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Tales from Schwartzgarten #3
The Lily-Livered Prince
A gruesomely funny series for fans of Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket.
Meet Eugene, the most portly of princes, and Kalvitas, the most courageous of chocolate makers.
Theirs is a tale of cakes and cowardice, bullies and battles, as they set out to defeat a terrifying tyrant.
The characters are CURSED. The deserts are DEADLY. And people are NOT always as they appear...
With cover and chapter head artwork by Chris Riddell.
Meet Eugene, the most portly of princes, and Kalvitas, the most courageous of chocolate makers.
Theirs is a tale of cakes and cowardice, bullies and battles, as they set out to defeat a terrifying tyrant.
The characters are CURSED. The deserts are DEADLY. And people are NOT always as they appear...
With cover and chapter head artwork by Chris Riddell.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2014
2 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Christopher William Hill
26 books9 followersChristopher is an extremely well-renowned writer, recipient of the Peter Tinniswood Award and a BBC Radio & Music Award. He also adapted John Masefield’s classic THE MIDNIGHT FOLK for radio. His experience in writing for children includes having twice written for the National Theatre’s prestigious Connections project. His first play, MULTIPLEX (2003) was performed on the Olivier stage, and has received over forty productions by teenage casts in the UK and internationally. HEARTBREAK BEAUTIFUL (2009) was performed at the National Theatre, and has already had sixteen productions in the UK and was performed in Sao Paulo, Brazil last Autumn. He wrote ITTULLKYLLYOOIFFYOODOO, a play for primary school children, which has been performed at Polka Theatre, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Dundee Rep and York Theatre Royal. He lectures annually at the Arvon Foundation. His plays for BBC Radio 4 include KILLING MAESTROS (Tinniswood Award), ACCOLADES, PUNDITS, and LOVE ME, LIBERACE.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 11, 2016
This book is in my opinion very good because luckily for me I read it before I read the books in the series so I had some background info.This book is one of the best books from the series.This book is based on the beginnings of the city of Swartzgarten.
February 14, 2016
I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I loved the previous 2 books of this series, but sadly that wasn't the case with this one. There were several reasons why I just didn't like it that much.
For starters, the beginning was very slow. It takes a long time for the story to get going, for it to become interesting. Then we have a pretty awesome middle part and almost ending, and then it dies again with the ending.
Then we have the characters. With the previous books, even though the kids were pretty bloodthirsty, I still felt sympathy for them, still felt sad that they had to go through their lives. I was interested in their backstory, the reasons why they turned into murderers. Then when the stuff started happening I became slightly afraid of them.
However with this book? I didn't. We have 2 main-ish characters, the Locksmith Boy and some (teenager???) prince. The Locksmith boy was just weird and while he got quite the spotlight in the beginning and also near the end, he totally lost most of the spotlight during the middle. Which is a shame, if I really had to pick between the characters I would go for the Locksmith Boy, even though he barely had any personality. The prince was just horrendous. I hated his whiny, pathetic attitude. The fact he couldn't man up but would rather just hide and cry in a corner. I hated his guts, I disliked how he only cared for his cakes, how idiotic he was. Somewhere in the story I was just hoping he would just get murdered or beaten, or would learn a lesson. Or would turn to be a rather cool character that would do all kinds of awesome stuff.
Not only that I just felt that the prince was too old. I am sure he was only like 15 or 17, but often he seemed like 18+ and I didn't like that, since all the other books featured children.
The other problem I have was that it was a lot about war, war, war, war, war, pastries, war, politics. I don't mind war in a book, but it shouldn't take over everything. I just couldn't connect with the story. I just started to get bored pretty soon.
Then we have the stretched out ending. I just didn't like that. I loved that they did their things and things were solved (not saying how or what), but then it just continued for another 50 pages. I think it would have been a much better book if it was ended when they solved stuff.
But I can also see why the author continued with the story, he probably wanted to throw in some murder and excitement, but for me the book was over and done with when the solved things.
I do give bonus points for adding that guide to Schwartzgarten, I really enjoyed reading that one, and I do hope we will get some sort of novella with a nice fold-out map and fun details (akin to Discworld). It makes me happy, since I know that in previous reviews I have asked about it. :)
It also delighted me to see we will get a 4th book, this time with a kid character again.
Still I will give this book 3 stars, since there were enough parts that were fun, and it was interesting to see how the story turned out (yes even with the overdose on war, war and war). And the enemies were properly evil and cruel.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
I loved the previous 2 books of this series, but sadly that wasn't the case with this one. There were several reasons why I just didn't like it that much.
For starters, the beginning was very slow. It takes a long time for the story to get going, for it to become interesting. Then we have a pretty awesome middle part and almost ending, and then it dies again with the ending.
Then we have the characters. With the previous books, even though the kids were pretty bloodthirsty, I still felt sympathy for them, still felt sad that they had to go through their lives. I was interested in their backstory, the reasons why they turned into murderers. Then when the stuff started happening I became slightly afraid of them.
However with this book? I didn't. We have 2 main-ish characters, the Locksmith Boy and some (teenager???) prince. The Locksmith boy was just weird and while he got quite the spotlight in the beginning and also near the end, he totally lost most of the spotlight during the middle. Which is a shame, if I really had to pick between the characters I would go for the Locksmith Boy, even though he barely had any personality. The prince was just horrendous. I hated his whiny, pathetic attitude. The fact he couldn't man up but would rather just hide and cry in a corner. I hated his guts, I disliked how he only cared for his cakes, how idiotic he was. Somewhere in the story I was just hoping he would just get murdered or beaten, or would learn a lesson. Or would turn to be a rather cool character that would do all kinds of awesome stuff.
Not only that I just felt that the prince was too old. I am sure he was only like 15 or 17, but often he seemed like 18+ and I didn't like that, since all the other books featured children.
The other problem I have was that it was a lot about war, war, war, war, war, pastries, war, politics. I don't mind war in a book, but it shouldn't take over everything. I just couldn't connect with the story. I just started to get bored pretty soon.
Then we have the stretched out ending. I just didn't like that. I loved that they did their things and things were solved (not saying how or what), but then it just continued for another 50 pages. I think it would have been a much better book if it was ended when they solved stuff.
But I can also see why the author continued with the story, he probably wanted to throw in some murder and excitement, but for me the book was over and done with when the solved things.
I do give bonus points for adding that guide to Schwartzgarten, I really enjoyed reading that one, and I do hope we will get some sort of novella with a nice fold-out map and fun details (akin to Discworld). It makes me happy, since I know that in previous reviews I have asked about it. :)
It also delighted me to see we will get a 4th book, this time with a kid character again.
Still I will give this book 3 stars, since there were enough parts that were fun, and it was interesting to see how the story turned out (yes even with the overdose on war, war and war). And the enemies were properly evil and cruel.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
November 10, 2016
This book is similar to 'Marius and the band of Blood' but this is set in factory and a mansion. The book I am reading now is called ‘The Lily-Livered Prince’. I have read the whole entire book. I found the book really mysterious because there is mystery when someone is going to die in the first chapter and it has fantasy somewhere in the middle.
This book talks about in the depths of cruel winter seven families distant lands journeyed across a strange and barren terrain. It says also someone is getting murdered. Some travelers were starving to death. Hungry seven die for want of food and warmth. After it talks about a mechanical horse being invented and then the Knight tries to kill people in the village because there were thieves stealing food and money from banks,stalls,shops eg. In a mansion at dinner time the town's villagers were having dinner in enormous dinning room, Suddenly a mysterious person came in the room and killed some of the villagers with a dagger. In the book it says when the killer killed the villagers he was wearing black deathly clothes so no one knows who the person is. I would recommend this book to my friends because this book is full of fantasy and it is really mysterious.
This book talks about in the depths of cruel winter seven families distant lands journeyed across a strange and barren terrain. It says also someone is getting murdered. Some travelers were starving to death. Hungry seven die for want of food and warmth. After it talks about a mechanical horse being invented and then the Knight tries to kill people in the village because there were thieves stealing food and money from banks,stalls,shops eg. In a mansion at dinner time the town's villagers were having dinner in enormous dinning room, Suddenly a mysterious person came in the room and killed some of the villagers with a dagger. In the book it says when the killer killed the villagers he was wearing black deathly clothes so no one knows who the person is. I would recommend this book to my friends because this book is full of fantasy and it is really mysterious.
July 23, 2017
Plot line is well developed throughout except, ending was too obvious and out of sync with the rest of the writing, it could have benefitted from more light hearted humorous references and still retain its theme.
December 3, 2015
This is the eagerly-awaited third volume in Christopher William Hill’s Tales from Schwartzgarten, and easily lives up to the high standard set by the first two books in the series, Osbert the Avenger, and The Woebegone Twins. Different as those two volumes are from one another, this book strikes yet another tack, whilst still being very recognisably part of the same strange and curious world.
The Lily-Livered Prince is a historical novel, set before Books 1 and 2, and is narrated by the wonderfully irascible Kristifan Von Hoffmeyer.
Kalvitas has always longed to excel at war. But, it turns out, he has another skill: he’s a superb chocolatier and pastry chef. Forced to escape the city of Schwartzgarten, he finds his fortunes swiftly become entwined with those of the gutsy and forthright Elka, the genuinely creepy villain Emeté Talbor, and the eponymous Prince Eugene - an engagingly greedy and cowardly ‘hero’.
Their adventures don’t just relate the dark and twisty history of Schwartzgarten and its surrounding mountains, plains and forests – although aficionados will enjoy spotting characters from the earlier books – but provide an urgent and compelling narrative teeming with bizarre inventions, sinister dowagers, menacing folk tales, the roar and smoke of battle – and of course all the gorgeous and wonderful food we’ve come to expect from Hill’s writing.
Intelligent and imaginative readers will love this book.
The Lily-Livered Prince is a historical novel, set before Books 1 and 2, and is narrated by the wonderfully irascible Kristifan Von Hoffmeyer.
Kalvitas has always longed to excel at war. But, it turns out, he has another skill: he’s a superb chocolatier and pastry chef. Forced to escape the city of Schwartzgarten, he finds his fortunes swiftly become entwined with those of the gutsy and forthright Elka, the genuinely creepy villain Emeté Talbor, and the eponymous Prince Eugene - an engagingly greedy and cowardly ‘hero’.
Their adventures don’t just relate the dark and twisty history of Schwartzgarten and its surrounding mountains, plains and forests – although aficionados will enjoy spotting characters from the earlier books – but provide an urgent and compelling narrative teeming with bizarre inventions, sinister dowagers, menacing folk tales, the roar and smoke of battle – and of course all the gorgeous and wonderful food we’ve come to expect from Hill’s writing.
Intelligent and imaginative readers will love this book.
June 17, 2020
just didn't hook me At All. Messy plot lines, unclear on the characters' agendas and importance, yeah just couldn't be bothered getting more than half way.
April 9, 2016
amazing whats next ???
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews