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The Capetian Kings are dead and John II “The Good”, who is anything but good in any sense of the word, is on the throne. As his arrogance, incompetence and vanity drive France from one catastrophic failure to another, the English take the ascendancy in the hundred years war and it seems that the church is the only barrier between the Kingdom of France and English rule. How will France survive?
Well, here we are, the seventh and final book of the series, and because he can (it’s not like we’re going to stop reading now), and because he’s French (you’ll understand if you read much French literature), Druoun now decides to completely change the style of writing. You’ve got to love the French.
The entirety of this book is written in speech, as if our protagonist – a Cardinal – was speaking to you on a long journey. Who “you” are isn’t entirely clear – in fact, I’m pretty sure at one point it changes – which creates this interesting tension of trust throughout: how much can you trust the cardinal who is speaking, how much does he trust you the listener?
It is like this that you learn the end of the sorry history of the Capets and the even sorrier beginning of the Valois. Like the “problematique” of a French doctoral thesis, Druoun has laid out his point – Kings are a bit of a rubbish idea really, because even if they’re good they’ll just get killed or be horribly unlucky – and uses this book to summarise and conclude with a King so terrible you’ll be longing for the good old days of baby murderers and wife killers.
Is the book good? Yes, it is, and a fascinating literary experiment. Is it annoying? A bit. After six books where Druoun has plunged is into the historical action like a good fantasy novel, now he decides to do something completely different. It is perhaps worth noting that this has a different translator than the previous six. If I’d read this book on its own, I would have loved it, but expectations had been built and now disappointed. To put it another way, if this book was the first to have been submitted to the publisher it would not have been published. But you’ve come this far, and this is both excellent writing and a clever way to complete the saga. If there was the slightest inkling of royalist in your soul, prepare to have it crushed.
