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After more dead Kings than a speed-chess tournament, the infamous giant Robert of Artois is finally able to place his cousin Phillipe of Valois on the throne and become effective regent of France. Having lied, cheated, forged and murdered to make his way here, Robert expects his just reward: the contested title to Artois to finally be ripped from the hands of his malevolent aunt Mahaut (also a liar, cheater, forger and murderer) and placed in his own.
However, things rarely (if at all) seem to work out for the throne of France, and Robert may be about to discover that this time of his greatest power is also that of his greatest weakness.
Here we are, book 6, and a conflict that at times has seemed to render the various comings and goings of Kings and Queens into a subplot finally comes to a head. The battle over ownership of Artois has undermined and diverted an entire family’s worth of King’s efforts to reign over France (up to and including baby murdering!), and with his evil Aunt Mahaut finally dying of old age the equally evil Robert of Artois must surely get what he wants.
For four fifths of this book we get a fitting climax for what has been the ongoing saga of this whole series. It doesn’t disappoint. If you’ve made it this far through the series you’ve learned that things go wrong fast when you’re a French aristocrat and then you die in some random accident. History is cruel, and as Robert desperately tries to hold things together we get yet another example of just how cruel it is. Thank goodness we live in the 21st century where all we have to deal with is global pandemics and new wave fascism.
Then, at the 4/5ths point, the author breaks the fourth wall and tells us directly that now his favourite character is dead (and the series makes much more sense once we know this), he’s not sure what to do, but shucks, that’s history, so he’s going to shoot ahead about a dozen years and show us how some things pan out.
This was a really good read, and by now I’m attuned to Druoun’s style so I can take the fact that he won’t let a good story get in the way of history. Because the history is awesome. And sad. And terrible. We get some good battles in this one, a lot of long standing plot strands are tied up, and I’m left with just one question: what the heck is he going to do in book 7?
