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Scepter of Mercy #1
The Bastard King
Since the loss of the Scepter of Mercy, the kingdom of Avornis has been threatened by its magic-wielding neighbors, until King Lanius and King Grus risk everything to bring the missing scepter home. Reprint.
502 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
33 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
About the author
Dan Chernenko
3 books3 followersDan Chernenko is a pseudonym used by Harry Turtledove for the The Scepter of Mercy Trilogy.
Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.
Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.
Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within the genre he is known both for creating original scenarios such as survival of the Byzantine Empire or an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by many others, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme with scenes of combat happening throughout many of his works
Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.
Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.
Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within the genre he is known both for creating original scenarios such as survival of the Byzantine Empire or an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by many others, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme with scenes of combat happening throughout many of his works
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 2, 2019
This is quickly being added to my DNF pile. I can not get over the child like writing skills of the author. Seriously, my 8th grader can write better then this. It's so shallow and lacks any real luster. There is no feeling no emotions it's all flat and boring. I want all the characters to die becuse I DONT CARE.
Now on to something better. Like maybe Green Eggs And Ham for it is a step up in writing then this book.
Now on to something better. Like maybe Green Eggs And Ham for it is a step up in writing then this book.
April 2, 2013
This book isn't really worth reading. It starts off well and sounds interesting when you read the back. During the beginning of the book King/Prince Lanius comes across as an endearing genius and an interesting character.
The book focuses on captain/commander Grus whose importance is pretty unclear for a good portion of the intrigue at the start. In the end the book seems to be a story about if Lanius or Grus are the good or bad kings.
The book is written in a maddeningly annoying manner. I picked this book up at a used book store for five dollars and feel like I wasted money. Lanius becomes a whiny incompetent and Grus is an arrogant jackass. Overall the characters turn from interesting and engaging to flat and annoying. The magic system is uninteresting and vague. The plot is boring and lacks an interesting conflict, the way the "king" rules is very hands off and I can't understand how their kingdom was ever "powerful".
The enemy who was a former god is annoying, overall, I don't plan to read the rest of this series and I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone. I don't even know if I want to force someone else to read it by giving it to a second hand store.
The book focuses on captain/commander Grus whose importance is pretty unclear for a good portion of the intrigue at the start. In the end the book seems to be a story about if Lanius or Grus are the good or bad kings.
The book is written in a maddeningly annoying manner. I picked this book up at a used book store for five dollars and feel like I wasted money. Lanius becomes a whiny incompetent and Grus is an arrogant jackass. Overall the characters turn from interesting and engaging to flat and annoying. The magic system is uninteresting and vague. The plot is boring and lacks an interesting conflict, the way the "king" rules is very hands off and I can't understand how their kingdom was ever "powerful".
The enemy who was a former god is annoying, overall, I don't plan to read the rest of this series and I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone. I don't even know if I want to force someone else to read it by giving it to a second hand store.
October 31, 2017
Hated the writing style in this book , could not finish it....
March 20, 2020
I thought this started out OK. It felt a bit old school, and I was in the mood for that, so I ignored the things that bothered me, like the excessively patriarchal bullshit and the way it buries its gay character/villain very early on. I thought it had a bit of an interesting take on things, and that it might be at least mildly enjoyable. However, as the book goes on, it gets more and more repetitive and boring. There battles, but they're not exciting. There are plot developments, but they're scattered and well-seasoned by monotony. At the end of the day, very little actual progress is made in the story, and it's exhausted my last bit of give-a-damn. Definitely not continuing with this series.
February 1, 2014
Keep your Hemingway out of my fantasy, and I'll be happy. The cat sat on the mat. That's the overall writing style, an odd choice for a book filed with characters who rape, cheat on their wives, and are at their best when they're at war. The plot is a good one, an interesting enough concept to push me through to the very end of the book. But this author's writing style earns a place on my list of: don't waste your time.
December 14, 2022
Dnf. Dropped. I couldn't even make it 20 pages and this was by far one of the worst things I've ever read. Boring characters. The author knows nothing of word-building, female anatomy, and explaining things. WHY DOES HE NEVER EXPLAIN ANYTHING?!
December 21, 2023
There are times I wish I had put a book down sooner. This was one of those. If you’re looking for action, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for political intrigue, head back to the library. If you’re looking for originality…..maybe. There were glimmers, but they weren’t developed in this first book and I can’t bring myself to go get the next one. Definitely not terrible, but it’s going back to the thrift store from whence it came.
October 12, 2024
3.75 Surprisingly interesting read of a Merovingian-/late Roman-style empire with a good focus on court politics. Shows some of Turtledove's usual lengths by the end, but fun in its insistence that despite some strange creatures and magic, human problems prevail (notwithstanding the Big Bad). Not too fond of the depiction of the mongol-style nomads, but the later novels show some more nuance there.
March 26, 2018
A well-written story with two likable main characters, for two very different reasons.
February 9, 2019
Review to come because I need to get into the right headspace before I think about this series again
March 6, 2018
Very pedestrian forgettable characters.
June 16, 2010
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. This review may contain spoilers (that can be read on the back of the book).
The story starts off with two men who are completely unrelated in the beginning. One is the son of a King (but a bastard child since the laws dictate a King can only have six wives, and the son is of the seventh) and the other is the Captain of a barge in the Royal Navy (nowhere near as prestigious as the army).
Throughout the book, you start to see how they're slowly coming together in times of need. The son of the king, Lanius, has his leadership passed from regent to regent until he is of age to rule. He thinks himself smarter than the rest, but can't deal with battle. Grus, the Captain risen from peasant, slowly becomes the Commodore who becomes the country's King. Simultaneous King. And the story proceeds on with Lanius and Grus having to rule together.
I will admit, while reading, I had no clue when Grus actually wanted to take the throne. He has his reasons, but none of them actually seemed plausible. This could be because the first half of the book involves lapses of years from chapter to chapter, and the rest of the pacing of this book is *very* quick.
The second issue I have is that the book has a tendency to repeat itself. The first four times, I understood that Grus's wife was upset that he had a son with another woman (another bastard in the book). I did not need to read it the fifth, sixth or even twelfth time. Just like Lanius's resent for Grus ruling as well...Mr. Chernenko, you got your point across the first time.
The last one, that I may be singularly alone in, is that the first half of the book contained little interaction in a romantic sense. It was only when Lanius weds, and Grus becomes King, that we see a sudden influx of relationship. Also, I understand that Grus's character is meant to be the imperfect man, but there are some things he does that make me go "...what?!"
All in all, I did enjoy reading the book. I will admit to skimming some of the sections that were simple re-wordings of whatever had been said before. The relationship between Grus and Nicator (his First Mate) was entertaining enough to get me through the first 100 or so pages, and the rest of the story took me to the end.
I will finish this series...but not immediately.
The story starts off with two men who are completely unrelated in the beginning. One is the son of a King (but a bastard child since the laws dictate a King can only have six wives, and the son is of the seventh) and the other is the Captain of a barge in the Royal Navy (nowhere near as prestigious as the army).
Throughout the book, you start to see how they're slowly coming together in times of need. The son of the king, Lanius, has his leadership passed from regent to regent until he is of age to rule. He thinks himself smarter than the rest, but can't deal with battle. Grus, the Captain risen from peasant, slowly becomes the Commodore who becomes the country's King. Simultaneous King. And the story proceeds on with Lanius and Grus having to rule together.
I will admit, while reading, I had no clue when Grus actually wanted to take the throne. He has his reasons, but none of them actually seemed plausible. This could be because the first half of the book involves lapses of years from chapter to chapter, and the rest of the pacing of this book is *very* quick.
The second issue I have is that the book has a tendency to repeat itself. The first four times, I understood that Grus's wife was upset that he had a son with another woman (another bastard in the book). I did not need to read it the fifth, sixth or even twelfth time. Just like Lanius's resent for Grus ruling as well...Mr. Chernenko, you got your point across the first time.
The last one, that I may be singularly alone in, is that the first half of the book contained little interaction in a romantic sense. It was only when Lanius weds, and Grus becomes King, that we see a sudden influx of relationship. Also, I understand that Grus's character is meant to be the imperfect man, but there are some things he does that make me go "...what?!"
All in all, I did enjoy reading the book. I will admit to skimming some of the sections that were simple re-wordings of whatever had been said before. The relationship between Grus and Nicator (his First Mate) was entertaining enough to get me through the first 100 or so pages, and the rest of the story took me to the end.
I will finish this series...but not immediately.
July 2, 2022
Tedious.
December 28, 2007
It is difficult to say if there is just too much fluff in this book or if it is just arranged in such a way to confound a decent pacing. Many of the subplots seem to have no relevance (as of yet, it is a trilogy) to anything and are the most predictable and boring parts of the story. Lanius and Grus seem oblivious that they will need the Scepter despite one or the other thinking about it every ten pages or so. Those two were also the most difficult to understand, they seemed to have understandable characterization and then would go and do something that would confuse me completely as it was so out of character.
February 27, 2014
I've started this book three different times and just can't get through it. I'm giving up.
Writing is average--the story is mostly told by one person talking to another person about what is going on in the empire and what must be done to fix it. If the whole point of the book is to get the young, inexperienced but intelligent king to team up with the experienced war commander to go find a sacred relic, then perhaps the author could have wrapped up their back stories in two chapters rather than twelve. I gave up half-way through the book when the two main characters finally got together.
Writing is average--the story is mostly told by one person talking to another person about what is going on in the empire and what must be done to fix it. If the whole point of the book is to get the young, inexperienced but intelligent king to team up with the experienced war commander to go find a sacred relic, then perhaps the author could have wrapped up their back stories in two chapters rather than twelve. I gave up half-way through the book when the two main characters finally got together.
September 10, 2015
This book takes a bit to find it's flow but once it does it is quite good! The world created is truly original. The begining 100 pages or so jump through about 15 years, only giving you the highlights, it is needed as background but can be pretty dry. Characters are good but unlike Turtledoves (writing as Chernenko) other books there are basically only two perspectives, that of Grus and King Lanius. Overall a good read that left me ready to tackle book 2, The Chernagor Pirates!
April 30, 2014
Interesting trilogy. The author, for once, does not seem to be going for epic scale, making this a different kind of fantasy story. The focus is really kept to two characters and does not involve a long journey. I enjoyed this without really being blown away by it. By the way, this story is way too similar to the actual history of the tenth-century Byzantine emperors Alexander (Lanius' drunken uncle, forget the character name), Constantine VII (Lanius), and Romanus I (Grus) to be coincidence.
October 12, 2009
Having the narrative shift back and forth between the two assumed protagonists kept this from gathering any momentum for me. I would have greatly preferred just sticking to Grus for the duration, but no dice.
December 16, 2011
This series (The scepter of mercy) was not all that good. I did like the characters but the story seemed to be a lot longer than necessary. I thought the scepter was going to do something special, but it didn't.
no
July 16, 2016The narration was very staccato, and 100+ pages in I still felt like I was in a prologue or summary before the real action began. Because the POV jumped so quickly between characters and time passed so quickly, neither main character was well fleshed-out, and they felt shallow and unexplored.
Read
August 5, 2011Pedestrian.
May 22, 2015
This is merely part one of an extended novel. I'll wait till I've read the rest before I pass judgement.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews