Reviewed by Quirky Cat on
The Prince of Korin is a young adult fantasy novel, one that I think fans of Man in the Iron Mask will appreciate. The cover is lovely and immediately eye catching, but the description is what lands the sale for me.
As you can probably guess by my reference to Man in the Iron Mask, Endomer, the main character, is a twin. Which isn’t all that out of the ordinary, until you consider the fact that he’s also a prince. In what was likely an attempt to prevent the events that occur in the classic tale of twin princes, the king and queen have decided not to reveal the true heir to anyone (including the boys) until their fifteenth birthday. It is their hope that this will keep the boys (and the kingdom) together.
I thought this was a pretty interesting concept. It also raised a whole bunch of moral and ethical questions; such as if they parents (the only ones who know which son was born first) found the heir to be unworthy, could they simply pretend the other boy was born first? More importantly, would they? That isn’t the direction this novel took (that I know of) but it did lead me down a rabbit hole of thoughts like this, and I greatly appreciate that.
It’s worth noting that the boys, Endomer and Krollis, are night and day. Endomer is a bookworm, he prefers a quieter life full of study (and boy do I emphasize with that), while Krollis is a thrill seeker. Unlike the classic this novel reminded me of, neither boy appear to be corrupt; they’re just different. Both would have their own pros and cons for being a leader; together though they would make a competent team and a wonderful kingdom (which really was the moral of this story).
If that isn’t enough of a plot to get you interested (and for the record, it was for me! Those moments of intrigue were the highlights in my mind), then you’ll be happy to know that there’s more. An enemy is threatening the kingdom, and poor Endomer must stand on his own during some of the worst times of his life. I promise you that your heart will break for Endomer during the trials he goes through here.
The two plots end up weaving together to form an even bigger mystery, one which I don’t want to reveal as it’s a pretty major spoiler. But trust me when I say the buildup can be seen ahead of time, and in the end it’s all worth it.
I feel like there’s a lot of buildup being done for future books, and I admit I’d be curious to see where Endomer ends up next (if I had to guess, I’d say he’d make a fantastic royal advisor, with his education and wits). I’d like to see more about Krollis as well (perhaps the next book can be from his perspective?) as well as the other kingdoms mentioned throughout. It seems like there’s more to this story yet.
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Reading updates
- Started reading
- 6 December, 2017: Finished reading
- 6 December, 2017: Reviewed