May Group Read: Curse of Kings

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

Hi Guys,
Carol here. This month we will be reading Curse of Kings, which for some reason is called The Hunted Soul. by A. Barclay. Anyway, this has been on my to-read list for a long while so I'm hoping it'll be good.

Schedule
Week 1: May 1st - May 7th: Prologue to Chapter 16, The Honoured Son (start to pg 107)
Week 2: May 8th - May 14th: Chapter 16, The Honoured Son to Chapter 33, Pincer (pg 108 to pg 215)
Week 3: May 15th - May 21st: Chapter 33, Pincer to Chapter 51, Heartbreak (pg 216 - pg 321
Week 4: May 22nd - May 28th: Chapter 51, Heartbreak to End (pg 322 to end.

Summary
IF OLAND IS TO LIVE
HE MUST RESTORE THE
SHATTERED KINGDOM.

THIS IS HIS QUEST.

THIS IS HIS CURSE.

LET THE TRIALS OF OLAND BORN BEGIN
Oland Born is no one but a lowly servant in Castle Derrington. Then, one night, he finds a letter from a long-dead king. No sooner has he read the message than a mysterious stranger tries to kidnap him. Oland runs, the dead king's warning ringing in his ears.....

A Curse of Kings,The Bookbag.co.uk

Alex Barclay

**Please feel free to share your thoughts as you read.

**Please remember to mark your spoilers.

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

****Spoilers ahead*****


So, this is going to be a quick read. This is a kids book and my copy has wide margins, big fonts and well spaced words. That said, I think this is going to be a nice tale. I think if I had read this as a young girl, at 6 or 7, I would have been hooked.

A few thoughts on what I've read:
So 999 souls buried and screaming at the castle. At first I assumed that Oland was the 1 that survived the genetic experiments (and who'd have thought I'd be using the phrase "genetic experiment" for a fantasy book) but clearly he is the son of the old king and the survivor was what Ren Villius was keeping trapped in the throne room.

I know this is a kids book but Oland is way to naive and trusting. I hope he developes some suspicion and soon.

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

Right, we are about half way through now, what does everybody think??
Anyone else find that the pair just seem to be wandering from place to place, reacting as things happen and not really talking to each other, developing their characters or discovering any information that might fill out the plot at all??

[Carol, Group Read Organizer]

This book is aimed at a much younger audience then I expected. There is very little character development and I felt the characters were just aimlessly going from place to place with very little information being discovered about the plot.
That said, the story picks up towards the end and I think I would probably read the next part of this story.