what kept me from being overly bored with THREE PRINCES. I was bored but at least Wheeler painted a pretty world for me to play in. It’s a world that doesn’t make a lot of sense and where things that happen in our known timelines are brushed over for the sake of world building but if you don’t think about that it’s a nice, exotic world. For instance, the start of this great everlasting Egyptian empire began with the joining of Caesar and Cleopatra. Well, that makes sense. However, how the real world events known to us were circumvented that would lead to not an everlasting ROMAN empire (since Egypt was in decline at this point in history) but a lasting EGYPTIAN empire are never mentioned. While Caesar’s death is a non-issue in this book world as a reader I kind of need to know what offset his death and felled the Roman Empire (that didn’t actually decline for another few hundred years past this point) in order to make the basis of the Egyptian world believable.
In hindsight it appears that all Wheeler did was attempt to advance Egyptian technology a little bit, mixed in some pseudo-Victorian elements, a dash of steampunk and a dollop of Inca/Maya, mix it all up like Boggle tiles and bam! World. It’s rather disappointing but I guess that’s the trouble with alternate histories; you’re required, as a reader, to suspend your disbelief. Which is fine. I can do that. But only to a certain extent. THREE PRINCES required more than what I could give.
The plot was thin and contrived at best. The whole space race concept was transparent and wholly unimportant to anything else going on that it was glaringly obvious in its workings as a plot device. Thinning the plot even more was the amount of attention paid to minutiae like the Quetzal flying machines or how palaces looked or this piece of technology or that opera. Again, very vivid scene-setting but that’s all that it had going for it. The characters and storyline were mere specks in this grandiose painting. If you looked hard enough to could make out a little bit of what was going on but the focus was definitely on the world and cultures around the characters.
I wish there was a grander story in this book and I wish the world made more sense. I could have loved it. But as it stands I didn’t. It’s a concept I’d still love to read about but I don’t think this was the right approach. It’s built on a couple of toothpicks and without explanation the whole world comes tumbling down on me. I need more than a pretty setting to get me by in something like this. I wish I could say differently about THREE PRINCES. Unfortunately I can’t.
2 1/2
Oken is a womanizing spy, a James Bond of this advanced Egyptian era, if you will, and Mabruke is your token wizened espionage agent and together they set out on a mission to spy on the Incas to learn how they anticipate getting to the moon, steal their ideas and use them to get Egypt into space first. Rather Russian versus US in that regard, just maybe 150 years earlier or so. However, this overarching plot is buried under a world that the author wants in the forefront so badly the plot itself is hardly visible.
I’m a world whore. I love world building and that’s probably what kept me from being overly bored with THREE PRINCES. I was bored but at least Wheeler painted a pretty world for me to play in. It’s a world that doesn’t make a lot of sense and where things that happen in our known timelines are brushed over for the sake of world building but if you don’t think about that it’s a nice, exotic world. For instance, the start of this great everlasting Egyptian empire began with the joining of Caesar and Cleopatra. Well, that makes sense. However, how the real world events known to us were circumvented that would lead to not an everlasting ROMAN empire (since Egypt was in decline at this point in history) but a lasting EGYPTIAN empire are never mentioned. While Caesar’s death is a non-issue in this book world as a reader I kind of need to know what offset his death and felled the Roman Empire (that didn’t actually decline for another few hundred years past this point) in order to make the basis of the Egyptian world believable.
In hindsight it appears that all Wheeler did was attempt to advance Egyptian technology a little bit, mixed in some pseudo-Victorian elements, a dash of steampunk and a dollop of Inca/Maya, mix it all up like Boggle tiles and bam! World. It’s rather disappointing but I guess that’s the trouble with alternate histories; you’re required, as a reader, to suspend your disbelief. Which is fine. I can do that. But only to a certain extent. THREE PRINCES required more than what I could give.
The plot was thin and contrived at best. The whole space race concept was transparent and wholly unimportant to anything else going on that it was glaringly obvious in its workings as a plot device. Thinning the plot even more was the amount of attention paid to minutiae like the Quetzal flying machines or how palaces looked or this piece of technology or that opera. Again, very vivid scene-setting but that’s all that it had going for it. The characters and storyline were mere specks in this grandiose painting. If you looked hard enough to could make out a little bit of what was going on but the focus was definitely on the world and cultures around the characters.
I wish there was a grander story in this book and I wish the world made more sense. I could have loved it. But as it stands I didn’t. It’s a concept I’d still love to read about but I don’t think this was the right approach. It’s built on a couple of toothpicks and without explanation the whole world comes tumbling down on me. I need more than a pretty setting to get me by in something like this. I wish I could say differently about THREE PRINCES. Unfortunately I can’t.
2 1/2
February 7, 2014
This was different, I do like the what if stories. Some take in a few things, some go really deep. Here we have an Egyptian Empire that never fell, oh and took over a lot of land. Cleopatra and Caesar lived happily and the rest is history. Europe is a bunch of states with princes under Egypt. Truly a mix of cultures.
But across the ocean the Inkas, The Aztecs, yes everyone got to flourish in their own ways so they are empires of their own. They can also fly, so the can rule the skies.
But what is the world without some evil guys`? Here in form of Bismarck, Victoria and Albert.
To the story, Lord Scott, an Albion prince spies for his Empire and is sent to the New World with his friend Mikel, a Nubian prince and a scholar. I will not say what they look for but oh they got ideas across the ocean. The first travel through North Africa and then we get the new world. Everything so unfamiliar and yet yes so could have been.
An interesting what if story.
But across the ocean the Inkas, The Aztecs, yes everyone got to flourish in their own ways so they are empires of their own. They can also fly, so the can rule the skies.
But what is the world without some evil guys`? Here in form of Bismarck, Victoria and Albert.
To the story, Lord Scott, an Albion prince spies for his Empire and is sent to the New World with his friend Mikel, a Nubian prince and a scholar. I will not say what they look for but oh they got ideas across the ocean. The first travel through North Africa and then we get the new world. Everything so unfamiliar and yet yes so could have been.
An interesting what if story.
Read
February 26, 2014 I hate writing not-a-reviews like this. I truly do. I realize that the author spends a lot of time writing their book and then I poo-poo it like this. It’s gotta hurt, but I have to be honest with my readers. This book had such potential, and it just didn’t live up to it. When I get sent so many books in the mail each week, I start to realize that life is too short to spend too much times on books that you don’t enjoy, so I moved on. Perhaps this book will work for other people. In fact, I can guarantee it will. It’s worth giving it a try. However, it just didn’t work for me.
Read my full review here:
http://www.bookwormblues.net/2014/02/...
Read my full review here:
http://www.bookwormblues.net/2014/02/...
January 30, 2014
Too much setting, not enough everything else.
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/01/book...
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/01/book...
January 9, 2014
I received a galley of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book reads a bit like an old-fashioned adventure novel. It's set in a complex alternate history, in which Christianity never took off and in which Egypt is still the center of the civilized world. The Three Princes are an English one named Scott Oken, from the colony up in the chilly north, an Egyptian one from the heart of the empire, and an Incan prince from the new world empire that the first two go to visit in a fabulous Incan airship.
The book reads a lot like a travelogue. Everywhere the main characters go, they are surrounded by the exotic and the sumptuous. They lounge in desert tents with the finest coffee and rich carpets, they wander the Egyptian palace with its imposing architecture and its beautiful yet accessible queen, and they fly in an Incan airship painted like an exotic bird, with beautiful and scantily clad handmaidens at their beck and call. It feels very much like an idealization of how it might have been for a scion of the mighty British empire to travel in the nineteenth century, only in an alternate universe.
There's a lot of description, which was sort of fun, but after a while I felt that I was longing for an escape from all the richness described above. The adventure the princes get into is very top-down. They are extremely privileged people, and the lot of servants or the less fortunate is never questioned. The princes make friends with a cook, but it feels almost cartoonish. They also have uncanny powers of observation. One prince, an expert in perfumes and poison, can tell that an Incan servant has a poisonous rouge on her nipples from across the room, even though he has never been exposed to the New World pharmocopeia before. The only people not to like the princes are the bad guys, who are unremittingly bad.
If you like your good and bad guys clear-cut, the privilege of power unquestioned, and want to read about a fabulous alternate world filled with beauty and adventure, this is for you. While the setting was colorful and thoroughly thought out, the lack of complexity or thoughts as to the underpinnings of the world kept me from truly sinking into it.
This book reads a bit like an old-fashioned adventure novel. It's set in a complex alternate history, in which Christianity never took off and in which Egypt is still the center of the civilized world. The Three Princes are an English one named Scott Oken, from the colony up in the chilly north, an Egyptian one from the heart of the empire, and an Incan prince from the new world empire that the first two go to visit in a fabulous Incan airship.
The book reads a lot like a travelogue. Everywhere the main characters go, they are surrounded by the exotic and the sumptuous. They lounge in desert tents with the finest coffee and rich carpets, they wander the Egyptian palace with its imposing architecture and its beautiful yet accessible queen, and they fly in an Incan airship painted like an exotic bird, with beautiful and scantily clad handmaidens at their beck and call. It feels very much like an idealization of how it might have been for a scion of the mighty British empire to travel in the nineteenth century, only in an alternate universe.
There's a lot of description, which was sort of fun, but after a while I felt that I was longing for an escape from all the richness described above. The adventure the princes get into is very top-down. They are extremely privileged people, and the lot of servants or the less fortunate is never questioned. The princes make friends with a cook, but it feels almost cartoonish. They also have uncanny powers of observation. One prince, an expert in perfumes and poison, can tell that an Incan servant has a poisonous rouge on her nipples from across the room, even though he has never been exposed to the New World pharmocopeia before. The only people not to like the princes are the bad guys, who are unremittingly bad.
If you like your good and bad guys clear-cut, the privilege of power unquestioned, and want to read about a fabulous alternate world filled with beauty and adventure, this is for you. While the setting was colorful and thoroughly thought out, the lack of complexity or thoughts as to the underpinnings of the world kept me from truly sinking into it.
September 15, 2014
This is a book I really wanted to like. I love Egyptian history and the Egyptian “style” so the idea of bringing that forward into modern times really intrigued me. And that is the big thing this book gets right. Add to that the fact that in the story the Incans also remain and are the Egyptians main adversary and I am totally on board. Ramona Wheeler is very good at describing the world in such a way that you can almost feel it. While the alternate history lover in me has serious issues with the leaps she took in getting Egypt to where it is in the story I was able to look over that. The idea of a giant metropolis built around the pyramids with zeppelins flying by is amazing. And Wheeler is able to make the descriptions really come alive and jump off the page. The aesthetic of this book is simply hard to beat.
Where this book really falls is in the writing and the characters. Three Princes is just not that interesting, which is surprising considering how intriguing the world is. The story itself is just flat out boring. I had little interest in the events as the played out and the actual plot is convoluted and all over the place. While I loved Wheelers descriptions of the world it feels like she got just too much into that aspect and the rest of it feels more like a vehicle for her to describe this world she created. Everything outside of the descriptive text seems like an afterthought.
The other issue beyond the overly dull and meandering plot is the characters. They are either unrepentantly bad or just too good at what they do to be interesting. At no point did I actually care for any of the characters or care what happens to them.
http://homeofreading.com/three-princes/
Where this book really falls is in the writing and the characters. Three Princes is just not that interesting, which is surprising considering how intriguing the world is. The story itself is just flat out boring. I had little interest in the events as the played out and the actual plot is convoluted and all over the place. While I loved Wheelers descriptions of the world it feels like she got just too much into that aspect and the rest of it feels more like a vehicle for her to describe this world she created. Everything outside of the descriptive text seems like an afterthought.
The other issue beyond the overly dull and meandering plot is the characters. They are either unrepentantly bad or just too good at what they do to be interesting. At no point did I actually care for any of the characters or care what happens to them.
http://homeofreading.com/three-princes/
October 21, 2014
Ramona Wheeler bring a different niche to the whole Steampunk genre with "Three Princes". A fascinating look at a possible history where the Egyptians of Pharaoh and Cleopatra still dominate the world. But its not only Egypt that has survived and flourished the Incas and the Mayas have also become world powers.
Steampunk in a non Euro-centric story. The cultural clash is very much worth reading and to find that even in that setting we still see the same issues just transferred to these civilizations.
That is all the good, I don't really have bad more like a feeling the book felt longer than it should have been. Pacing, is mostly to blame but it will not overpower the feeling that you are reading something out of the typical. What I do feel lacking is a good bad guy a real evil power or crazy. I don't know it might be my own Euro-Centric upbringing that doesn't let me see Victoria and Albert or Otto von Bismarck, as truly competing with Darth's pinky over true villainy.
Who should read this book: Lovers of alternate history, even history buffs might get a true kick at seeing things from a different perspective. Steampunk lovers will find lots of things that remind them of that genre and enjoy it. Espionage and Mystery lovers will find enough to keep them reading and enjoying it through out.
All in all I wish Goodreads allowed half stars to give the book a 3.5 star rating.
Steampunk in a non Euro-centric story. The cultural clash is very much worth reading and to find that even in that setting we still see the same issues just transferred to these civilizations.
That is all the good, I don't really have bad more like a feeling the book felt longer than it should have been. Pacing, is mostly to blame but it will not overpower the feeling that you are reading something out of the typical. What I do feel lacking is a good bad guy a real evil power or crazy. I don't know it might be my own Euro-Centric upbringing that doesn't let me see Victoria and Albert or Otto von Bismarck, as truly competing with Darth's pinky over true villainy.
Who should read this book: Lovers of alternate history, even history buffs might get a true kick at seeing things from a different perspective. Steampunk lovers will find lots of things that remind them of that genre and enjoy it. Espionage and Mystery lovers will find enough to keep them reading and enjoying it through out.
All in all I wish Goodreads allowed half stars to give the book a 3.5 star rating.
February 18, 2014
Ramona Wheeler came up with a great setting premise for her novel Three Princes: an alternate Earth where neither the Egyptian nor the Incan Empires ever failed. Now, from their center in Memphis, Egypt rules an enormous swath of land across Africa, Europe, and Asia, though not all are happy with said rule, especially a resistance group led by Otto von Bismarck. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the Incans rule most of that area, which they crisscross in their Quetzal airships, the secret of which they closely guard. When rumors arise of an Incan attempt to land a rocket on the moon, two royal agents of the Egyptian Empire, Lord Scott Oken and Professor/Captain Prince Mikel Mabruke are sent across the wide ocean to investigate.
Like I said, it’s a great setting premise, one refreshingly distant from the usual European-based background. Unfortunately, though Wheeler flashes some moments, the... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Like I said, it’s a great setting premise, one refreshingly distant from the usual European-based background. Unfortunately, though Wheeler flashes some moments, the... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
did-not-finish
February 7, 2017Alas, does not live up to the sprightly promise of the premise. Setting it aside after about 60 pages. The world is delivered with lots of rich detail and description, which slows things down, but my biggest problem was that it didn't flow well for me, often being circuitous and repetitive. When the action did happen, it seemed strangely distant. I did really like the premise, and found it more interesting and believable than a lot of alt-history ("what if Rome never fell" is a difficult one to wrangle out of history; "what if Rome and Egypt merged and ameliorated each others' faults" is more doable, for my money). I was looking forward to seeing an Incan empire that didn't get scuttled just as it was hitting its stride. But I'm just not enjoying reading this.
Want to read
January 12, 2014Am I the only one who immediately heard the Spin Doctors singing in their head upon reading the title?
One, two princes kneel before you
That what I said now
Princes, princes who adore you
Just go ahead now
One has diamonds in his pockets
That's some bread, now
This one said he wants to buy you rockets
Ain't in his head, now
I know, I know, it's THREE princes, not two. This is just how my brain works!
One, two princes kneel before you
That what I said now
Princes, princes who adore you
Just go ahead now
One has diamonds in his pockets
That's some bread, now
This one said he wants to buy you rockets
Ain't in his head, now
I know, I know, it's THREE princes, not two. This is just how my brain works!
July 7, 2014
"The year is 1877, and the Egyptian Empire is alive and well. Lord Scott Oken and Prince Mikel Mabruke are part of that world, full of politics and betrayals. With a rival empire slowly encroaching, the two men face conspiracies, intrigues, and adventures they never dreamed of as they try to support their own Empire." Full review at Fresh Fiction: http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id...
April 10, 2020
Whereas many pieces of alternate history fiction I’ve seen take place either at or around the turning point in history, or else far enough into the future that it becomes a combination of alternate history and science fiction, Ramon Wheeler’s Three Princes was alternate history set long after the division of timelines, but still set in the past, making it notable in that regard alone. Wheeler plays with the timeline of civilization so that things changed at least 2000 years ago, and the book takes place in the late 1800s, making quite a gap to fill in with possibilities and tweaks that yielded an interesting world to explore.
The Roman and Egyptian empires merged, though just how expansive the empire is remains unclear. Air travel has been invented. North American colonialism didn’t really seem to happen, and instead was more of a meeting of mind between two newly-introduced cultures. England seems to be part of the Egyptian empire, but upstarts Victoria and Albert have founded a secret cult, which believes that rulers should be appointed by and rule by divine right, instead of by elections or regional governments. This doesn’t sit well with the Egyptian empire, who hold that all faiths are equal and true and that a ruler has to actually be a good one or else risk losing their throne simply by being voted down. Across the ocean, whispers from the New World suggest that the Incan empire will soon attempt a flight to the moon.
Enter Scott Oken, royalty by blood, and Mikel Mabruke, called the Professor Prince, both of whom are well-trained intelligence operatives for the Egyptian empire. They are sent to investigate the Incan moon launch, as well as to uncover more information at the black orchid cult that is growing in strength and numbers. In Tawantinsuyu, the Incan Empire, we have Viracocha, who is the final of the titular three princes whom the story revolves around. Though really, the vast majority of the story surrounds Oken, a man who can seemingly do no wrong and who attracts women at every turn.
The first half of the story involves a lot of travelling, a fair bit of characters showing off their expansive skillsets and knowledge while dodging members of the black orchid cult as they travel by land and air from Memphis to Tawantinsuyu, across the Atlantic Ocean, in order to investigate the rumours of the Incan empire launching a ship to the moon. This plot gets all but forgotten in the second half of the book after they’ve arrived there, when they meet Viracocha and get tangled in the politics of his life. Particularly, his mad brother killing the current Incan Emperor, their father, and ascending the throne.
As antagonists go, Pachacuti was rather weak. He was insane and paranoid for no particular reason and to no particular end, and not even in such a way as to illustrate a mentally ill character. He was the quintessential mad king, seeing treachery everywhere and throwing tantrums when he didn’t get his way. He had a Disney Death, with the main characters not soiling their hands with his demise but instead having his pride and ambition lead him to keep fighting when he had clearly lost, thus falling to his own death on the steps of the empire he murdered his way into. It was hard to feel much threat from him, because his character was so flimsy, his motives non-existant, and his death unsatisfying. His entire plot arc detracted from the much more interesting issue of the black orchid cult, which was extending even into the Incan empire, but details of that got largely left by the wayside and so much went undone.
I can’t say much for the treatment of women in this book either. It wasn’t that there was a great deal of sexism, at least not that wasn’t expected for the time period and settings of the novel. But the female characters were few and far between, and when they did appear, they were either romantic interests or background characters. Just about every woman gets paired up with someone at the end of the book, which might not seem like cause for complaint, but it rankled that someone thought there was some great need to have women who appeared for a few chapters get married to men who appeared for a few different chapters, after they had canonically known each other for less than a week before making the decision to marry them! Not very impressed by that.
I rated the book 3 stars, a high 3, or possibly a low 4. Three Princes gets points on creativity for the alternate history and the rough planning of several centuries of civilization and development, and for research done on cultures less commonly seen in speculative fiction, as well as the expression of some very interesting protagonists on an interesting quest with plenty of potential for expansion. Points taken off, however, for the meandering plot, weak villains, and pointless end-of-the-book hookups. Given the cliffhanger ending, I expect this book to have a sequel, and Wheeler’s writing style was smooth and decently paced enough to keep me interested, so I’ll no doubt pursue future novels set in this world, but in the end I think it could have stood some improvement. Hopefully the things I took issue with will be evened out later on.
(Book received in exchange for an honest review.)
The Roman and Egyptian empires merged, though just how expansive the empire is remains unclear. Air travel has been invented. North American colonialism didn’t really seem to happen, and instead was more of a meeting of mind between two newly-introduced cultures. England seems to be part of the Egyptian empire, but upstarts Victoria and Albert have founded a secret cult, which believes that rulers should be appointed by and rule by divine right, instead of by elections or regional governments. This doesn’t sit well with the Egyptian empire, who hold that all faiths are equal and true and that a ruler has to actually be a good one or else risk losing their throne simply by being voted down. Across the ocean, whispers from the New World suggest that the Incan empire will soon attempt a flight to the moon.
Enter Scott Oken, royalty by blood, and Mikel Mabruke, called the Professor Prince, both of whom are well-trained intelligence operatives for the Egyptian empire. They are sent to investigate the Incan moon launch, as well as to uncover more information at the black orchid cult that is growing in strength and numbers. In Tawantinsuyu, the Incan Empire, we have Viracocha, who is the final of the titular three princes whom the story revolves around. Though really, the vast majority of the story surrounds Oken, a man who can seemingly do no wrong and who attracts women at every turn.
The first half of the story involves a lot of travelling, a fair bit of characters showing off their expansive skillsets and knowledge while dodging members of the black orchid cult as they travel by land and air from Memphis to Tawantinsuyu, across the Atlantic Ocean, in order to investigate the rumours of the Incan empire launching a ship to the moon. This plot gets all but forgotten in the second half of the book after they’ve arrived there, when they meet Viracocha and get tangled in the politics of his life. Particularly, his mad brother killing the current Incan Emperor, their father, and ascending the throne.
As antagonists go, Pachacuti was rather weak. He was insane and paranoid for no particular reason and to no particular end, and not even in such a way as to illustrate a mentally ill character. He was the quintessential mad king, seeing treachery everywhere and throwing tantrums when he didn’t get his way. He had a Disney Death, with the main characters not soiling their hands with his demise but instead having his pride and ambition lead him to keep fighting when he had clearly lost, thus falling to his own death on the steps of the empire he murdered his way into. It was hard to feel much threat from him, because his character was so flimsy, his motives non-existant, and his death unsatisfying. His entire plot arc detracted from the much more interesting issue of the black orchid cult, which was extending even into the Incan empire, but details of that got largely left by the wayside and so much went undone.
I can’t say much for the treatment of women in this book either. It wasn’t that there was a great deal of sexism, at least not that wasn’t expected for the time period and settings of the novel. But the female characters were few and far between, and when they did appear, they were either romantic interests or background characters. Just about every woman gets paired up with someone at the end of the book, which might not seem like cause for complaint, but it rankled that someone thought there was some great need to have women who appeared for a few chapters get married to men who appeared for a few different chapters, after they had canonically known each other for less than a week before making the decision to marry them! Not very impressed by that.
I rated the book 3 stars, a high 3, or possibly a low 4. Three Princes gets points on creativity for the alternate history and the rough planning of several centuries of civilization and development, and for research done on cultures less commonly seen in speculative fiction, as well as the expression of some very interesting protagonists on an interesting quest with plenty of potential for expansion. Points taken off, however, for the meandering plot, weak villains, and pointless end-of-the-book hookups. Given the cliffhanger ending, I expect this book to have a sequel, and Wheeler’s writing style was smooth and decently paced enough to keep me interested, so I’ll no doubt pursue future novels set in this world, but in the end I think it could have stood some improvement. Hopefully the things I took issue with will be evened out later on.
(Book received in exchange for an honest review.)
August 17, 2014
As an alternate history, it's a complete mess. And as a general story, well, the two main protagonists never actually did anything.
January 26, 2020
Lord Scott Jaimes Robert Lesley Oken, fourth son of Lord Julian Lesley Robert Scott Oken, born of Princess Isis Eileen Marguerite Rowena MacDur, Arch and Archet of the Mercia Spate in the Britannic Kingdom might be a royal Egyptian spy in an alternate history where Cleopatra’s and Caesar’s children rule the world in a mixed bag of stagnant tradition and newfangled technology, but dagnabbit if Oken isn't white and dashing and has a thing for beautiful women and apparently also has a supernatural eidetic memory. Oh, and let’s not forget his impeccable luck. Not luck at solving anything or being a part of the narrative; no, the luck of witnessing things happening around him.
Where do I even begin with this book? Do I even begin?
The writing is chunky and slogged down by info dumps and unnecessary world exposition (why is it that fantasy books, the genre that supposedly spawns from the imagination, is stereotypically so dense in all of the information that they unload that they actually inhibit your own imaginative capabilities while reading?). The plot is irrelevant. The characters are defined by what a scene demands. Oken’s flaw is that his memory is too good and that he loves all women too much. The world is lightly misogynist and racially stereotypical. The pacing is stagnated. The story moves along by either something happening to Oken, or having some exposition of the world and its history and vaguely tied to Oken’s backstory. The dialogue is sometimes trying to be funny, sometimes trying to force exposition, sometimes just embarrassing. If I’m mentioning exposition too much it’s because that’s what this book is: exposition for an alternate history. I could go on.
But you know what? I kind of enjoyed munching on something like this for a time. It was imperfect.
So if you want to pay minimal attention to something while you actually make some to-do lists in your head, go ahead and read this book. Because if you can't enjoy what the book gives you, you can always enjoy the experience you make of it. And this book is surprisingly great at that.
If you want to hear to me rant about this book for twenty minutes, listen to Episode 8 ("Why We Read") of my podcast, Book Rant!
Where do I even begin with this book? Do I even begin?
The writing is chunky and slogged down by info dumps and unnecessary world exposition (why is it that fantasy books, the genre that supposedly spawns from the imagination, is stereotypically so dense in all of the information that they unload that they actually inhibit your own imaginative capabilities while reading?). The plot is irrelevant. The characters are defined by what a scene demands. Oken’s flaw is that his memory is too good and that he loves all women too much. The world is lightly misogynist and racially stereotypical. The pacing is stagnated. The story moves along by either something happening to Oken, or having some exposition of the world and its history and vaguely tied to Oken’s backstory. The dialogue is sometimes trying to be funny, sometimes trying to force exposition, sometimes just embarrassing. If I’m mentioning exposition too much it’s because that’s what this book is: exposition for an alternate history. I could go on.
But you know what? I kind of enjoyed munching on something like this for a time. It was imperfect.
So if you want to pay minimal attention to something while you actually make some to-do lists in your head, go ahead and read this book. Because if you can't enjoy what the book gives you, you can always enjoy the experience you make of it. And this book is surprisingly great at that.
If you want to hear to me rant about this book for twenty minutes, listen to Episode 8 ("Why We Read") of my podcast, Book Rant!
December 10, 2024
Definitely a bummer that it was not as good to current me as opposed to the me of 10 yrs ago who didnt seem to notice the issues with this book. The MC is a james bond womanizer type. Even though it is a female author, in trying to have the narration be from the pov of a womanizer, it comes off weeiirrrd. Like man does this guy looove a good pair of legs. The line that got me to finally just dnf it(i did read it abt 10 yrs ago) was “Women & airships were far more accommodating in their interiors”. Immediate ICK. feels like it is written in a way that makes it seem like it is a normal thought and not that this guy kinda sucks? like you are supposed to like this guy & swoon over him? no, its hard to with thoughts like that.
Otherwise I would describe this as alternate reality historical fiction, focusing on egyptian, roman, british, and incan empires. Throw in a gallon of espionage and dash of steampunk, write it in a way reminiscent of james bond, and maybe the mummy, and this is the book. I think the concept has a lot of potential, but if you cant get over the ick of the main character, you wont like it.
2.75/5
Otherwise I would describe this as alternate reality historical fiction, focusing on egyptian, roman, british, and incan empires. Throw in a gallon of espionage and dash of steampunk, write it in a way reminiscent of james bond, and maybe the mummy, and this is the book. I think the concept has a lot of potential, but if you cant get over the ick of the main character, you wont like it.
2.75/5
October 5, 2020
Exactly like one of the duller and more vacuous 80s Bond films, consisting almost exclusively of 'exotic' locales, schmoozing, being waited on, and a smattering of the author's tedious approximation of action spectacle. The feeble plot barely arrives in time for the book to end. It's astonishing this was written by a woman because she has perfectly captured the 'absolutely disgusting chauvinist pig' perspective. Not a single female character is depicted as an actual human being and they are all discussed like cuts of meat or thoroughbred race horses by both the men and the narration.
I should have listened to the reviews, but I badly wanted to believe people were wrong so I could have Egyptian-empire alternate history. Don't make my mistakes, it is not worth it. The decent, readable prose is all it has going for it.
I should have listened to the reviews, but I badly wanted to believe people were wrong so I could have Egyptian-empire alternate history. Don't make my mistakes, it is not worth it. The decent, readable prose is all it has going for it.
June 24, 2020
Another book that I had to read for work and that I unfortunately didn't enjoy.
The only word I have to describe the storyline is 'awkward'. It had too many plot-holes and most of it made very little sense. The characters are not likeable and the protagonist is downright obnoxious. The role of female characters (or, better said, their lack of a proper role) made me cringe. The author was obviously more focused on descriptions of the built and natural environment than on any form of character or story development. In my opinion the setting had a lot of potential, but it is sadly vague and equally underdeveloped.
Overall I wouldn't recommend this book. It served its purposes, but it really bored me to no end.
The only word I have to describe the storyline is 'awkward'. It had too many plot-holes and most of it made very little sense. The characters are not likeable and the protagonist is downright obnoxious. The role of female characters (or, better said, their lack of a proper role) made me cringe. The author was obviously more focused on descriptions of the built and natural environment than on any form of character or story development. In my opinion the setting had a lot of potential, but it is sadly vague and equally underdeveloped.
Overall I wouldn't recommend this book. It served its purposes, but it really bored me to no end.
October 17, 2019
I tried a genre of fiction I don't usually pick up speculative history I guess you might call it. A story set in a world where Egypt remained in power. I think the details and the imagination of the book were excellent, but the actually plot line was a bit stale and underwhelming. A couple of the characters intrigued me, but then were quickly dismissed or not fully fleshed out in my opinion. I think for someone who loves detail and description around an imagined world this book might be just the ticket. I prefer less description of the place, clothing and architecture and more dialogue, characterization and plot.
May 14, 2024
What if the Egyptians had continued to be the ruling class of the world? What if the Inca, Aztec, and Mayan people had continued in some way, shape or form in the Western Hemisphere?
This author presents her choices which make this action adventure tale provoke more than a few "interesting" in response to her choices.
This author presents her choices which make this action adventure tale provoke more than a few "interesting" in response to her choices.
April 20, 2018
I definitely know way too much about history to find this alternate universe truly enjoyable, and I really wish the protag wasn't a horny cis het white dude.
April 11, 2024
Unfinished. Pacing of action and infodumping is really uneven. I like the concept, though
June 19, 2024
It's sad that there are no other works of fiction from this talented writer.
August 2, 2024
a neat concept but half-baked, pretty damn shallow characters and a rushed plot
October 16, 2015
I must say that I do like a good alternate history. They seem to encapsulate the epitome of the what-if extrapolation, following through on ideas to often original ends.
And as alternate histories go, this one’s great. Here the idea is that (unlike our world) Caesar and Cleopatra survived, creating a Empire-dynasty that has continued through to the year 1877 of Our Lord Julius Caesar. In the age of the Egyptian Empire, Memphis, Egypt is recognised by many as the capital city of the world, the latest Cleopatra, Queen Sashetah Irene, is the Queen of the World, married to Pharaoh Djoser-George. Europe is rather more side-lined in this world than in ours. There are terrorist plots aplenty, determined to create their own World Order and bring down the Egyptian regime. These are often originated from Victoria and Albert and their agent, the terrorist Count Otto von Bismarck.
Our tale is told mainly by following Lord Scott Oken, fourth son of the Spate Arch of Mercia in the Britannic Isles and one of the great descendants of the Caesar line. Often working as an ambassador for the Egyptians, Scott is also a secret agent for the Egyptian Queen. His ability as a memoryman, a person who can record things by memory and retain them, means that he is often called upon to note key events.
His mentor, Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke, and Oken are given the task of uncovering an international conspiracy, seemingly being organised by Bismarck.
Their tale goes from Memphis to Europe to the New World. It is here that we meet the third prince of the title, Prince Viracocha of the Incan Tawantinsuyu. In South America the Incas have a rival empire to the Egyptians and one that is on the verge of a technological revolution – they are about to send a spaceship, Jules Verne style, to the Moon. Mabruke and Oken are given the task of determining whether this space rocket is viable and, if so, establishing links between Egypt and the Incas.
As you might gather from such a summary, Three Princes is engagingly cinematic. This is a book that takes you on a journey, as the cover to this book elegantly shows. The mixture of different empires gives this story a feeling of variety and diversity. The world building is just wonderful, giving a feeling of both old and new in a pleasingly baroque setting. There is a sense of age and history which seeps from the page as we travel around Egypt and Europe with Oken, but which is then combined with newer elements of the Roman and Victorian/British Empire, opera with steampunk. By contrast, the Incan Empire is both scarily barbaric, with blood sacrifices and the like, combined with technical marvels – Quetzal airships (which travel across the Atlantic seemingly by pedal power!), moon-ships and so on.
The characterisation is quite interesting too. Though the lead characters are male, in Egypt it appears to be that the Queen does much of the diplomatic organisation – it is Queen Sashetah Irene who our two leads work for, after all – with Pharaoh Djoser-George being otherwise engaged. In the Incan world, the role of the ‘man in power’ is much more clearly delineated yet still complex. Oken comes across as some sort of handsome young James Bond type figure, bedding his way across Egypt, Europe and South America. Mabruke is rather more like an Indiana Jones-type professor but older: perhaps Henry W. Jones Sr. rather than Indiana.
Although what we glimpse of the Incan society is brief and fairly primitive, Prince Viracocha’s attempt to modernise and establish communication with the Egyptian Empire are generally seen as a good thing and Viracocha himself as a likeable and well-loved potential ruler.
The role of women in the novel is also intriguing in that for most of the time they seem to be side-lined, as you might expect in a novel based in part on old-world values. However, what Ramona does is show that often it is the women who are the power behind the throne, so to speak, and although none of the characters are as prominent as the men, they are important and clearly going to change things in the future.
My only quibbles with the novel are that some things are left hanging a little at the end and others are rather too neatly tied up. Parts of the plot happen a little too conveniently for my liking, and what appear to be major components of the plot at the beginning are, in the end, less important than you might think.
However it must be said that, in the end, I really enjoyed this one. Three Princes is a meld of steampunk, Lawrence of Arabia, pulp detective novels, Victorian England and jungle exploration. The plot is fast-paced, the ideas throughout logical and unusual, the characters are understandable and engaging. Most of all, the book is great fun. Throughout I was thinking “What a great idea” as our characters move from place to place on a rich travelogue. Three Princes is an exciting romp, filled with great ideas, and developed to a reasonably satisfying conclusion.
I hope that the author continues to mine this rich vein of possibilities.
And as alternate histories go, this one’s great. Here the idea is that (unlike our world) Caesar and Cleopatra survived, creating a Empire-dynasty that has continued through to the year 1877 of Our Lord Julius Caesar. In the age of the Egyptian Empire, Memphis, Egypt is recognised by many as the capital city of the world, the latest Cleopatra, Queen Sashetah Irene, is the Queen of the World, married to Pharaoh Djoser-George. Europe is rather more side-lined in this world than in ours. There are terrorist plots aplenty, determined to create their own World Order and bring down the Egyptian regime. These are often originated from Victoria and Albert and their agent, the terrorist Count Otto von Bismarck.
Our tale is told mainly by following Lord Scott Oken, fourth son of the Spate Arch of Mercia in the Britannic Isles and one of the great descendants of the Caesar line. Often working as an ambassador for the Egyptians, Scott is also a secret agent for the Egyptian Queen. His ability as a memoryman, a person who can record things by memory and retain them, means that he is often called upon to note key events.
His mentor, Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke, and Oken are given the task of uncovering an international conspiracy, seemingly being organised by Bismarck.
Their tale goes from Memphis to Europe to the New World. It is here that we meet the third prince of the title, Prince Viracocha of the Incan Tawantinsuyu. In South America the Incas have a rival empire to the Egyptians and one that is on the verge of a technological revolution – they are about to send a spaceship, Jules Verne style, to the Moon. Mabruke and Oken are given the task of determining whether this space rocket is viable and, if so, establishing links between Egypt and the Incas.
As you might gather from such a summary, Three Princes is engagingly cinematic. This is a book that takes you on a journey, as the cover to this book elegantly shows. The mixture of different empires gives this story a feeling of variety and diversity. The world building is just wonderful, giving a feeling of both old and new in a pleasingly baroque setting. There is a sense of age and history which seeps from the page as we travel around Egypt and Europe with Oken, but which is then combined with newer elements of the Roman and Victorian/British Empire, opera with steampunk. By contrast, the Incan Empire is both scarily barbaric, with blood sacrifices and the like, combined with technical marvels – Quetzal airships (which travel across the Atlantic seemingly by pedal power!), moon-ships and so on.
The characterisation is quite interesting too. Though the lead characters are male, in Egypt it appears to be that the Queen does much of the diplomatic organisation – it is Queen Sashetah Irene who our two leads work for, after all – with Pharaoh Djoser-George being otherwise engaged. In the Incan world, the role of the ‘man in power’ is much more clearly delineated yet still complex. Oken comes across as some sort of handsome young James Bond type figure, bedding his way across Egypt, Europe and South America. Mabruke is rather more like an Indiana Jones-type professor but older: perhaps Henry W. Jones Sr. rather than Indiana.
Although what we glimpse of the Incan society is brief and fairly primitive, Prince Viracocha’s attempt to modernise and establish communication with the Egyptian Empire are generally seen as a good thing and Viracocha himself as a likeable and well-loved potential ruler.
The role of women in the novel is also intriguing in that for most of the time they seem to be side-lined, as you might expect in a novel based in part on old-world values. However, what Ramona does is show that often it is the women who are the power behind the throne, so to speak, and although none of the characters are as prominent as the men, they are important and clearly going to change things in the future.
My only quibbles with the novel are that some things are left hanging a little at the end and others are rather too neatly tied up. Parts of the plot happen a little too conveniently for my liking, and what appear to be major components of the plot at the beginning are, in the end, less important than you might think.
However it must be said that, in the end, I really enjoyed this one. Three Princes is a meld of steampunk, Lawrence of Arabia, pulp detective novels, Victorian England and jungle exploration. The plot is fast-paced, the ideas throughout logical and unusual, the characters are understandable and engaging. Most of all, the book is great fun. Throughout I was thinking “What a great idea” as our characters move from place to place on a rich travelogue. Three Princes is an exciting romp, filled with great ideas, and developed to a reasonably satisfying conclusion.
I hope that the author continues to mine this rich vein of possibilities.
December 6, 2015
98. THREE PRINCES, BY RAMONA WHEELER
Another recommendation from Maria, plus it has awesome cover art. This one was a miss for me, though.
Synopsis: In an alternative reality, where the Egyptian Empire flourished and went on to dominate the world by what would be our 16th century, Lord Scott Oken is a spy for the Empress against her enemies, Victoria and Albert, who want to bring the empire down. Along with his mentor Mabruke, he is sent to the New World of the Inca Empire to investigate strange happenings.
Overall enjoyment: It was a bit pointless. There was so much that could have been done here, with the supposed steampunk setting plus the alternate history, but those two elements almost weren’t used. They are basically bright lights to advertise what, in the end, is a poorly constructed, quite unoriginal, and, frankly, very boring spy story.
Plot: It takes a really long time for the story to start, and it drags all the way to the end. Scott and Mik are supposed to be superspies, but they actually do nothing at all, they only watch as the story unfolds. The third prince, who is the one who brings the start of the action with him, only appears halfway through the book, and leaves right afterwards. The events are disconnected and there is no suspense at all.
Characters: Scott is a brushed-up James Bond who doesn’t play cards. All he does is objectify, seduce, and abandon women who, of course, can’t help but sigh when they think of him for missing him so much. Mik is likable, and that is his only true asset as a spy. All the characters are shallow stereotypes, and I couldn’t care less about any of them.
World/setting: My biggest disappointment. It should have been where all the work was truly done -- you have both steampunk and alternate history going on here -- but it was just used as a gimmick to get attention and there was no depth to it at all. There is no explanation, or even a hint, as to how Egypt managed to dominate the world; or how, for that matter, the Inca Empire survived (in our reality they had already been destroyed by the Aztec at this point, but in the book the Aztec aren’t even mentioned). There are some flying machines, but calling this book steampunk is a really big stretch. Overall, there is lots of decoration but very little foundation: she spends pages describing how the women paint their breasts, how they dress, the appropriate form of address, the decoration of the houses, and what the flying machines look like; and very few or no pages at all telling us how the machines actually work, or how it was that this society became possible, or how it works in practice. Any engineer can tell you that you have to lay the foundations first and then build upon that, otherwise the whole thing will fall down on your head.
Writing style: It wasn’t too bad, considering how bad the other stuff was.
Representation: The Incas could be considered dark-skinned, I suppose. And she hints that Mik may be gay. She misses a couple of perfect opportunities to make lesbian couples, though. (And it’s not just that she could have put them together but chose not to, the story would actually have been better and the plot neater if they had been couples.)
Political correctness: This reads exactly like a James Bond novel, especially in the misogyny, hypocrisy and self-importance. I won’t even bother listing all the problems I had with this, I’ll just leave a general comment: argh.
Up next: Half World, by Hiromi Goto
Another recommendation from Maria, plus it has awesome cover art. This one was a miss for me, though.
Synopsis: In an alternative reality, where the Egyptian Empire flourished and went on to dominate the world by what would be our 16th century, Lord Scott Oken is a spy for the Empress against her enemies, Victoria and Albert, who want to bring the empire down. Along with his mentor Mabruke, he is sent to the New World of the Inca Empire to investigate strange happenings.
Overall enjoyment: It was a bit pointless. There was so much that could have been done here, with the supposed steampunk setting plus the alternate history, but those two elements almost weren’t used. They are basically bright lights to advertise what, in the end, is a poorly constructed, quite unoriginal, and, frankly, very boring spy story.
Plot: It takes a really long time for the story to start, and it drags all the way to the end. Scott and Mik are supposed to be superspies, but they actually do nothing at all, they only watch as the story unfolds. The third prince, who is the one who brings the start of the action with him, only appears halfway through the book, and leaves right afterwards. The events are disconnected and there is no suspense at all.
Characters: Scott is a brushed-up James Bond who doesn’t play cards. All he does is objectify, seduce, and abandon women who, of course, can’t help but sigh when they think of him for missing him so much. Mik is likable, and that is his only true asset as a spy. All the characters are shallow stereotypes, and I couldn’t care less about any of them.
World/setting: My biggest disappointment. It should have been where all the work was truly done -- you have both steampunk and alternate history going on here -- but it was just used as a gimmick to get attention and there was no depth to it at all. There is no explanation, or even a hint, as to how Egypt managed to dominate the world; or how, for that matter, the Inca Empire survived (in our reality they had already been destroyed by the Aztec at this point, but in the book the Aztec aren’t even mentioned). There are some flying machines, but calling this book steampunk is a really big stretch. Overall, there is lots of decoration but very little foundation: she spends pages describing how the women paint their breasts, how they dress, the appropriate form of address, the decoration of the houses, and what the flying machines look like; and very few or no pages at all telling us how the machines actually work, or how it was that this society became possible, or how it works in practice. Any engineer can tell you that you have to lay the foundations first and then build upon that, otherwise the whole thing will fall down on your head.
Writing style: It wasn’t too bad, considering how bad the other stuff was.
Representation: The Incas could be considered dark-skinned, I suppose. And she hints that Mik may be gay. She misses a couple of perfect opportunities to make lesbian couples, though. (And it’s not just that she could have put them together but chose not to, the story would actually have been better and the plot neater if they had been couples.)
Political correctness: This reads exactly like a James Bond novel, especially in the misogyny, hypocrisy and self-importance. I won’t even bother listing all the problems I had with this, I’ll just leave a general comment: argh.
Up next: Half World, by Hiromi Goto
August 10, 2016
This is an alternate history set in a timeline where Caesar lived, he and Cleopatra prevailed, and the line descended from them continues to rule an empire dominated by Egypt over 1,800 years later. Lord Scott Oken, a British prince, a younger son of a line descended from both Caesar and Cleopatra (not just one or the other), is a young man who has made his career serving as a spy and agent for the Egyptian royal court.
His mentor and friend, Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke, is a Nubian prince, as high-ranking as anyone outside the immediate Egyptian royal family, and an expert in alchemy, which is to say poisons.
Oken, on a recent trip through Europe, uncovered evidence of a nasty plot involving ambitious native leaders in Britain, Oesterreich (Germany), and Russia. The details aren't clear, but there's a religious aspect as well as the political, and the group apparently calls itself the Black Orchid.
He arrives home from this trip just in time to help rescue Prince Mikel Mabruke from another, apparently unrelated, criminal conspiracy, known as the Red Hand.
With both men recovering from injuries and clearly targets, the Queen decides to send them a way for a while to investigate another mystery: among the Incas of the New World, someone claims to be planning to launch a trip to the Moon.
This world does have air travel, at least the Incas do, but even they have only what seem to be ornithopters, gaining lift from hydrogen, and powered and guided by humans and birds. It's a bit of a stunner when word reaches the Queen that the Incas are planning to launch mission to the Moon. The idea captures her imagination and, if it's true, and has a chance of succeeding, she wants to offer Egypt's support.
Surely this will be a relatively restful, restorative, but enlightening, journey for Oken and Prince Mabruke. What could go wrong?
I do have some complaints. Many centuries after a major historical change with huge downstream effects, we have numerous individuals with familiar names playing roles that just haven't changed enough. Leonardo da Vinci still painted Mona Lisa. Galileo still made his major breakthroughs in astronomy. Otto von Bismarck and Victoria & Albert are significant figures, and Verdi is still composing operas, although thankfully different ones. Ordinarily, I would regard this as a "hurl the book against the wall" offense, but Wheeler is insidious. Every time I hit one of these outrages, I roll my eyes and keep reading because, after all, I have to know what happens, right?
That's good writing, and really good story-telling, when what is ordinarily a major pet peeve for me has zero effect on my desire to keep reading. Not just this book; I hope we'll be seeing more from Wheeler, in this world and others.
Complaints about what I consider anachronisms aside, I like this projection of what an Egyptian-dominated empire might have become, as well as the further development of an Incan Empire that never fell because Europeans didn't arrive early enough or in large enough numbers to bring down it and every other Native American civilization with Europe's killer diseases. It feels plausible to me, and is well-executed enough to be the basis for a really engrossing story.
Highly recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
His mentor and friend, Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke, is a Nubian prince, as high-ranking as anyone outside the immediate Egyptian royal family, and an expert in alchemy, which is to say poisons.
Oken, on a recent trip through Europe, uncovered evidence of a nasty plot involving ambitious native leaders in Britain, Oesterreich (Germany), and Russia. The details aren't clear, but there's a religious aspect as well as the political, and the group apparently calls itself the Black Orchid.
He arrives home from this trip just in time to help rescue Prince Mikel Mabruke from another, apparently unrelated, criminal conspiracy, known as the Red Hand.
With both men recovering from injuries and clearly targets, the Queen decides to send them a way for a while to investigate another mystery: among the Incas of the New World, someone claims to be planning to launch a trip to the Moon.
This world does have air travel, at least the Incas do, but even they have only what seem to be ornithopters, gaining lift from hydrogen, and powered and guided by humans and birds. It's a bit of a stunner when word reaches the Queen that the Incas are planning to launch mission to the Moon. The idea captures her imagination and, if it's true, and has a chance of succeeding, she wants to offer Egypt's support.
Surely this will be a relatively restful, restorative, but enlightening, journey for Oken and Prince Mabruke. What could go wrong?
I do have some complaints. Many centuries after a major historical change with huge downstream effects, we have numerous individuals with familiar names playing roles that just haven't changed enough. Leonardo da Vinci still painted Mona Lisa. Galileo still made his major breakthroughs in astronomy. Otto von Bismarck and Victoria & Albert are significant figures, and Verdi is still composing operas, although thankfully different ones. Ordinarily, I would regard this as a "hurl the book against the wall" offense, but Wheeler is insidious. Every time I hit one of these outrages, I roll my eyes and keep reading because, after all, I have to know what happens, right?
That's good writing, and really good story-telling, when what is ordinarily a major pet peeve for me has zero effect on my desire to keep reading. Not just this book; I hope we'll be seeing more from Wheeler, in this world and others.
Complaints about what I consider anachronisms aside, I like this projection of what an Egyptian-dominated empire might have become, as well as the further development of an Incan Empire that never fell because Europeans didn't arrive early enough or in large enough numbers to bring down it and every other Native American civilization with Europe's killer diseases. It feels plausible to me, and is well-executed enough to be the basis for a really engrossing story.
Highly recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
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