num_pages: 528
description: When the legendary Briar King awoke from his slumber, a season of darkness and horror fell upon the Kingdom of Crotheny. Now countless breeds of unspeakable monsters roam the countryside. An epidemic of madness has transformed peaceful villagers from the wildlands into savage, flesh-eating fiends. In Eslen, King William has been murdered, Queen Muriele is stalked by treachery on every side, and their last surviving daughter, Anne, has fled the assassins bent on destroying her family.Close on the heels of the runaway princess, young knight Neil MeqVren, the queen’s one trusted ally, is sworn to rescue Anne from her murderous pursuers. Anne herself undertakes a perilous journey toward the sanctuary of her distant paramour’s arms, but along the way lie the sinister agents and hidden snares of a sprawling conspiracy that few might hope to evade.At the same time, spies in the service of Praifec Hespero, the powerful Churchman, embark upon a mission to destroy the Briar King in the heart of his domain. And the power-hungry Church, spurred on by the mystical events, has launched an inquisition whose repercussions threaten even the queen. As the noose of intrigue tightens across the land, personal fates and a kingdom’s destiny alike will be decided in a conflict between virtue and malevolence, might and magic.Here then is Book II of The Kingdoms of Thorn and intoxicating and harrowing, passionate and grand–it is Greg Keyes’s most ambitiously imagined and vividly rendered work of epic fantasy.
language: English
title: The Charnel Prince
titlecomplete: The Charnel Prince (Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, #2)
characters: Cazio Pachiomadio da Chiovattio, Austra, Robert Dare, Alis Berrye, z'Acatto, Praifec Hespero, Sir Fail de Liery, Aspar White, Muriele Dare, Stephen Darige, Neil MeqVren, Leovigild "Leoff" Ackenzal, Anne Dare
genres: Fiction, Magic, Adventure, Speculative Fiction, Dark Fantasy, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Epic, Fantasy
ratings_count: 6650
series: Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone
awards: awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Locus Award
category: Best Fantasy Novel
publisher: Del Rey