Pride of Kings - Softcover

Tarr, Judith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451458478 ISBN 13: 9780451458476

Publisher: Roc, 2001

Synopsis

National bestselling author and World Fantasy Award nominee Judith Tarr delivers a powerful epic of a glorious battle against magic unbound...

At the coronation of the new king of England, two crowns are offered to Richard the Lionheart: the mortal and the magical. Lured by earthbound glory and driven by mortal faith, Richard spurns the pagan crown—and rides off on a Crusade to reclaim a sun-scorched Jerusalem from the infidels, leaving his new kingdom defenseless in the mists...

For some unknown power has brought down the wall between worlds—and beings of dark magic await their chance to cross over the threshold.

Summoned to England by his dreams is Arslan, a strapping youth born of fire and man. Able to walk between worlds and speak with spirits, he is destined to help a country he has never seen and swear loyalty to a man he has never met: Prince John, called Lackland, who will emerge from the shadow of his older brother Richard to rule the armies of the air.

There are two wars for England to win or lose. One could weaken a mortal empire. The other could destroy the world...

About this title

About the Author:

Judith Tarr is a World Fantasy Award nominee best known for her historical novels, such as The White Mare’s Daughter, Lord of the Two Lands, Throne of Isis, King and Goddess, and Pillar of Fire. A graduate of Yale and Cambridge Universities, she holds degrees in ancient and medieval history, and breeds Lipizzan horses at Dancing Horse Farm, her home in Vail, Arizona.

From Publishers Weekly:

The fantastic may be subsidiary to fact in Tarr's (Kingdom of the Grail) latest historical fantasy, but it lends an eerily beautiful, sometimes frightening undercurrent to this engrossing, thoroughly satisfying novel, set in the late 12th century. England's Richard the Lionheart, lusting for men, poetry and war in Palestine, sets off on a crusade, leaving his brother, Prince John, to look after the kingdom. Prompted by the ghost of a Saxon saint, who promises him "powers beyond the reach of mere mortal king," John agrees to seize the throne. The price is steep history will treat him as a traitor, a betrayer of his brother's trust but John truly loves Britain and its people, unlike Richard, and is thus a worthier monarch in the view of certain higher powers. Summoned to England to help John is the French youth Arslan ("lion" in Turkish). The son of a lord and a female spirit, Arslan moves readily between the faery and the human worlds. Tarr smoothly blends a dazzling array of characters from both history and myth: Eleanor of Acquitaine, her "face still beautiful, like a wood in winter, stripped of all its softness"; Philip of France, who after abandoning Richard in Palestine seeks to invade Britain; "Robin o' the Wood... crowned with oak-leaves and carrying a great bow"; and the enchanted Lorelei, who wears "a woman's shape" but "the suppleness of its movements was not truly human." At the end, the author even throws in the Ring of the Nibelung, but such is the quality of her prose that no extravagance seems forced or extraneous. A firm sense of place, notably London and Paris, contributes to a totally credible delight. (Sept. 4)Forecast: With the support of a name author or two, plus the recognition of an award (she's been a World Fantasy Award nominee), Tarr could graduate from trade paper to hardcover and bigger sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Roc
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0451458478
• ISBN 13: 9780451458476
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464