Saturday, January 14, 2012

The Baker's Boy

The Baker's Boy (Book of Words, #1)The Baker's Boy by J.V. Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very different from her Sword of Shadows books, this world is populated by villains and innocents. She avoids complex characters, right up until the end of the book. The simplicity is sometimes in itself entertaining. The villains are mustache twirling plotters, the innocents are a maiden and a baker's boy, both running from home. With interjections of guards telling each other (mildly) dirty stories, and dropping hints about the intrigue between the villains, the book feels like a melodrama. The shadows of complexity arrive in the storylines about Tawl, a knight, and Nabber, a child pickpocket. Starting from far away, their trajectory seems to place them like a meteor streaking between the villains and innocents, and it's not exactly clear what their influence will be.

I'll be reading the next book in this trilogy, though I don't find it as original and compelling as her later books.

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