The Hostage Prince

The Seelie Wars #1

by Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple

Lowly midwife apprentice orange-hair Snail, one eye blue, one green, and snobby hostage Seelie Prince Aspen are on the run from Unseelie and Seelie rulers calling down death. Is old drow Jack Daw a friend or foe? Will three questions from Sticksman be the promised favor Aspen cannot keep? Monsters pursue through Unseelie Castle, Unseelie Lands, Shifting Lands.

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fiction, Adventure, Young Adult, Juvenile, Childrens

232 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2013

About the author

Jane Yolen was a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who wrote more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lived in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.

Reviews

[Allison Tebo]

DNF.

[Brian]

This is a very odd children's book. Knowing the superb ability of Yolen to write fantasy and folklore, I really looked forward to this book, but I was disappointed. The plot was immensely slow, the characters uninspiring, and the whole book reads like a prologue to what must come afterward....and prologues aren't usually book-length.

I finished it, but really lost incentive about 1/2 way through.

[Grant]

***Possible spoilers***

The entire book could be simplified to this: Prince Aspen does something foolish, getting himself (and Snail) into trouble. Snail does something clever (or just lucky), averting disaster. Repeat.

Overall, this was actually a decent story for a children's book. It was just rather annoying to see the same pattern over and over again.

[Emperor Ember]

I just felt like this book was too predictable and slow and the characters were not written all that well.

[Ethan Chippas]

The Hostage Prince by Jane Yolen is a fantasy adventure novel following a clumsy apprentice and a hostage prince who lives in a kingdom full of monsters and harsh rule. It follows the unlikely pair as they shift their situation from unpleasant to running from the king's guards. It is a decent book that does a good job of laying the foundation for the rest of the series. It is not boring as it contains plenty of action and excitement from running into different monsters or being closely pursued. It is a bit of an easier read but, it still holds the audience's attention with creative and complex situations. This book would most likely be suited for people from the middle up to high school. This book reminds me a lot of The Beyonders by Brandon Mull with similar character personalities and general situation. The book did have some very important underlying ideas such as it is good to be different and do not let society tell you what you have to do. A really important theme in this book is independence, from character unhappily being pushed around into groups and just falling in line. The Hostage Prince is a good book I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good adventure novel.

[Miss Clark]

Here was a book I picked up on a whim and enjoyed.

It was just a classic fairy story of the two courts warring with one another, but I liked the characters and the voices of the two protagonists.

Snail - lowly, snarly midwife apprentice, one eye green, one eye blue with red hair, she is a changeling. Everyone else figured that out from the start, right? It is not as if they are trying to hide the fact. I loved how wonderfully snarly and fed up with Aspen she is throughout the story. She is not properly cowed by his royal status and mocks him for his faults and his airs, though not in a denigrating, cruel way like the Unseelie court. In the simple manner one does when someone else is being absurd or obtuse.


Prince Aspen - traded as a hostage in the war to be raised by his father's enemy. Scorned and despised by his "adopted" family, he turns to the one individual who is kind to him, Jack Daw. Of course, Jack Daw is his foe and a master manipulator. He tricks Aspen into leaving the Unseelie lands believing that war is breaking out and that as hostage he will be killed in the morning. He runs into Snail, already imprisoned by the unstable queen because of an incident during her delivery, and together they escape with Jack's kind assistance.

The rest of the book is mostly them making their way through the Shifting Lands* back to Prince Aspen's family only to discover that he has been tricked and brought war to his people. A war that they cannot win.


Aspen's mother frees him and sends him away to spare his life which is now forfeit. She sends Snail with him , giving her the new name of Nomi, meaning loyal. Snail/Nomi just wants to run and live with her new freedom. Aspen, however, is determined to put things to rights and find a way to prevent this war. He admits that he has made mistakes, that the royals are not noble, but he also does truly believe that they are supposed to act with nobleness of intent and spirit. That he has a responsibility to fix this mistake. It was at this moment that I most respected him.

Snail/Nomi reluctantly agrees to accompany him and maybe she can manage to keep him alive long enough for them to find a solution.

The voice is sprightly and lively. I would hope that as Aspen and Snail get to know one another, they may become less antagonistic towards one another and learn to see what the other means before immediately taking umbrage.

So, I will probably pick up the rest once the whole trilogy is out.



*Loved that concept - not that it is new, but how they portrayed it and the encounter with the trolls! Great.

[AuroraIce]

Bookshelf reread.

I got this at the dollar store, and while the pair creating this book have successful works according to their About page at the end, this book didn’t really compel me.

It follows Snail, a midwife apprentice working in the unseelie court, awaiting the birth of the queen’s newest baby. She has a baby every 100 years I think, and while there are laws against eating the midwife or any other things in the labor room, there are still lots of ways they can offend the queen and lose their life. Snail is not treated well by most, while her snooty fellow apprentice is due to being pretty. Snail’s eyes are two different colors and she has wild red hair, along with difficulty doing magic, suggesting she could be from outside of the seelie and unseelie world.

It also follows Aspen, a nickname he earned in the unseelie court after being sent over as their hostage from the seelie court to prevent war, and likewise a prince was sent their way. He’s treated with grudging respect by the servants, but views the drow, Jack Daw, as his only friend, as that guy pays visits to check up on him and offer advice and keep him updated on the precarious situation with his home kingdom as a result of the hostile border guys. Aspen is smitten with the twin princesses who mock him, and tries to get the unseelie king to adopt him as a way to survive when he learns war approaches, though the king explains he would still be the first to die via execution if war broke out because fear is how he maintains his rule over his people, after agreeing to adopt Aspen.

Jack reports war is about to be declared and convinces him to run home, promising to help him escape, as this will keep him alive. At the same time, Snail and her teacher and two other midwives and their apprentices wait in a birthing room, wondering if the queen will choose their room among the several to have her baby in once she goes into labor. Snail peeks out the keyhole even though they’re not supposed to look, with approval from her teacher, and another apprentice shoves her aside and narrates too loudly, calling someone giant. Whether she means the queen or the stumbling troll who drops her carry doesn’t matter, because the queen becomes offended and sends a bolt through that knocks them all back and kills the girl. Snail checks on everyone and gets them back up, but they blame her for the whole ordeal because she looked out the keyhole. Then guards come to arrest them all and take them to the dungeons for questioning.

During his confused escape, Aspen hears the wailing pretty apprentice and feels compelled to check on them. It’s because that apprentice won’t stop screaming and it’s wearing on everyone, and pointless. She gets gagged or put to sleep at different points. Each are hauled off to a giant troll or ogre or something for intimidation interrogation. Snail resorts to glaring when she’s scared, much like she did earlier in the book when others tripped her out of the kitchen and she crashed into Aspen, who should have killed her for the offense by court standards but instead began laughing. She glares at her interrogator, who seems to like her but still aims to kill her until Aspen stumbles through his path into the dungeons and falls down a secret wall and crashes into them. They face the interrogator, who gets stabbed. Both think the other did it swiftly, and Snail takes the knife.

They check on the others in the cell, who refuse to join her, and Snail and Aspen find their way out of the dungeons together, a team now. They pass a dead pair of guards and get outside when Jack Daw arrives, irritated by her presence and eager to help Aspen away. He killed the interrogator and guards and the blade was covered in poison. Snail doesn’t trust him, and when he demands she tie him up to make him look innocent in their escape, she obliges with tight ropes and a gag. They go to the river unseelie can’t cross to board the Sticksman’s boat, who charges coins they lack so demands a favor instead. He rows them away as border guards chase and get attacked by merfolk. Snail scares the merfolk away upon cutting one and learning the knife is poisoned when it dies, horrifying her because she almost nicked herself and Aspen a few times.

The Stickman’s favor is that they will ask the many old and wise and various creatures they encounter questions about the Sticksman, as they are a mysterious species that just showed up already prepared to row when the unseelie court first dug into their tunnels. The pair gets off in the Shifting Lands and soon follows an enchanted delicious smell into a cave, where they’re knocked out and meant to be troll food until their captor troll passes out. Snail recognizes this as labor and employs Aspen’s hesitant help in preparing for delivery, as the laws do forbid eating the midwives. She claim he’s her apprentices, has her first successful delivery, and the pair stay the night with the troll and her mate once he arrives home ready to attack.

They go the rest of the way to the seelie court, where Aspen’s brother is a guard who’s happy to see him, thinking he was set free, until he mentions the war. They go to the throne room to meet his parents, who reveal there is no war and Jack Daw is the type to incite such things, Apsen had no friends at court, and he was the emissary often coming to update them on Aspen’s well-being in ways he wished would incite war. Though his family did love him, now his escape means war is inevitable, they are not prepared for it like the rowdy unseelie court is, and running away to cause war is treason so Aspen will be executed for it, which won’t prevent the war so I fail to see the point.

Though he’s regarded Snail as a servant and she’s snippily maintained the respect expected toward him during their journey, he now views her as a friend and argues for her to be set free rather than killed with him since she didn’t know she traveled with a traitor. Despite her midwife apprentice status, she is sent to the kitchens instead, treated poorly and locked in until the queen sneaks in to break her out and send her to the graveyard to see Aspen. She believes him dead, but the queen freed him as well and gave them new names and clothes to go on the run.

Aspen blames himself and still wishes to stop this problem, though he doesn’t know how. He insists on her calling him by his new name and no longer treating him like a royal, and he has to learn to change the formal way he speaks into that of a commoner. The pair agrees they will find a way to solve things. (He did ask the trolls about the Sticksman, but they probably weren’t the right species to question).

I didn’t remember Jack Daw’s betrayal, and while I felt concerned by his dedication to getting Aspen free, and had some suspicions, that was still a sad outcome. Aspen got over this false friendship reveal quickly though, mostly upset he caused a war rather than being tricked by a fake friend.

I’ll look up how the rest of the books go, because I don’t plan to seek them out or read.

[Samma Lynne]

Grr. My kittens ate my first review. So let me sum up.

*Lot of things I loved that got muddled in lots of things that I just couldn't grasp or with which I got bored.

*Spent equal amounts of time loving and hating the main characters. Didn't love the not-main-characters until the ones that started appearing in the Shifting Lands and beyond. Except I kind of liked Jack Daw. Sometimes. And the Stickman.

*I am actually insanely excited about the next book because most of the parts I loved the most were in the last quarter of the book. So I have high hopes for the next installment. I just wish this one had kept my interest longer.

[Elizabeth]

I almost did not finish this book. I found the plot boring, with too many things happening that weren't explained clearly. The reader shouldn't be given everything on a silver platter, but there should at least be some hint to explain why characters say/do certain things (the insistence on Snail asking Aspen to ask Jack Daw something three times is due to the idea that asking a fairy creature something three times means they need to answer truthfully, but this is never explained). This is the third book of Yolen's that I haven't been fond of, which is a shame because her name keeps coming up as a great author.

[Brittany]

I found this book to be a little bit simpler than some of Jane Yolen's other books, but it was written for younger readers, unlike the YA books of hers that I usually read. I loved it though, it had the same clear/clean language and pure storytelling power that I have come to enjoy from these authors. I would recommend it to anyone, especially parents reading to their young children.

[Ann]

I would actually give this book 3.5 stars. Fast pace, lots of action, should be a strong start to the trilogy. The only thing I felt could have improved were the main characters and their relationship. Needs more work making them seem like companions.

[Katrina]

I think my 11 yo enjoyed this one more than I did. I like many of Yolen's books but this one just didn't ever grab me. I'm not planning to read the next one and my daughter hasn't asked that we read it either, so that may say something...

[Rachel]

This was a fantasy book my mom picked up for free from our library.

The entire idea of the story was a fun twist, but I didn't like how the author's carried it out. Many spaces within the story didn't move along, lots of scenes felt they needed to be explained better, and characters felt lost amongst trying to feel out the "world" of the story. I really wanted far more of a captured prince's viewpoints and everyday life and these felt rushed and skipped over a bit as if they'd be boring to the reader and therefore unnecessary. [I often find the "boring, everyday" to be the most needful in story building, myself].

This series feels heavy and dark, yet not exactly "scary" in a sense. Yet many aspects didn't click with me like the actual lack of usefulness of the midwives, the kingdom the prince and Snail are in and it's creatures, and the sudden escape from the kingdom and all that unfolded. There are a few kind of creepy characters (such as pictured on the cover), but not much time is actually spent with them for any length of time. The violence comes from the threat of "being eaten" on occasion by these mystical creatures of trolls and such. There is also an escape where characters come in peril but I can't go into that without giving things away.

What I DID like about the story, were the two main characters just have something about them you want to continue to discover their stories and see the journey they undertake and all that happens between them. The world itself is mysterious not only to us, the readers, but to the characters who have never been outside the kingdom.

I will be reading the other two books in the series out of curiosity, but so far the series hasn't made much impact and it isn't a favorite.

[Flyingzebras]

Review contains spoilers*****



I have loved Jane Yolen in the past - but this is a miss for me. If I wasn't over half way through and wasn't trying to make a book reading goal for the year I wouldn't have finished it.

Confusing writing. Seelie and Unseelie get used a lot trying to help you sort them out. But they are almost overused in very confusing ways.

The whole plot comes down to this:

Aspen is a hostage to the enemy court to avoid war. He is told by a friend he needs to leave because war is coming and he will be killed. He escapes and takes Snail with him because of accidental proximity. She turns out to be a good friend. The person who tells him he needed to escape turns out to be lying. He gets home, but has to go on the run so he won't get killed by his home court (and family) in an attempt to show good faith to the enemy court and avoid war. They run.

This takes over 230 pages. If the characters were more compelling and the writing less confusing I might have liked it. But as another review said, the whole thing reads like a prologue. A book length prologue. I'll find a summary of the next two books if I want to find out what happens. I DON'T need to take the time to read the whole thing.

Disappointing.

[Etta Grace]

This was a fun fast-paced fantasy book that takes an interesting look at the dynamic between the Seelie and Unseelie courts - and the unfortunate characters caught up in the middle of it all. The writing is entertaining to read, though the one complaint I have is that the impact of the climax is spoiled by the book's own synopsis. Since it tells the reader straight-out that their runaway starts a war, there's no surprise when that's revealed to the characters, and the build up is a little frustrating because you already know what's going to happen but can't stop the characters from being manipulated. If that was a plot twist, it would be a 5-star book for sure.

That being said, I really liked Snail's character. She's allowed to mess up often enough that she doesn't seem too-good-for-her-own-good, and she has enough triumphs to feel like a proper underdog. Prince Aspen is likable, if whiny and inept, and by the end of the book, he's starting to check himself more often and start appreciating Snail, so I'm curious to see where his character arc takes him in book 2 and the rest of the series. I have hope for the boy yet. I'm eager to see what happens in The Last Changeling!

[Sammy]

The Hostage Prince was a good book though probably a bit below my reading level. I won't hold that against it since I knew that going in. I had figured out the twist well before it happened and the writing style was a bit confusing sometimes- giving extensive background information in the middle of dialogue- but aside from this it was an intriguing book with likeable characters and a world that is easy to understand.

[Loretta Marchize]

I really liked this book! It was actually pretty good. I just picked it up from the school library and wasn't expecting a ton. Anyways, I'm going to see if I can find the rest of the series. It was a little confusing at times, but I enjoyed the characters. That was certainly a strong point to the authors.
Content:
More of a middle school novel, not really any content. Mentions of birth, as the girl is a midwife's assistant. Also mentions of death, but not really any actual death.

[Emma]

DNF
maybe if I were still in the target audience I would like this better but it’s definitely written for kids who have just started on longer chapter books with its style of writing and characters.
Also the fact that one of the MCs practically drops an F bomb in chapter three seems very out of place. I’m 21 so I’m used to such language in books I read but this book is for 10-12 year olds and younger.

[Wina]

Fantasy for ages 9-12, this is another trilogy where I needed to read them all. Great stories, great characters, wonderful array of races, there is a war--so serious stuff going on, great ending.
#2 The Last Changeling
#3 The Seelie King's War

[Burningfeather]

I actually enjoyed this simple book. The overall plot is simple and short and overall not much happens. But, it did build up the characters and the situation that I'm curious to keep reading to see what happens.

It's a nice small book to read quickly.

[Jenn]

This book is a little slow, but I really like the characters and plot. I hope that the next book has a little bit more action.

[Sha]

A bad case for of reader/book mismatch. But I would have loved it as a kid.

[Lisa]

I enjoyed the entire series. It is written for a younger audience.

[MJ]

This was quite a slight novel...and more like a first chapter than a first book. Aimed at middle school? But I enjoy anything written by the Yolens/Stemple.

[Sharon]

Enjoyed this YA novel. Fantasy with plenty of suspense, weird creatures, and a delightful heroine, a slightly heroic hero.

[Hannah Lang]

Honestly better than I was expecting! I am even considering grabbing the next book in the series to find out how Aspen and Snail make progress in stopping a war!

[Kelly]

Fantastic book! Loved the story!

[Rebecca]

Couldn't get into it - will try again when I'm not so busy.

[Jaina Rose]

This review is also available on my blog, Read Till Dawn.

Honestly, just look at that cover. Does this look like a good book to you? Snail's leggings are truly hideous, and Aspen . . . well, he kind of looks like a girl. Which is kind of ironic, thinking after having read the second book.

Yeah, I've already read the second book as well. Because while The Hostage Prince looks very mediocre from the cover, it's actually really, really good. My mother, who also read it, was willing to make a special library run the day the second book (The Last Changeling) came in, even though she'd been running around all day doing errands, just because she wanted to read it so badly. She finished it that same night.

The thing about the Seelie Wars books is that they don't pull any punches - sometimes literally. As middle grade fiction goes, this series is surprisingly dark and full of violence (a lot of it implied, but some deaths actually shown). This makes the tale that much more gripping for the main characters, and makes me love them that much more for not being like the people (er, creatures) around them. Because they live in a world of ruthlessness, where any sign of mercy or sympathy is treated like a deadly crime, their own behavior becomes that much more endearing. I love the way that they begin the book behaving the way most people of their respective classes would to each other (the prince completely in charge, Snail completely submissive), but then the wall between them breaks farther and farther down as the story progresses. There just reaches a point when you're in danger and it's more important to grab someone's hand and drag them away than it is to ask their permission for touching them, you know?

Snail makes for a great main character, because she's not a huge rebel. Honestly, I'm sick of stories about girls raised in servitude who spend all of their time revolting. Snail is the low of the low, and she knows it. She understands her own position of weakness, and while she may get a little bitter from time to time (when the nobility get especially capricious), and she never loses her own self-respect, most of the time she just goes along with however things are going. She begins to gradually lose this mindset of needing to "keep her place" as the story goes on and she develops a friendship with Aspen.

Speaking of the prince, he's not always the brightest bulb. But then again, I think that goes along with his upbringing. He's basically just meant to be a placeholder to keep war from breaking out between two kingdoms; there's really nothing he can be expected to actually do with his life besides that, so he hasn't exactly gotten a lot of stimulating training or anything. I love him a lot, though, especially as the book goes on and he begins to discover things about himself and how the world works that he had never even considered before (for example: just because someone isn't born into royalty, doesn't mean he or she is good for nothing more than cleaning up after you - she might actually make a great friend, too).

So yeah, I'm a huge new fan of the Seelie Wars series (and of Jane Yolen's!), and I can't wait to read the third book. Keep an eye out for my review of book two, The Last Changeling, in the next couple of weeks!

[KidsFiction Teton County Library]

TLC Call #: J YOLEN J

Chris’ Rating: 3.5 Stars
Aspen, a Seelie Prince is being held hostage by the Unseelies, while an Unseelie prince is being kept at the Seelie court, in order to prevent war from breaking out between the two fae nations. Snail, a clumsy apprentice midwife is prepared to assist with the birth of the Unseelie queen’s next child, should they be the chosen midwives. When the only person Aspen considers to be his friend tells him that war is on the wind (and as such the hostage prince will be sacrificed) Aspen decides to flee for his life, since remaining with the Unseelies will do nothing but ensure his death. For Snail everything goes wrong when the midwifes in her birthing room are accused of a plot to kill the queen. They join up near the dungeons and soon both are fleeing for their life.
The hostage prince has some entertaining characters, an interesting world and although I wouldn’t consider it a humorous book overall, it was at times pleasantly funny. Having known a few midwives, I found myself questioning some of the methods and thought processes of certain characters in the book. I still haven’t decided how much I liked it…so rather I’ll go with the pros and cons.
Pros: 1. The world/concept/plot is interesting, but not overly complex. While no book is entirely original, the feel of this book was different from a lot of Children’s Fantasy I have read…in a good way. 2. The humor (when it manifests) is well placed and the order of things seems to flow decently. 3. I want to know more about the stickman (as brief as he was in the book) and the Trolls/shifting lands added a lot to the picture (all 2nd half of the story).
Cons: 1. The two main characters aren’t very balanced, although their quirks are entertaining together. Aspen is almost invariably the “noble” haughty idiot who cannot do anything, while Snail solves all of the problems (or simply gets lucky). Yes it can make things funny, but eventually it got annoying. 2. For me the story was very predictable and I was surprised how easily Aspen was duped. Yes he was young and idealistic; but if I recall right Snail was even younger than him (Snail particularly didn’t act her age…but then both are fae after all). 3. My biggest qualm was with the synopsis and blurbs on the inside of the book, which are very misleading. It made it sound like at least a portion of the book was going to be the main characters figuring out how to prevent the war they were accidentally causing (which made the travel and introductory style of the book more disappointing because it didn’t cover what was advertised). Instead Aspen and Snail don’t even start to consider even finding a solution until the last pages of the book. That part of the blurb should have been left off and added to book #2.