About two times a year I get asked what books I want to review that is published by a certain German publisher. Crown of Three was one of the books I picked. The cover, the colors, and the promise, this would be like Game of Thrones only for young children, convinced me. Well, it was a nice read, but I wasn´t blown away by it. No doubt, Crown of Three is a really wonderful read for kids, especially for those ones, who love long and detailed descriptions.
Crown Of Three*
by J. D. RinehartCrown Of Three Trilogy #1
Publisher Aladdin on June 2, 2015
Genre Fantasy
Pages 416
Format Hardcover
Source Publisher
✶✶✶½
Toronia, a kingdom composed of three realms, is wracked with civil war. King Brutan rules with an iron fist. Cruelty and suffering abound. The kingdom´s only hope comes in the form of Brutan´s illegitimate triplets, prophesied to kill the king and rule together in peace. But the road to the throne is long and bloody. Separated at birth and scattered throughout the realms, the triplets face a desperate fight to secure their destiny. Will they survive long enough to rule?
Story
Tarlan, Elodie, and Agulphus, the illegitimate triplets of king Brutan, were brought out of the kingdom right after they were born. To grow up far away from their brutal father and his deadly will. But they weren´t raised as wizard Melchior hoped. Instead, after thirteen years three completely different teenagers arrive back at the castle to fight for their destiny and to do what they were born to rule under the Crown of Three and to unite the kingdom.
Style
An invisible narrator tells the reader the fanciful story of three young children, who were born to bring peace to a kingdom torn apart by civil war. I have to admit, that J. D. Rinehart has a great fantasy and the characters and animals he created are really something. The only thing that I didn´t like was the fact, that there are some really brutal and cruel scenes in this novel. Call me whatever you want, but for a children’s book of that recommended age, this novel contains way too many, too bloody and too brutal scenes. In Crown of Three, you get to know a world where everything is about betrayal, intrigue, hunger for power, and death. Three rightful heirs to the throne - Tarlan, Elodie, and Gulph (an abbreviated version of Agulphus) grew up in completely different ways in totally different worlds. While Elodie grew up in wealth and very protected by her guardian her siblings weren´t so blessed. Gulph grew up in poverty, Tarlan in the solitude of the everlasting ice. And all that, what they experienced and learned during those years, they bring no into the fight for the throne. The novel is set up in various lines of action. Each of them shows the story of the three main figures and is written in an opulent and very tedious style. During some pages, things get a bit illogical and it is not easy to keep up with what happens.
The plot is not unlike the series Game of Thrones except that in this book Thorrods – kind of huge birds – help the characters and not dragons.
Characters
A murderous king, a mentally ill heir to the throne, an ice-cold embittered queen, various royal knights, and a royal mistress – that and a lot more are brought together in this novel. There is suffering, veneration, rage, condemnation, and sworn allegiance and some really stupid projects are being realized with threads and much violence. But the author doesn´t bother to show or describe you all those figures in long character descriptions. No, you only get to see them through their actions or how they behave.
Tarlan is a figure that gets noticed the most. And also presented in the most sympathetic and best way you can imagine. He is without any class conceit; loyalty and family cohesion are everything to him. His way of thinking is different from the way his companions act and think and that is what makes him stand out. Maybe because he loves to ride his Thorrods is the reason why he sees everything from a different perspective. He really flies above it.
Conclusion
In the end, I can say, yes, this is a nice to read children´s book. But for me, it doesn´t go over the average opinion. There are too many barbaric scenes in this book, something I find totally inappropriate in a children´s book for the recommended age of 10 years. So from my site only limited recommendable.
Happy reading
J.D. Rinehart
J. D. Rinehart is the pseudonym for author Graham Edwards. When he´s not writing, he can be found exploring castles, watching films, or hiking through the countryside with Sir Galahad, his pet Great Dane. He loves falconry, and once raised a young falcon he found abandoned. He lives in Nottinghamshire, England.
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