The Broken King

The Darkening Path #1

by Philip Womack

The Broken King, the first book in The Darkening Path trilogy, is a thrilling fantasy adventure that takes its cue from Browning’s poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came." It tells the story of a boy called Simon who must search for and fight a terrifying enemy when his little sister is snatched away to a dark underworld. He is accompanied by Fiona, who has lost her brother in similar mysterious circumstances, and a strange, un-named boy who rescues them from a violent attack in the middle of the night. Instructed by a strange winged-deer messenger, they are told that together they must complete three tasks before they can enter the world of the Broken King to find them.

Genres: Fantasy

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2014

Reviews

[Oana Turcea]

!!! 5 steluțe din 5 !!!

Vreau să încep prin a spune că această carte este promovară ca o carte pentru copii (11+ ani), eu am 20 și mi-a plăcut mai mult decât unele cărți fantasy care sunt încadrate pentru vârsta mea. Se cunoaște după stilul de scriere că este o carte pentru copii deoarece acțiunea nu este greu de înțeles, are un singur fir ușor de urmărit. A fost cam previzibil totul, dar asta nu mi-a diminuat dorința de a citi mai departe și de a vedea cum se termină totul. Cu fiecare pagină parcă deveneam și mai mult parte din poveste și trăiam acolo cu personajele.

Acțiunea a început încă din a doua, a treia pagină și nu a încetat până ce nu am ajung la ultima frază. Finalul nu a fost așa cum m-aș fi așteptat, adică nu s-a întâmplat ce presupuneam eu, dar a fost perfect. Este exact acel final care îți lasă dorința de a citi următoarea cartea cât mai repede.

Personajele sunt descrise foarte bine și ajungi să le îndrăgești imediat. Sunt introduse pe rând iar acest lucru te ajută să nu le încurci atunci când vor fi toate în același loc. Au caractere diferite iar asta face ca acțiunea să fie și mai dinamică.

În final, este o carte fantasy care pe mine m-a încântat foarte mult, o lectură ușoară care, da, este recomandată și copiilor de la 11 ani în sus.

[MadiEl]

A innocent joke can take an unexpected turn, to the point that even the ignorance of person and the wish to ged rid of the annoying brothers can bring consequences, it's not just a coincidence, it's a fact. In this way two brothers will have to save their litlle ones from the grasp of evil king, the most cruel and dark being which dominates over the lands with his terrible and frightening shadow. Can two children save their brothers and also the entire world? If you read, you will find out, although is not a perfect book for my level of reading, instead is a good book for the kids, but as i like adventure and fantasy i decided to give it a try. I imagined like a movie on the cinema with a lot of action and suspanse. A deserted world, which is decaying and saved by kids also being helped by magical creatures is sounds to me like a great journey, always the battle between good and evil, always the satisfaction that evil will never win is optimistic and liveless. Maybe to some of us is a simple book, but it's not. For kids who like adventure, imagination, heroes, mystical power i would reccomend this book, also to read the rest of the volumes.

[Andrada Maria]

Aceasta carte are foarte mult suspans!!

[Bookthesp1]

There is much to admire in Philip Womacks opening book (in the inevitable trilogy). There is a slightly old fashioned start with squabbling siblings and absent parents counterpointed by a sort of modern setting. Simon the "hero" wishes his irritating little sister would be gone, invoking an old poem as a ploy to scare her into submission. In intoning the poem he actually achieves his objective as his sister disappears taken into the land of the poem and The Broken King. So, we have the obvious and somewhat cliched quest story as Simon has to work out how to visit the land his sister is now imprisoned in. It is his own complicity in the disappearance that provides the narrative drive and impetus and sets this above some other books in this well worked seam. Womack not only suggests a clear and present danger for Simon but in this first book doesn't try too hard to unfold the narrative- as always with a trilogy its about the pacing. Inevitably (and there is a sort of checklist for these things) he meets Flora (adding a coming of age level to the story) who is also looking for a sibling and the mysterious Pike who helps them ward off an attack dog sent by the Broken King. The few scenes set in the land of the titular king are both effective and sparing in their portrayal of this fantasy world and you are left wanting more. There are the chases, the running away from shadowy henchmen and the more intriguing bits of business involving maps made of human skin (Simons sisters?) and more. These clever narrative conceits would certainly provide some grist to the targets audiences mill and allow a dark underpinning of a growing threat to the stories protagonists. I read this in short bursts and might have benefitted from longer sessions with the story. Womack has been compared to the great Alan Garner and there are certainly hints of high quality writing throughout. Indeed, Womack neither overwrites or tries too hard to impress the reader letting the story take the strain. I will certainly read the other volumes but this book neither took my breath away or made me love the characters. However, on a more minor note it has achieved its purpose in directing me to the tricky middle book of a trilogy where Womack will have to up his game- intrigued rather than over excited and hoping to be surprised- in a good way.

[Clare]

Enthralling and all-encompassing, this is a fantasy novel that reaches into the depths of our modernity and triumphantly mixes it with legends of old to create a stunning new adventure. Although I wouldn’t ordinarily offer up as Book of the Week a book that’s the first in a trilogy, and ends on a cliffhanger when book three hasn’t been published yet, I am on this occasion making an exception, because book one is exceptional, and book two ends on a satisfactory note, leaving you wanting more but not disappointing. Philip Womack takes his extensive classical knowledge and moulds it into a story that features our current world full with modern references of Sainsbury’s, mobile phones, and rock music, but then splices it with a fantasy world of shadows, murderous swans, and golden deer with wings.
Simon’s sister is taken away, kidnapped by a dark force, and with his parents and own world held in a kind of suspended time, he must venture into the kingdom of the Broken King to retrieve his sister. Along with him is sixteen year old Flora, whose brother has also been taken. The plot follows the traditional line of a journey into the unknown, with riddles to solve and dangers to avoid. However, the dark imagery is startling, refreshing and bold – Womack uses the loneliness of teenagers and weaves it into their fears and nightmares of the dark other world, he dips into territory as yet unexplored in children’s fiction – maps made from human skin. I loved that he imposed physical scars on the two teenagers, so that the pain from their scars reminded them of their quickness to anger at their siblings, and how selfish they had been; how the kidnappings were their own fault. He touches on a subplot of a power struggle in the other world, as well as references to the troubles the teenagers have in their real lives – something that rounds their characters and keeps rooting the fantasy in reality. For the rest of the review, please visit http://www.minervareads.com/?p=1158

[Nicole]

It was a good book and was an interesting concept. However the beginning felt slow and the end rushed.