AURORA BATTY’S BOOKS praises Nancy Springer’s THE ODDLING PRINCE.

Anyway, I loved this book. The tale was spun beautifully and I was delighted to have a fully resolved story in one volume instead of stretched in to a trilogy. Don’t get me wrong, I love a trilogy, but sometimes you just don’t want to wait to see what happens!

This tale of a kingdom in peril and the princes that are destined to save it is full of beautiful imagery and wrought with emotions. It is easy to find yourself fully immersed in the land of Dun Coltier and the plight of our two heros. I don’t want to give that much away as it is integral to the story and it’s ending but trust me it’s awesomely beautiful.

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So my lovely booklings, that is my suggestions. So go forth and read-eth!

LINDA’S BOOK BAG stays in with Nancy Springer.

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought THE ODDLING PRINCE because I am so glad it has finally found a home. I wrote it with all my heart, but then it struggled for years to find publication.  I was told “that kind of fantasy” wasn’t popular anymore.  Ouch, because “That kind of fantasy” was a return to my roots, the first fantasy novel I wrote, The Silver Sun, in which two warrior comrades love each other with all loyalty and eventually discover they are brothers. THE ODDLING PRINCE is like the captured essence of much of my previous mythic fantasy to me.  It had to be published.  And now, finally, it is, by Tachyon.

What can we expect from an evening in with The Oddling Prince?

Let me read you a brief excerpt:

In the benighted courtyard, the rider and his horse stood like a great alabaster statue surrounded by a multitude of pale ovals, the frightened faces of guards and soldiers with their swords out, or their pikes raised, or their bows with arrows nocked to the drawn strings.  Yet he, the horseback rider, sat at ease among them as if on a coracle floating amid water lilies.

A slim youth.  Perhaps no older than I.

He drew no weapon.

His hands stirred not from the reins.

He gazed straight ahead of him as if in a dream.

He and his milk-white steed, both horse and rider far too beautiful to belong to this mortal world, shone in the night.  They glimmered head to foot as if they carried moonlight within them.

My neck hairs prickled at the sight.  My heart halted like my feet, like my staring face, and for a moment I felt as if it might stop entirely.  But I could not weaken; a king’s son is not permitted to weaken, ever.

(This is a great hook for the reader Nancy.)

The narrator is only seventeen years old, but he must take charge. He orders the men to lower their weapons, and he welcomes the eerie stranger, and that is how Prince Aric of Calidon meets the oddling prince.

So THE ODDLING PRINCE is a book about two princes. The Brian Giberson cover symbolizes its theme perfectly:  two swords for two heroes, and a heart joining them in troth.

THE STAR LISTENER enjoys the fantasy.

Nancy Springer has a gift for fantasy writing. It’s not an easy read with that old Scotland language with the English words getting mixed up, but it is a joy to read. The world she created and the magic that came a long with it is something I’ve never read in any other book before. It’s very unique.

A breath of fresh air, wonderful world building and a must read for Fantasy lovers.

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Nancy Springer has a gift for fantasy writing. It’s not an easy read with that old Scotland language with the English words getting mixed up, but it is a joy to read. The world she created and the magic that came a long with it is something I’ve never read in any other book before. It’s very unique.

I love this book, the way it is written, the characters, the world Springer created. Everything felt magical and I truly felt like I was in the world with them. I am so blessed to be one of the people who got to read her work and surely this will not be my last book written by her.

For more info on THE ODDLING PRINCE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Brian Giberson

Design by Elizabeth Story