REVIEW: The King of the Crags by Stephen Deas

The King of the Crags by Stephen Deas
Publishing information: Paperback; 367 pages
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co.
ISBN 10: 0575083786
ISBN 13: 9780575083783
Series: Book #2
Copy: Out of pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Back of the book: "Prince Jehal has murdered, poisoned and betrayed his way to the top. There is a new speaker for the realms, his opposition has been crushed, now he just has to enjoy the fruits of power. And yet ...He feels more for the wife he married for power than perhaps he should and his lover knows it. And out in the realms those loyal to the old regime are still plotting. and there are rumours that the Red Riders, heralds of revolution and doom are on the ride. And still no-one has found the famous white dragon. The dragon that, if it lived, will have long since recovered from the effects of the alchemical liquid fed to the dragons of the realms to keep them docile, to block their memories of a time when they ruled and the world burned."


Last year I read and reviewed Stephen Deas' The Adamantine Palace and really enjoyed the book. It was full of interesting characters and political intrigue, not to mention dragons.  In The King of the Crags we return to Stephen Deas' world where the white dragon known as Snow is waging war on the humans who have enslaved her kin. We also see that bad things can happen to bad people as Jehal is faced with many choices that will impact the realm and beyond.


One thing that I enjoyed with The Adamantine Palace was the ambiguity of the characters. Many were obviously evil or at least had bad intentions but at times their goals were unknown or kept close to the chest. In The King of Crags the majority of the players have all their cards on the table. This was a disappointment as I enjoyed trying to figure out why characters were doing what they were doing. The political intrigue was not as exciting in this book.


The plot is also a little diluted. There are a few sub-plots that are strung together but they felt forced and rushed in order to come together. It has been a while since I read the first book in the series and the beginning of the The King of the Crags had my head spinning to recall what was going on. It took several pages to finally remember what all the characters and their various motivations.  However, once I remembered everything, things took off at a fairly decent clip.


The King of the Crags was a real low point in the series and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Stephen Deas chose rather to explain things rather than have them play out in the actions and dialogue of the characters. In The Adamantine Palace Deas went all out and told an amazing story at a break-neck pace and that was lacking in The King of the Crags. While I still plan to continue reading the series I hope that Deas returns to a faster plot for the third book.


Plot  7
Characters 7
Style  6


Overall  6.5