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For Queen and Country #5
The Dragon Prince
ASIN B016ATOIIE moved to this edition.
The tyrant Alexandre is gone from Saardam, but a new menace has come: the eastern traders in a ship of metal that is said to have been forged with dragon magic. They bring a chest of gold to buy an office in the city.
The people don't want them in their town. The Church of the Triune, which forbids magic, has increased its hold on the population, despite the Red Baron's efforts to stamp it out.
Newly-crowned queen Johanna is staring into the empty coffers after the extravagant spending by her husband's father before his death. King Roald is off in the garden to catch frogs, and she faces condemnation by the church in the knowledge that Saarland will need both money and magic to defeat the Red Baron's army.
The tyrant Alexandre is gone from Saardam, but a new menace has come: the eastern traders in a ship of metal that is said to have been forged with dragon magic. They bring a chest of gold to buy an office in the city.
The people don't want them in their town. The Church of the Triune, which forbids magic, has increased its hold on the population, despite the Red Baron's efforts to stamp it out.
Newly-crowned queen Johanna is staring into the empty coffers after the extravagant spending by her husband's father before his death. King Roald is off in the garden to catch frogs, and she faces condemnation by the church in the knowledge that Saarland will need both money and magic to defeat the Red Baron's army.
- GenresFantasy
190 pages, ebook
First published October 6, 2015
21 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Patty Jansen
143 books294 followersAuthor of Science Fiction and fantasy and non-fiction.
Author of the Ambassador series, the Icefire Trilogy, For Queen And Country series and the Return of the Aghyrians series.
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Author of the Ambassador series, the Icefire Trilogy, For Queen And Country series and the Return of the Aghyrians series.
Join the official newsletter and receive four books free
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 22, 2021
Warning: this review may contain spoilers for the previous installments in the series Innocence Lost, Willow Witch, The Idiot King, and Fire Wizard but NOT for this book The Dragon Prince
The 5th installment of the For Queen and Country series was interesting, but there were a lot of holes.
In this novel, we meet a new set of characters, the Eastern traders. Clearly modeled off of the Chinese, the Eastern traders want to set up office in Saardam. While Johanna supports this, her council does not, mainly because they are strong magic users, and the nobles of Saardam are still scared of magic.
In this novel, Johanna grapples with her status as a woman in power. As she grows more and more pregnant with a child who is not who the kingdom believes, she faces more and more resistance from her council and the Saarlanders in general. This is only heightened with her beliefs about magic's purpose in the rebuilding efforts.
One thing I've loved about this series from the start is that it quietly pokes fun at the "men writing women" tropes, aka only as sex objects. Johanna loudly protests this and often raises questions of what were happened if the situation were reverse in a way that makes it clear Patty Jansen knows exactly what she's doing and what she's responding to in terms of men's fantasy writing. She approaches these issues in a way that is very pointed, but also more humorous than most authors. As the series has gone on, it becomes more and more apparent that Jansen is fully aware of this effect. This is just one reason I think this series is and underrated gem.
As for the plot holes, there are a lot of questions about what magic can and cannot do, and about who uses it or has used it. At one point, for instance, a character uses his magic openly for what is stated to be the first time, but I could have sworn his magic was significant in the defeat of Alexandre in the previous book. Similarly, another character admits to having magic when he hadn't admitted it before, but I thought he had said something in The Idiot King In general, there are getting to be too many side characters to keep track of, and while it doesn't really matter whether I can keep all the nobles straight, some of the other magicians and church people seem more important. I have to wonder if Jansen herself is getting confused by the interlocking stories of all the characters as well.
Aside from this, the main villain and issues seem to be sidetracked after Alexandre's demise in Fire Wizard. We know Kylian is still out there in some form, we know there's still unsolved questions about the Belloman Church and the Guntherite Order, and yet these are largely ignored for Johanna's internal struggle as a women, queen, and expectant mother, and her contentious relationships with the church and the nobles. Even so, happenings at the end of the novel seem to be bringing these back around to the main points, but I was surprised at how absent they were from the second to last novel.
I'm really glad I am listening to this series on audio. Although I originally preferred the first audio reader, Genevieve Lerner, Jansen is more appealing after two books in her voice. I like that the pronunciations are exactly the way the author created them, since many of them are closer to historical European names I would definitely have trouble with. I also really like her accent.
Since I'm this far, I think I'm going to have to give in and pay the outrageous Audible price for The Necromancer's Daughter, even though I don't want to support Amazon any more than I have to, and it's expensive. Even so, I need to finish this series now that I've come this far. There's so much I want answered, and I'm hoping the final installment will aid me in those questions.
The 5th installment of the For Queen and Country series was interesting, but there were a lot of holes.
In this novel, we meet a new set of characters, the Eastern traders. Clearly modeled off of the Chinese, the Eastern traders want to set up office in Saardam. While Johanna supports this, her council does not, mainly because they are strong magic users, and the nobles of Saardam are still scared of magic.
In this novel, Johanna grapples with her status as a woman in power. As she grows more and more pregnant with a child who is not who the kingdom believes, she faces more and more resistance from her council and the Saarlanders in general. This is only heightened with her beliefs about magic's purpose in the rebuilding efforts.
One thing I've loved about this series from the start is that it quietly pokes fun at the "men writing women" tropes, aka only as sex objects. Johanna loudly protests this and often raises questions of what were happened if the situation were reverse in a way that makes it clear Patty Jansen knows exactly what she's doing and what she's responding to in terms of men's fantasy writing. She approaches these issues in a way that is very pointed, but also more humorous than most authors. As the series has gone on, it becomes more and more apparent that Jansen is fully aware of this effect. This is just one reason I think this series is and underrated gem.
As for the plot holes, there are a lot of questions about what magic can and cannot do, and about who uses it or has used it. At one point, for instance, a character uses his magic openly for what is stated to be the first time, but I could have sworn his magic was significant in the defeat of Alexandre in the previous book. Similarly, another character admits to having magic when he hadn't admitted it before, but I thought he had said something in The Idiot King In general, there are getting to be too many side characters to keep track of, and while it doesn't really matter whether I can keep all the nobles straight, some of the other magicians and church people seem more important. I have to wonder if Jansen herself is getting confused by the interlocking stories of all the characters as well.
Aside from this, the main villain and issues seem to be sidetracked after Alexandre's demise in Fire Wizard. We know Kylian is still out there in some form, we know there's still unsolved questions about the Belloman Church and the Guntherite Order, and yet these are largely ignored for Johanna's internal struggle as a women, queen, and expectant mother, and her contentious relationships with the church and the nobles. Even so, happenings at the end of the novel seem to be bringing these back around to the main points, but I was surprised at how absent they were from the second to last novel.
I'm really glad I am listening to this series on audio. Although I originally preferred the first audio reader, Genevieve Lerner, Jansen is more appealing after two books in her voice. I like that the pronunciations are exactly the way the author created them, since many of them are closer to historical European names I would definitely have trouble with. I also really like her accent.
Since I'm this far, I think I'm going to have to give in and pay the outrageous Audible price for The Necromancer's Daughter, even though I don't want to support Amazon any more than I have to, and it's expensive. Even so, I need to finish this series now that I've come this far. There's so much I want answered, and I'm hoping the final installment will aid me in those questions.
February 5, 2017
Yay! Johanna's got her groove back!
June 17, 2023
This is a really great series
This is a really great series. Sometimes scary but very good. I can't wait to see what happens next. Especially when Johanna has the baby.
This is a really great series. Sometimes scary but very good. I can't wait to see what happens next. Especially when Johanna has the baby.
January 16, 2017
3.5 liked it, but the individual books are too short, and still many unanswered questions
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews