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Branion #2
The Painter Knight
THE PASSING OF THE FLAME
Simon, the Court Painter of Branion, was the closest friend of the kingdom's ruler. Aristok Marsellus the Third. And though Marsellus was the vessel of the Living Flame, able to call upon the power of his god at need, while Simon was a follower of the opposing Essusiate religion, still it was the painter, not Marsellus's own priests and guards, who was the Aristok's staunchest ally and defender.
Yet not even Simon could protect Marsellus from unexpected treachery within the Banion court. But when an assassin's blade put a sudden end to Marsellus's reign, it was Simon who—at the dictate of both his own god and his friend's specter—became the champion and rescuer of the new Aristok, Marsellus's five-year-old daughter Kassandra.
With civil and religious war threatening the suddenly leaderless realm, and Kassandra herself lighting to survive becoming the new vessel of the living Flame, Simon had no choice but to flee Branion with the child. Pursued by the very forces which should have been the new ruler's protectors, Simon and a most unlikely band of companions had to keep both the child and her powers hidden while they made a desperate bid to reach the one person who could offer the uncrowned Aristok both sanctuary and a chance, however desperate, of regaining her kingdom and bringing her father's slayers to justice. (Back Cover)
In the kingdom of Branion, the hereditary royal line is blessed—or cursed—with the power of the Flame, a magic which can as easily destroy its human vessel as well as whatever foe it has been unleashed against. Two hundred years before the events of THE STONE PRINCE, Branion is beseiged by a civil war, and only Simon, Court Painter and closest friend of the kingdom's ruler, can find the courage to rescue a young child—the heir to the Flame—from becoming a victim in the family power struggle!
Simon, the Court Painter of Branion, was the closest friend of the kingdom's ruler. Aristok Marsellus the Third. And though Marsellus was the vessel of the Living Flame, able to call upon the power of his god at need, while Simon was a follower of the opposing Essusiate religion, still it was the painter, not Marsellus's own priests and guards, who was the Aristok's staunchest ally and defender.
Yet not even Simon could protect Marsellus from unexpected treachery within the Banion court. But when an assassin's blade put a sudden end to Marsellus's reign, it was Simon who—at the dictate of both his own god and his friend's specter—became the champion and rescuer of the new Aristok, Marsellus's five-year-old daughter Kassandra.
With civil and religious war threatening the suddenly leaderless realm, and Kassandra herself lighting to survive becoming the new vessel of the living Flame, Simon had no choice but to flee Branion with the child. Pursued by the very forces which should have been the new ruler's protectors, Simon and a most unlikely band of companions had to keep both the child and her powers hidden while they made a desperate bid to reach the one person who could offer the uncrowned Aristok both sanctuary and a chance, however desperate, of regaining her kingdom and bringing her father's slayers to justice. (Back Cover)
In the kingdom of Branion, the hereditary royal line is blessed—or cursed—with the power of the Flame, a magic which can as easily destroy its human vessel as well as whatever foe it has been unleashed against. Two hundred years before the events of THE STONE PRINCE, Branion is beseiged by a civil war, and only Simon, Court Painter and closest friend of the kingdom's ruler, can find the courage to rescue a young child—the heir to the Flame—from becoming a victim in the family power struggle!
522 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1998
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323 people want to read
About the author
Fiona Patton
43 books78 followersFiona lives in rural Ontario with her wife, Tanya Huff. She currently works as a counselor for the developmentally handicapped.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 23, 2023
Not a bad story, but incredibly slow. Snails cross continents faster than this book’s plot progressed. 🐌🐌 Even so, it was cool to see the origin of the DeFay family. And the very last scene with Simon was bittersweet, so I guess it engaged me on some level, despite the overwhelming slowness.
I don’t have Book 3 yet; at some point I’ll find a copy, because I do want to read it, but hopefully the pacing has more…pace. Book 1 was a leisurely journey, no lie, but this makes Book 1 look like a potboiler.
I don’t have Book 3 yet; at some point I’ll find a copy, because I do want to read it, but hopefully the pacing has more…pace. Book 1 was a leisurely journey, no lie, but this makes Book 1 look like a potboiler.
February 23, 2015
From my review of Stone Prince:
Of course, any irrational hatred avoided within the book by removing the prejudices against sex roles and relations is made up for by internecine clashes, madness galloping through the Royal family, and - most of all - religious bigotry. On the one hand is the religion of the Royals, the Triarchy (why it's a Triarchy when there are four elements I don't get ...) and the followers of Essus (which, hello? Bearded prophet leader of religion? Name similarity? It might not have been best wise to call the OTHER religion Tri-whatever; I persist in thinking Essus=Jesus, one-third of God in three parts, so Triarchy=followers of Essus). They hate each other, in all ways, and it gets ugly. There's apparently no living together, but of course neither group wants to go anywhere, and apparently pacifism is no part at all of either faith.
Which means that The Painter Knight loses something pretty vital. I'm halfway through, and I don't have the highest hopes for the ending; no matter what, I will be looking at it in light of events a hundred years or so down the road. The story is about Simon, court artist, who is an Essusiate, lover of the Aristok and rescuer of the Aristok's daughter when her father is assassinated. It is about his peril-fraught mission to keep the child out of the hands of her mother's brother, who has killed her father and doesn't intend nice things for her.
There are three directions I need to go with this ... The first is the one I already began: Simon, as mentioned, is an Essusiate. He and his family and some Essusiate friends are working very hard to help the Triarchic Aristok, and it is made clear that their god, Essus himself, is watching over the girl - it's not just a matter of Simon needing to help the daughter of his dead friend and lover. And yet, having just read the preceding book which involves much later events, I know that relations between the religions are no better in this book's future. If anything, they're worse. So it is with a feeling of futility that I read about all of these good and faithful followers of Essus working so hard to help the little Aristok. The idea is that the kid will be so grateful to them that they spefically and maybe they, their religion, in general will benefit. Well, the kid is only four. All I can think is that either she does grow up into a decent human being and is benevolent to the Essusiates in her lifetime, and it doesn't last, which is sad... Or she grows up under the regency of someone who makes her forget how much she loved these folks when she was little, and nothing changes, which is even more sad. In the long run, at least, this act of mercy won't do them a damn bit of good. So ... what's with the deific support??
Another aspect of the book I take issue with is the kid herself. I don't generally make any secret of it: I dislike children. I worked in too many retail environments to not dislike children. My mother always says it's the parents' fault, and the parents are the ones to despise; my feeling is that sure, I loathe them too, but it's the kids who are the ones being the bloody nuisances, so they're the prime targets for my dislike. I particularly despise precocious children, like the ones they have on talk shows who at age three can name all the presidents; they are usually far too enmeshed in the knowledge of their own cleverness, and so much of what comes out of them is pure performance with the expectation of the praise to which they have become accustomed. What's her name, the mini Aristok of PK, is a very precocious child indeed. The chapter I just finished featured four solid pages of conversation between the kid and a somewhat slow adult. Stimulating. Apparently badly written children's dialogue is much like badly written dialectal dialogue: it grows tedious, and then annoying, and then intolerable.
And another issue: a spoilerific one, this, in part. Simon is captured not quite halfway through, and his "interrogation" includes a brick being forcibly introduced to his hand. His painting hand (not that either hand would be a good thing). He's pretty unconscious at the moment, which is why I had to put up with four pages of charming childish conversation just now, I guess. Thing is, though, that the book opens in this story's future: Simon is in his seventies, having arguments with the ghost of a 23-year-old man called Leary and ... climbing up on a scaffold to paint. In a couple of minutes it's revealed that Leary is the nickname for the Aristok (I'm too lazy to go look up his full name, or the kid's) (everyone has a nickname in these books. Everyone. Nicknames, I feel, are a good thing - a touch of realism. But Everyone. Has. A. Nickname), so I knew chapters ahead of time that he was going to bite the dust (probably would have known sooner, as I think it's on the back cover blurb, but I try to avoid those for just that reason). And I know now, reading about the worry everyone feels about the terrible damage done to Simon's hand, that ... it doesn't matter much. As with the efforts of the Essusiates, I already know that in the end it makes little difference, if any. Triarchists (I think I change that word every time) will still hate Essuiates in 100 years' time, and Simon will be painting in 40-odd years' time. Whether it will be a miraculous healing by the dead Aristok (though they don't seem to go in much for healing), or when they put his hand in some kind of cast they form it around a paintbrush (who was it I knew who did that when they broke their hand??), or simply that Simon learns to use his other hand, unless all of that at the beginning is some senile delusion (in which case I will never read anything by Fiona Patton again, because that would be offensive to my idea of storytelling), something is going to happen. The horror of an artist having his hand bashed to pieces is negated from the moment it happens; my attitude right now is "Ouch. Annoying. No worries, though." Which tends to make me wonder why she would do it to him in the first place ... just to create the setup for the defection of one character? Just to shove the brat more center stage and give her the opportunity for childish prattle? Gee. Thanks.
In other words, I HATE time jumps and flashbacks and flashforwards, unless they're absolutely necessary or very well done indeed.
One more annoyance. (So far.) This book and Stone Prince both focus on the royal family of Branion. Like many royal families, names are reused throughout history. Am I the only one who likes to keep reading the same writer if possible? And am I the only one to be really thrown off by meeting up with a Kassandra and a Mareselus (that's it! I think. Leary. I think) and a whole slew of other characters whose names belonged to very different people in the last book? Also, it took chapters to stop being startled when the heir to the throne (can't remember the title of the dukedom, and amn't checking) behaved in an evil manner, rather than the simply bonkers way of the heir in SP. Maybe I've never read a series that jumped times like this within one group of people (after all, one can't say I've read mine, since 99% of it isn't written yet), but I don't remember ever having this much trouble adapting.
Did I say the cover for The Stone Prince was gaudy? Pshaw. Painter Knight, in all its glowing tangerine glory (you could practically read by this thing, it's so bright) with its children's book dragons and its pouty crimson-haired child and its adams-appley Alan Rickman lookalike hero (I sincerely doubt that even so dedicated an artist as Simon is that he toted a palette around at any point in his rescue mission), makes SP look like the most sedate of Serious Literature. And really? Big blue eyes on the dragons? Part of the expression looks angry - which is grossly undermined by the pink tongue and Big Blue Eyes. This is a book that makes me glad for the existence of Kindles.
Of course, any irrational hatred avoided within the book by removing the prejudices against sex roles and relations is made up for by internecine clashes, madness galloping through the Royal family, and - most of all - religious bigotry. On the one hand is the religion of the Royals, the Triarchy (why it's a Triarchy when there are four elements I don't get ...) and the followers of Essus (which, hello? Bearded prophet leader of religion? Name similarity? It might not have been best wise to call the OTHER religion Tri-whatever; I persist in thinking Essus=Jesus, one-third of God in three parts, so Triarchy=followers of Essus). They hate each other, in all ways, and it gets ugly. There's apparently no living together, but of course neither group wants to go anywhere, and apparently pacifism is no part at all of either faith.
Which means that The Painter Knight loses something pretty vital. I'm halfway through, and I don't have the highest hopes for the ending; no matter what, I will be looking at it in light of events a hundred years or so down the road. The story is about Simon, court artist, who is an Essusiate, lover of the Aristok and rescuer of the Aristok's daughter when her father is assassinated. It is about his peril-fraught mission to keep the child out of the hands of her mother's brother, who has killed her father and doesn't intend nice things for her.
There are three directions I need to go with this ... The first is the one I already began: Simon, as mentioned, is an Essusiate. He and his family and some Essusiate friends are working very hard to help the Triarchic Aristok, and it is made clear that their god, Essus himself, is watching over the girl - it's not just a matter of Simon needing to help the daughter of his dead friend and lover. And yet, having just read the preceding book which involves much later events, I know that relations between the religions are no better in this book's future. If anything, they're worse. So it is with a feeling of futility that I read about all of these good and faithful followers of Essus working so hard to help the little Aristok. The idea is that the kid will be so grateful to them that they spefically and maybe they, their religion, in general will benefit. Well, the kid is only four. All I can think is that either she does grow up into a decent human being and is benevolent to the Essusiates in her lifetime, and it doesn't last, which is sad... Or she grows up under the regency of someone who makes her forget how much she loved these folks when she was little, and nothing changes, which is even more sad. In the long run, at least, this act of mercy won't do them a damn bit of good. So ... what's with the deific support??
Another aspect of the book I take issue with is the kid herself. I don't generally make any secret of it: I dislike children. I worked in too many retail environments to not dislike children. My mother always says it's the parents' fault, and the parents are the ones to despise; my feeling is that sure, I loathe them too, but it's the kids who are the ones being the bloody nuisances, so they're the prime targets for my dislike. I particularly despise precocious children, like the ones they have on talk shows who at age three can name all the presidents; they are usually far too enmeshed in the knowledge of their own cleverness, and so much of what comes out of them is pure performance with the expectation of the praise to which they have become accustomed. What's her name, the mini Aristok of PK, is a very precocious child indeed. The chapter I just finished featured four solid pages of conversation between the kid and a somewhat slow adult. Stimulating. Apparently badly written children's dialogue is much like badly written dialectal dialogue: it grows tedious, and then annoying, and then intolerable.
And another issue: a spoilerific one, this, in part. Simon is captured not quite halfway through, and his "interrogation" includes a brick being forcibly introduced to his hand. His painting hand (not that either hand would be a good thing). He's pretty unconscious at the moment, which is why I had to put up with four pages of charming childish conversation just now, I guess. Thing is, though, that the book opens in this story's future: Simon is in his seventies, having arguments with the ghost of a 23-year-old man called Leary and ... climbing up on a scaffold to paint. In a couple of minutes it's revealed that Leary is the nickname for the Aristok (I'm too lazy to go look up his full name, or the kid's) (everyone has a nickname in these books. Everyone. Nicknames, I feel, are a good thing - a touch of realism. But Everyone. Has. A. Nickname), so I knew chapters ahead of time that he was going to bite the dust (probably would have known sooner, as I think it's on the back cover blurb, but I try to avoid those for just that reason). And I know now, reading about the worry everyone feels about the terrible damage done to Simon's hand, that ... it doesn't matter much. As with the efforts of the Essusiates, I already know that in the end it makes little difference, if any. Triarchists (I think I change that word every time) will still hate Essuiates in 100 years' time, and Simon will be painting in 40-odd years' time. Whether it will be a miraculous healing by the dead Aristok (though they don't seem to go in much for healing), or when they put his hand in some kind of cast they form it around a paintbrush (who was it I knew who did that when they broke their hand??), or simply that Simon learns to use his other hand, unless all of that at the beginning is some senile delusion (in which case I will never read anything by Fiona Patton again, because that would be offensive to my idea of storytelling), something is going to happen. The horror of an artist having his hand bashed to pieces is negated from the moment it happens; my attitude right now is "Ouch. Annoying. No worries, though." Which tends to make me wonder why she would do it to him in the first place ... just to create the setup for the defection of one character? Just to shove the brat more center stage and give her the opportunity for childish prattle? Gee. Thanks.
In other words, I HATE time jumps and flashbacks and flashforwards, unless they're absolutely necessary or very well done indeed.
One more annoyance. (So far.) This book and Stone Prince both focus on the royal family of Branion. Like many royal families, names are reused throughout history. Am I the only one who likes to keep reading the same writer if possible? And am I the only one to be really thrown off by meeting up with a Kassandra and a Mareselus (that's it! I think. Leary. I think) and a whole slew of other characters whose names belonged to very different people in the last book? Also, it took chapters to stop being startled when the heir to the throne (can't remember the title of the dukedom, and amn't checking) behaved in an evil manner, rather than the simply bonkers way of the heir in SP. Maybe I've never read a series that jumped times like this within one group of people (after all, one can't say I've read mine, since 99% of it isn't written yet), but I don't remember ever having this much trouble adapting.
Did I say the cover for The Stone Prince was gaudy? Pshaw. Painter Knight, in all its glowing tangerine glory (you could practically read by this thing, it's so bright) with its children's book dragons and its pouty crimson-haired child and its adams-appley Alan Rickman lookalike hero (I sincerely doubt that even so dedicated an artist as Simon is that he toted a palette around at any point in his rescue mission), makes SP look like the most sedate of Serious Literature. And really? Big blue eyes on the dragons? Part of the expression looks angry - which is grossly undermined by the pink tongue and Big Blue Eyes. This is a book that makes me glad for the existence of Kindles.
September 24, 2018
Definitely liked the first one more, but this book improved throughout. Still adore the world building and how absolutely unremarkable same sex couples are. My big complaint about this book was the story structure, where we start in current time, most of the story is one huge flashback, and we even have flashbacks inside flashbacks. (That was odd, and almost knocked the story down a star, but the characters pulled it back up. Mostly Roserion and Terri.)
January 15, 2021
I had remembered it being more clear that Simon and Leary were lovers. But the book refers to them as friends a whole lot. And okay friends with benefits is a thing, and I get that. But toward the end of the book it seemed like an oversimplification, and part of me still wonders if late 90s gay issues and the public disdain for them is why 'friend' was a thing a lot.
October 5, 2018
I enjoyed the first book in the "series" better...i use the term losely as the books are separated by more than a century.
April 8, 2016
i did it. i read this book. i can't believe i read it in a week and a half whereas the stone prince took me like a year.
that's because this book was way better. first of all, this book features oscar wilde, except with a little bit of a backbone. i thought i would be really turned off at the idea of suffering through a book about a 5 year-old leader of a country. but it turns out her vocabulary at time was really advanced and it wasn't all that bad - other than when she said 'wif' ('with'), 'parin' ('preparing'), etc. i thought it would be more like reading something like sailor moon super s where chibiusa is absolutely intolerable. but Kassandra was very tolerable.
wrenassandra? did that name really happen? lol ugh
but the story was good. there weren't so many unnecessary words other than in the second to last chapter. i'll read the next one. good work, fiona :)
that's because this book was way better. first of all, this book features oscar wilde, except with a little bit of a backbone. i thought i would be really turned off at the idea of suffering through a book about a 5 year-old leader of a country. but it turns out her vocabulary at time was really advanced and it wasn't all that bad - other than when she said 'wif' ('with'), 'parin' ('preparing'), etc. i thought it would be more like reading something like sailor moon super s where chibiusa is absolutely intolerable. but Kassandra was very tolerable.
wrenassandra? did that name really happen? lol ugh
but the story was good. there weren't so many unnecessary words other than in the second to last chapter. i'll read the next one. good work, fiona :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 27, 2009
I really enjoyed this (standalone) second book of the Branion Realm series -- much more than the first. Lots of characters but the author didn't make me check the list at the front of the book every few pages to remember who was who. A good plot that kept my interest from start to finish. Wonderful description that made it easy to get and stay engrossed in the storyline. If you're looking for a good fantasy read with a lot of medieval feel and a minimum amount of magic, this one is for you.
December 29, 2007
This is basically my favorite fantasy series. In addition to crafting a complex world in which to set her story, Patton models some interesting models of non-normative sexuality and gender that really endeared the series to me. The series itself is also very interesting in the questions that it brings about concerning religion and maintaining a religious/political monopoly on a realm.
November 8, 2011
I really liked this book even though I usually avoid books with children as the central characters. I found the the portrayal of the young Aristok delightful. A scene here or there may have been a little cringe worthy but in general I loved the characters as well as the world. I am happy she has revisited it so often.
October 10, 2007
The second book the author wrote for this world, though chronologically it occurred several hundred years before "The Stone Prince".
I enjoyed it just as much as the first book.
I enjoyed it just as much as the first book.
April 22, 2008
Not as great as the first in its Series but is still a must read. I love the way that the books are going back in time, instead of forward.
Read
January 13, 2009I liked this one, but oddly I did not like the rest of the series...
Want to read
August 20, 2011This has been sitting on my bookshelf for ever. I only rediscovered it recently. I read The Stone Prince way back in high school but for some reason never got around to reading this one.
December 22, 2016
I loved it. Kassandra is a wonderful character, and I wish I could read more of her exploits.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews