Blue Moon Rising
The Forest Kingdom series, Book 1
Simon R. Green
Roc
Fiction, Fantasy/Humor
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: As the second son of King John of the Forest Kingdom, Prince Rupert has always known he was superfluous at best and a potential threat to succession at worst. Never mind that he had no aspirations to power himself; he could always be used as a tool and a means to divide the realm just by virtue of his bloodlines. When his father sent him on a quest to slay a dragon and "prove himself worthy of the throne", everyone - even Rupert - knew the truth: he was being sent off to exile (if he was smart and just ran away) or his death (if he was foolish enough to cross the deadly, demon-infested Darkwood in search of an actual dragon). But Rupert is nothing if not dutiful, so off a-slaying he rides upon his talking unicorn steed... only the quest doesn't go nearly how anyone, least of all Rupert, might have expected. For one thing, the dragon is far nicer than anyone in the royal court. For another, there's a wayward princess, Julia, who is better with a blade than half the castle guardsmen. On the way back home, the four of them - prince, princess, unicorn, and dragon - make quite an adventuring foursome... but they return to find a realm overrun with demons and beset by treachery. While Rupert was away, the Darkwood was spreading its influence. With an ill-omened Blue Moon rising, the Wild Magic of the land is in ascendance, swallowing the High Magic that remains to humanity and threatening to remake the world into something primordial, chaotic, and utterly devoid of light, hope, and mortals.
Once, Rupert was the last man the Forest Kingdom needed. Now, he and his unlikely companions may be its only hope of survival.
REVIEW: I openly admit I picked it up based on the cover art of the edition I found in Half Price Books, with bright rainbow colors, an old-school fantasy adventure feel, and a dragon. First published in 1991, this is the kind of story I don't see that often these days, a lighter take on/subversion of familiar fantasy tropes that nonetheless has a decent plotline (not just a series of one-liners) and enough heart and unpredictability to make for a reasonably engaging read. The characters may not be hugely deep, but have enough inner conflict and complexity and undergo enough pain and growth to make them more than one-note placeholders, even if they do sometimes behave a little foolishly to further a plot point or two. The villains aren't quite as obvious as one might expect, either. As for the world, it's a decent enough backdrop for an adventure, if not much more than that; this isn't one of those detailed epic fantasy realms where you feel you could walk into the page, but more like a serviceable stage setting for the story to play out upon. Green's writing style could be a bit irritating, tending to drift between character viewpoints and pull back to omniscient now and again; I'm used to works where the camera doesn't wander quite so much mid-scene. Toward the end, a few developments felt contrived, and one or two never came to fruition as it felt they should... but, then, this is just the first in a series, even if the setup for continuation feels slightly tacked-on; it could've easily resolved in one volume with some minor tweaks. (Will I pursue further volumes? I wouldn't rule it out, though I also wouldn't say it's the top of the priority list. This is the kind of story that makes a nice, lighter read between heavier material, not necessarily one I want to binge several volumes of in one gulp.) On the whole, considering that I picked it up off the clearance rack at Half Price Books, it earns a solid four stars for delivering the entertainment that the cover promised, and just a little more.
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