Prince of the Godborn

Seven Citadels #1

by Geraldine Harris

In this first book of the Seven Citadels saga, Prince Kerish sets out to find the mythical savior who can save the Galkian Empire from destruction. Watch for The Children Of The Wild, coming in September.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Adventure, Juvenile

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Also known as Geraldine Pinch.

Reviews

[Jean Triceratops · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seven Citadels, Part One: Prince of the Godborn is an unassuming little novel, and everything I did assume about it was unflattering. At a total of 186 pages, with an intended YA audience, a nondescript cover, and back copy offering the usual promises of princes, gods, and impending doom, I expected a shallow adventure for undiscerning twelve year olds.

I really need to stop being so judgmental.

Kerish is a prince. He’s the favored son of the emperor, and also the youngest of many children. Remarkably, he doesn’t fall into the painfully spoiled or the excessively benevolent prince trope. He acts just like a teenager, albeit a princely one. He occasionally demands unreasonable things, or lashes out in anger, but I never felt any real venom in him. He’s just a kid with the exact wrong amount of power trying to figure out what it means to be an adult and a prince.

Forollkin is Kerish’s elder brother and, as the son of a concubine, not a prince. Remarkably, this hasn’t made him bitter. He enjoys his freedom, and goes out of his way to use his strength and his worldliness to protect Kerish. And though he’s traditionally masculine, he never mocks or thinks less of Kerish for his more delicate sensibilities.

I’ve read other reviews that said Kerish and Forollkin were inconsistent—they’d lash out at each other only to go out of their way to protect each other. They’d make poor, rash decisions about each other, but face the world with surprising maturity. Honestly, this is part of the reason I loved reading about them. That doesn’t read as inconsistent to me. That reads like they’re brothers.

While the back copy boasts adventure and an epic journey, the majority of the novel focuses on coming to the decision for this journey. It’s not until page 112 that they even leave the royal city. I’m okay with this as we really get to understand Kerish and Forollkin’s relationship, before it’s tested by outside influences.

While the interaction between the brothers is the emphasis of the book, it’s not the extent of it. There’s a confrontation with sea-brigands, a one-on-one with a mad, childish sorcerer, and time spent among a seemingly utopian society. And for being such a pithy little novel, there are some fascinating and through-provoking theological issues raised. There’s moral commentary that is so spot-on that I wanted to slow clap.

All that being said, this is a YA novel from 1982. While the writing is at times beautiful, at other times it’s clearly just a means to get to the next important moment. Sometimes the prose is so simple as to be childish, but, you know, children are the intended audience.

My local bookstore only had the first in the series, but I placed an order online for the remaining three books in the series. And I hate buying things online. Prince of the Godborn felt like if David Eddings wrote YA – I can’t wait to see if the rest of the series keeps this high standard.

[I read old fantasy novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]

[Para (wanderer)]

DNF 21%

I chose this book because I want to give more forgotten books a chance, because I wanted something shorter. And perhaps it's my slump, but I just can't. It took me three tries to get past page 2. Then I crawled to page 39 over the course of two days, asked myself why I should give a fuck, and promptly quit.

You know how fantasy books have this stereotype of throwing a lot of odd, long, overcomplicated names at you? Yeah. This book. I tried to look past it and see the story underneath, the relationship between the two brothers showed a lot of promise (yeah, Kerish is childish and impulsive and sometimes kinda obnoxious, but he is very young...and a prince), but I couldn't get past the stall of "who are all this people and places and why should I care". There is an alliance that's a bad thing for some reason, and perhaps an impending war. And something about Godborn, though at this point it was too early to know exactly what they are. All very classic-fantasy. Look, it's in no way bad. But I bounced off it harder than a rubber ball thrown at a wall.

Perhaps some other time when I have more patience.

No rating because 1) early DNF and 2) I'm not sure it's the book's fault.

Recommended to: fans of old school fantasy, those on the hunt for forgotten books
Not recommended to: those who can't stand a barrage of names

More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.

[Douglas Sellers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had read this book when I was in 5th grade and then forgotten the title. I spent the last few years searching for it. It was my white whale. Man is it bad

[Susan Dickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this when I was perhaps eight or nine and I still remember parts of it. The series made a great impression on me.

[Maja Ilisch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Herausragender Weltenbau und eine poetische Sprache leiden unter schlampiger Perspektivarbeit und zu gehetztem Erzähltempo. Dennoch ein spannender Klassiker der Fantasy, den man gelesen haben sollte, wenn man wissen möchte, wie sich dieses Genre entwickelt hat.

Meine vollständige Rezension ist online auf Bibliophilis.de

[Mely]

http://coffeeandink.dreamwidth.org/66...

The Seven Citadels books are a YA fantasy series about the quest of Kerish lo Taan, an imperial prince, to find the prophesied savior of his disintegrating empire. A lot of it is very formulaic -- he needs to collect seven keys from seven sorcerers in seven different exotic lands -- and some of it probably only moved me because it was the first time I'd encountered certain tropes, e.g. using the sorcerors' weaknesses against them to convince them to give up their keys made Kerish almost as vulnerable as it made them. The main religion is modeled on Christianity to an extent which escaped me as a kid, and vaguely annoys me now. But I can see why the series appealed to me when I was younger, and some of it still does appeal. It does so because of Harris' adept use of wish fulfillment.

Fanfic readers coined the term Mary Sue to describe a particular form of storytelling distorted by wish fulfillment; perhaps because fan fiction is so often character-centered, it's the characters who receive the most attention and criticism. But the same unchecked wish fulfillment distortion can be seen at work in other ways: the excessive prettiness of some settings (as in a recent novella by Catherine Asaro), or the excessive niceness of some dynasties (as in Mercedes Lackey's Heralds, who subscribe to liberal American values despite living in a feudalist monarchy, or as in Anne McCaffrey's Pern prequels, where the the bad guys and the good guys had to have the same names as the bad guys and the good guys several thousand years down the line, which leads one to wonder why the initial settlers named their colonies after would-be tyrants and short-sighted fools).

It's this very distortion that frequently makes such stories attractive; it's this very distortion that frequently makes them impossible to accept. Where you place the line is going to depend on many criteria, not excluding age and what you're currently in the mood to read. The Seven Citadels still falls on the right side of the line I draw, and I'm very sorry it's out of print [very glad it's now available in ebook form].

Harris' world is indeed full of extraordinary beauties and cruelties, but the details are intriguing, specific, and tailored to the societies in which they appear. (Okay, Harris does have an unfortunate weakness for trying to make animals seem exotic by decorating them with improbably colored fur.) The Galkian royal family traces their descent from the marriage of the god Zeldin to a human woman; their divine ancestry has given them an extraordinary beauty (including the obligatory violet eyes, in this case with gold swirls) and an ability to see through illusions, as well as a set of taboos which include looking in mirrors and bearing arms. The Empire at points reminded me of Japan, Rome, Egypt, and Byzantium, but Harris has combined her sources into a satisfying and self-consistent mixture. The foreign lands -- for all that they tend to be summed up easily -- also have some nice touches; in particular, interesting things happen with the barbarians whose souls are wooden sculptures which strangers are forbidden to view.

Kerish is bad-tempered and spoiled starting out--these are convenient faults for idealized characters, usually presented in an indulgent way--but in this case Kerish's actions have real consequences, and not everyone loves him for his bad temper. Harris makes good use of supporting characters, especially Kerish's soldier half-brother, Forolkin, whom Kerish loves, envies, and half-despises and who loves, fears, and condescends to Kerish in his turn, and the ugly, brilliant, and cynical dwarf Gidjabolgo, who keeps reminding Kerish that the beautiful can get away with more than anyone else--and who, of course, longs for beauty and power himself. [I have the uneasy feeling I'll be a lot more critical about the treatment of disability on my next re-read.]

With Harris' permission, one fan site has published the epilogue to the last book, which her editor asked her to cut from the published edition. The editor was right. Completists may find it worth reading, but it's bound to be both incomprehensible and spoilerish for people who haven't read the series yet.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars. The Prince of the Godborn has a lot of things I like. Definitely a good start to the adventure and excited to see how it progresses. I already own the remaining three books, so I will be starting them soon.

Only Cons. And minor spoiler (like it’s on the back of the book) is I’m not really sure why they are on this adventure. Royal feuds and alliance between other nations means they need to go find the savior. Wish we got a little more details on why these alliances and feuds are so bad, but nonetheless willing to see where this go. Kerish has a lot of time to develop and Forollkin is easily my favorite character and want to see more of him.

[Sunni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel was full of all sorts of magic, intrigue, and family dynamics. The characters find their way through the problems they are given, learn a great deal about themselves and each other, and despite all of their magic or skills, learn that they need each other.

Mrs. Harris has made description of people, places, things and events, a true art, and she brings to life a world of magic, adventure, and action. This book held my attention from the beginning, and although it has been decades since I read the series, parts still stick out in my mind, so it certainly made an impression.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new author to me, but despite the fact I don't usually read blurbs, I found this series recommended online and am very pleased I did.
It is extremely well written, flows well, is very descriptive and keeps the interest. I was most shocked to look at my page counter to see I was 94% through the book already. Highly recommended, especially to fans of Terry Goodkind and Melanie Rawr.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Galkis is an empire ruled by the Godborn, a dynasty that has lasted 3000 years and whose members descend from the love between a mortal woman and the god Zeldin. The stability of the empire is now threatened, however, by their own royal decadence and infighting and neighbouring armies. Kerish, the favoured third son of the Emperor, and his half-brother set out at the behest of the High Priest of Zeldin to get the seven keys from the seven sorcerers in order to free the Saviour of Galkis.

This book is definitely a classic trope-heavy fantasy on the surface - a prince goes on a quest for some magical items to save his kingdom. It has a pretty severe case of Fantasy Names at the beginning, and the prose style is just serviceable, but the intended audience is likely teens, so it’s not aiming to have as much depth and length as an adult novel.

Having said all that, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I found myself interested in the worldbuilding, the main characters, and the brief discussions on religion and the nature of gods within the various cultures of the world. The two brothers, the Galkian royal family, and the sorcerers they encounter are all believably flawed and have relatively complex relationships.

My main criticism is the lack of female characters in this world and in the main cast - apparently one comes in later, but of course she’s a love interest for our two brothers and it seems like she doesn’t get a satisfying narrative arc either.

[Amy Clements · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been one of my favorite book series since I was a teenager. I have re read it countless times. I love the interesting characters and the fascinating adventures. The world building in this series is wonderful!

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series even more coming back to it as an adult.

The first book is grabbiest for someone who appreciates fantasy tropes, and possibly also cheesiest. But even though the series seems formulaic it is deeply philosophical. Will add more to this review later.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story did pick up at the end but didn't make it easy for me to get there.

[Charlotta Larsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The complicated relationship between the brothers are well described.

[Harald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Högläsning för yngste sonen som satt betyget.

[Shreyas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book many years ago.

I read it again yesterday and my love for it remains unreduced. No rosy glasses for this one.

Harris has built a great thing out of a great visual imagination and spare prose. She does the rare thing of making a world with more than one religion here, and presents each one as full of beliefs and practices that are unique to it. It's hinted that the religion of Zeldin has some incorrect ideas about what kind of being Zeldin is, which is subtle and pretty cool, and at the same time it has a lovely system of motifs that run through the whole series: the sacred bird, the colors purple and gold, and the concept of powerful gentleness are very important throughout.

Her characterizations aren't really very consistent; that's a weakness here, particularly early in the novel. Kerish is given as capricious, childish, spoiled, and yet he has moments of great empathy and humility that are out of keeping with this. I think we're meant to ask, how much of this is nature and how much is nurture?

If that's the case it's not quite carried through as well as it could be.

Still it's a good read and it will keep its pride of place in my 5* shelf.

[Jessi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. I struggled through this because my friends loved it and wanted me to give it a try, but man, it was tough. A lot of this book was off for me, not least of which being the horrible editing of the edition that I have (Speaking Volumes is the publisher of the reprints, and boy, they are horrible!) - misplaced commas and bad line breaks galore. Even without that, the characters are horribly inconsistent (Kerish viciously attacks his brother and then a few days later is the only member of the royal family to realize that a two year-old will need to be entertained on a long walk to bury her mother), the plot takes a long time to pick up, the world of Galkis is revealed in fits and starts and the reader has a hard time getting a clear picture of who the characters are, where they live, what they are trying to do and why.
But I fought through. I made it. And I was rewarded by the fantastic scene with the stubborn kid sorcerer, which was, in my opinion, the only good part of this book.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Instantly forgettable fantasy yarn that failed to make any impact on me. I remember a complete sense of disappointment when I had finished reading it. There were some good elements to this that ended up being completely throw away ideas later in the series, and an ending that makes little if any sense steals any value this book had in the series.

The main issue I have with the entire story is the complete lack of depth to the quest the main characters find themselves on. Later books unravel like a broken clock spring, and the consequences of the last chapter of the last book seems out of sorts with the rest of the story. after all that time, the end is an utter wind-up.

Honestly, you'd be better off reading Moorcock's Elric novels, because at least the ending is satisfying

[E.M. Epps · Rating 4 out of 5]

By all rights I should have been bored to tears by this, the first volume in a series about a spoiled half-God prince and his warrior half-brother traveling the world in search of seven MacGuffins. It also suffers a slight lack of commas. Yet, somehow, the characters and the world charmed me. The perfect book to keep on your phone for waiting-in-line-for-two-minutes emergency reading. I've already queued up the second volume.

"You are unscathed, Prince," said Elmandis coolly. "The mistakes of those who are protected are often paid for in the blood of those they love. It is a hard thing to bear and rightly so. However, I think that you have mistaken pride for faith, as so many do."

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prince of the Godborn is, to me, reminiscent of Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief...if a book can be reminiscent of another book written thirteen years after itself, that is. Where The Thief borrows from Classical Greece, Prince of the Godborn seems to draw inspiration from Biblical Israel and the Mediterranean. But both books flesh out an intricate, vividly complete fantasy world. And as in The Queen's Thief series, I rather suspect the Seven Citadels' story will only become more complex, and compelling, with each book.

[LOL_BOOKS]

THIS IS LIKE VIKINGS ALL OVER AGAIN ONLY THE SLAVE IS EVEN LESS INTO THE THREESOME THAT SHOULD HAPPEN.

IS IT ANY GOOD?

I HAD MIXED FEELINGS BUT DIDN'T LIKE IT VERY MUCH. IT HAD WAY TOO MUCH FANTASY JESUS STUFF FOR MY TASTE AND THE PLOT WAS A SERIES TASKS THAT HAD TO BE COMPLETED TO GET TO THE CLIMAX SO THOUGH THE IMAGERY WAS INTERESTING I SKIMMED A LOT. THE MAIN CHARACTER WAS SORT LIKE A RLY RELIGIOUS VERSION OF LAURENT IF LAURENT HAD HAD A HAPPY CHILDHOOD. THE ENDING WAS OBVIOUS BUT THE AUTHOR MANAGED TO ADD A TWIST WHICH MADE IT TOTALLY UNSATISFYING.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children of god go to seed

[Nic Gee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a kid I loved these books! Re-read them recently and (of course) not as good as I remembered (prob cause I'm an adult now). Still, I have fond memories of this series.

[Mark Dorrough · Rating 5 out of 5]

great fantasy series

[Sean Yo · Rating 5 out of 5]

YA Fantasy page turner


This is young adult fantasy. Reminiscent of the heavy handed world building of Eddings, this coming of age, bilsdungroman quest series is wonderfully and deliciously predictable. This opening volume of the series sets the stage, introduces the players and thrusts them into the ravenous maw of prophecy and adventure. An easy, compelling page turner. Full disclosure, i first read this 30 years ago...so this review is nostalgic.

[Laura Nox · Rating 3 out of 5]

3'5/5
Me ha gustado mucho!
Es muy introductorio, pero me ha dejado con muchas ganas de leer el siguiente. :)

[Kim Plowright]

Re-reading a much loved YA title from my youth. The pictures in my head are the same as when I was 12.