In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king’s long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner’s motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword’s point — he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage’s rivals have their own agendas as well.
As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner’s sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.
I have to say that Nielson’s novel reminded me a bit of Marchetta’s Finnikin of the Rock, but I’m not going to compare and contrast them, because essentially, Sage and Finnikin’s journeys are different.
Now the narrative didn’t exactly start off extremely enticing or anything, but sometimes the best stories don’t. The story begins with Sage, an orphan, getting in trouble for stealing in his hometown, which was really for the other children in the orphanage where he has been living since he was ten. A sinister sort of man comes and “purchases” him from the orphanage to serve for his purposes. (Question: was this something that actually happened in real European orphanages?)
Either way, we are immediately thrown into a shady situation with Regent Collins, his band of merry thieves, and three other orphans gathered for the journey. It isn’t until the arrival of the party (sans one orphan) at Collins’ estate that the reason of the orphan purchases are revealed.
Suddenly, Nielson thrusts the reader into an information dump about the country of Carthya, the recent murder of the royal family, the past death of Prince Jaron, and Collins’ plan to turn one of the three remaining orphans into the “False Prince” Jaron, and take control of the throne before revolution rocks the country.
Okay, so here is when we finally get to the meat of the story and we get to know the three orphans and Sage’s journey to understand his role in this plan.
Nielson’s writing ability is excellent, and I must say that once the story picked up, I really enjoyed Sage’s story and the exquisite descriptions of everything. There is a significant twist to the story, that I honestly did not predict, and didn’t see coming. I will be going back to re-read the story and figure out if there are more clues than the false gold rock to give me an idea of the ending. Nielson certainly caught me by surprise and I loved Sage’s story and his character growth.
If you like fantasy with a bit of intrigue, then The False Prince is for you. Check it out!
4 Bards.
Moving! 