REVIEW: The Usurper by Rowena Cory Daniells

The Usurper by Rowena Cory Daniells
Publishing Information: Paperback; 448 pages
Publisher: Solaris (2 Sep 2010 - UK, 31 Aug 2010 - US & CA)
ISBN 10: 1907519068
ISBN 13: 978-1907519062
Series: 3rd book of King Rolen's Kin
Copies: Provided by the publisher (Yagiz); Out of pocket (Tyson)
Reviewers: Yagiz and Tyson

Now a slave, Piro finds herself in the Merofynian Palace where, if her real identity is discovered, she will be executed.

Meanwhile, Fyn is desperate to help his brother, Bryen, who is now the uncrowned King.

Bryen never sought power but now he finds himself at the centre of a dangerous resistance movement as the people of Rolencia flee vicious invaders. How can Byren defeat the invaders, when half his warriors are women and children, and the other half are untrained boys and old men?

Yagiz

The beginning of the book is just like the reader would like it to be: dropped into the action straight-away. This third book of the series continues from the point where The Uncrowned King left off.

Daniells' style is still pleasant and The Usurper is a fast-paced and easy-to-read book, just like the previous books. However because this is the last book of the trilogy, I expected some surprises, plot twists, revelations about the setting but unfortunately I was left unsatisfied on various points.

I'm going to try to give an example without spoilers: At this point in the book, we know that an Affinity seep is bad a thing but we don't know what happens to the infected. This remains a mystery. We know the infected becomes evil but there is no specific information about it, no anecdotes told by characters, no references to any historical figures, etc. The reader is hoping to find out more about it in The Usurper, it being the last book. In the story, when one of the secondary characters might be infected, the expectation builds up but this thread dies off without any explanation or elaboration. To tell you the truth the same story thread ends abruptly, as if it had an awkward editor's cut.

I was also disappointed with the end. It gave the impression that it was rushed out. I was hoping for a more imaginative ending. Even though it may seem absurd to talk about realism, it is important, in general, to remain true to the setting. Especially towards the end, the plot and the details left me hoping for better.

The character development follows the same lines drawn by the first two books. I'm surprised that the characters didn't show any further development. My favourite characters were Piro and Fyn however I can't qualify them as memorable.

The King Rolen's Kin trilogy is a fast-paced and easy-to-read trilogy. The best word that comes to my mind qualifying these three books are "affordable". I don't doubt that they are going to please to a great audience: mature as well as young adult. However, readers looking for epic fantasy with realistic battles, detailed settings and memorable characters would be disappointed.

Plot: 6
Characters: 6
Style: 8

Overall: 7/10

Tyson

I was hoping for quite a lot more than what I received when I finished The Usurper. The book left me with a lot of questions and very few answers. Yagiz managed to bring most of them to light without containing spoilers and the other "holes" would spoil things so, I will not be bringing them up.

However, while I enjoyed books 1 and 2, I did not like this finale like I thought I would. The entire book felt disjointed and rushed. While there were a few characters I was dying to know more about, Dunstany, being the one I wanted the most background information for. Once I found out, I was no longer interested in things. There were as Yagiz points out, no twists. Everything comes to a close and it is done about as tidy as one could hope for. For all of the series' build up it was rather anti-climatic. A huge disappointment. It was as if Daniells had a maximum word count she was allowed and stuck to her quota.

The book does leave us with a cliff hanger of sorts as it is open for sequels to see how things unfold after the ending of The Usurper. However, the way things ended, I highly doubt I will be interested in returning to this world. The series was fairly impressive in its early stages but by the conclusion it seemed to stumble on its own feet and fell flat on its face. What was turning out to be a lite version of A Song of Ice and Fire turns out to be nothing like what I was hoping for or expecting. A major bummer.

Plot:  6
Characters:  7
Style:  5

Overall:  5/10