A quartet of fantasy novels by Gregory Keyes, consisting of The Briar King (2003), The Charnel Prince (2004), The Blood Knight (2006) and The Born Queen (2008).
Two thousand years ago Virgenya Dare overthrew the Skasloi overlords that had enslaved humanity. Her descendants rule the kingdom of Crotheny, until a traitorous plot to overthrow them leads to tragedy. The legendary Briar King has awakened from his slumber, heralding death. All is not as it seems and Anne Dare must become the queen her country needs while monstrous assassins stalk her. Sir Neil MeqVren must learn that the politics of the court are as deadly as the battlefield as he tries to safeguard the queen. Aspar White must face murderous creatures of legend as he tries to unravel the mystery of the Briar King.
This series provides examples of:
- Abusive Precursors: The Skasloi, though they're a bit more complex than they first seem.
- Action Girl: Lady Erren and Alis Berrye. Leshya as well.
- A God Am I: Anne, especially in the last book.
- And Stephen, when under the influence of the Black Jester.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In the last book, Aspar becomes the Briar King.
- Badass Boast: Sir Neil gets a couple in the first book:
- "Death has found me many times. I've always sent her away hungry."
- "I don't know who Ashern is. But know this: I am the hand of death."
- Back from the Dead: Robert.
- Big Bad Ensemble: There are lots of villains in this series, mostly operating independently - the most notable are the Church, Robert, the Black Jester, and to an extent Anne herself in the last book, but in the end the most dangerous villain is probably the Kept.
- Berserker: Neil, full stop.
- The Chess Master: The Black Jester.
- The Chosen One: Anne and Aspar are both hinted right from the first book to have a major role to play in saving the world. In the third book, Stephen turns out to also be preordained for great things. Subverted in that Anne and Stephen turn out to be destined to be great villains, while Aspar is the one who saves the world in the end.
- Cool Sword: Feyswords in general; Draug in particular.
- Cool Old Guy: A few: z'Acatto, Duke Artwair, Sir Fail.
- Corrupt Church
- Deconstruction: Of a number of fantasy tropes, especially Rebellious Princess. Anne's strong will and desire for freedom is ultimately portrayed as signs of a terminal selfishness.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Fastia. Doesn't end well.
- Drunk on the Dark Side
- The Determinator: Sir Neil in battle. Queen Muriele in pretty much everything else.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Skasloi give off this vibe.
- Evil Prince: Robert.
- Evil Sorcerer: The Black Jester. Also a Sorcerous Overlord.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Eslen is Colonial America rather than the typical British analogue. The tribes of Hansa possibly correspond to the Francs. Vitellio is Italy more or less right down to the heart of the Church being there. In fact, the backstory indicates that the different nationalities of humans in this world were brought there from real-world Earth locations by the Skasloi, and the languages they speak are recognizably related to real-world languages. (For example, Vitellian is related to Oscan, an extinct language of Italy; and Lierish is a Celtic language.)
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Aspar gets called out on being one, but defends his position.Winna: In the stories I heard growing up, utins could shrink to the size of a gnat or turn into moss. It could be hiding right beneath our feet.Aspar: That's just stories.Winna: Greffyns used to be just stories too....Aspar: All it ever took to convince me there was such a thing as a greffyn was to see one. All it will ever take to convince me a beast that weighs half a ton can turn into moss is to see it. I'm a simple man.
- Handicapped Badass: Neil in the fourth book. After being rendered unfit to fight from his injuries in earlier books, he gets roped into a duel with another knight that's intended to kill him. At the start of the duel, Neil throws down his shield and announces that since he has no chance of surviving, he won't even try - instead, he'll make damn sure that he takes his opponent down with him. In a later scene, Muriele admonishes him that while that was all good and well, chasing the other knight through half the town after he fled the field in terror was just excessive.
- Handsome Lech: Cazio starts out this way.
- Historical Domain Character: Virginia Dare.
- It's All About Me: Austra comes to believe that Anne suffers from this to the point of being incapable of even imagining that other people's lives don't revolve entirely around her.
- Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Oh yes.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Sir Neil.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Aspar, who hates people, is cynical about just about everything, including and especially his employers... and still does what he thinks is right at every turn.
- Ley Line: Possibly faneways.
- May–December Romance: Aspar and Winna.
- Magic Is Evil: The general opinion by most, especially the Church. Although not all magic is evil and the Church itself uses magic of the evil variety to create holy warriors.
- Manipulative Bastard: Praifec Hespero.
- Meet Cute: Their story is anything but ordinary, but Stephen and Zemlé still count.
- Multi-Melee Master: Aspar.
- Musical Assassin: The Black Jester was a master of this, so much so that the mixing of singing with instruments has been banned by the Church.
- And Leoff, of course.
- My Nayme Is: There are a few names with "y"s thrown in, and several monster names do this as well.
- No Antagonist: Despite the large number of bad people around, none of them are in fact responsible for the decaying state of the world. Rather, each one is either trying to cure it in one misguided way or another, looking to take advantage of it, or isn't even aware of it but cause more damage because of it than they otherwise could have.
- No More Lies: z'Acatto has to tell Cazio about what happened to his father when he realizes that unless he learns the truth he will come to a bad end. Subverted in that he is already too late when he admits his deception.
- Only Mostly Dead: The Black Jester.
- Our Elves Are Different: The Sefry. Especially once you find out that they were once the Skasloi.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Robert and the "death knights".
- Prophecy Twist
- Rebellious Princess: Anne. And maybe Brinna.
- Royal Brat: Anne starts out as this, but subverts it pretty soon.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Anne, especially when she becomes Empress of Crotheny. She leads an attack on her treacherous uncle in the third book. And in the fourth, she personally leads the war against Hansa.
- Science Hero: Stephen, who is a Cunning Linguist.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Kept, aka Qexqaneh, the last of the Skasloi. He's kept around deliberately as a source of knowledge for the royal family.
- Smug Snake: Robert.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Aspar Ascends to a Higher Plane of Existence while Winna is pregnant with his child. It's implied that he's still watching over them, but is unable to communicate.
- Time Skip: Happens 3 times during the first few pages of the first book.
- Took a Level in Badass: Stephen after walking the faneways.
- He's also a Badass Bookworm and a Badass Preacher.
- Tying Up Romantic Loose Ends: Austra and Cazio.
- Unequal Rites: There are two kinds of magic, the faneway power and shinecraft. The former is considered a holy gift from the saints and is used by the Church, the latter black magic that no one is willing to admit consorting with (though the Hansans use it anyway, in secret). Subverted: the use of the faneways has been slowly corrupting the world for centuries, whereas shinecraft appears to have no negative consequences for its use.
- Unstoppable Rage: Neil's battle rage.
- We Can Rule Together: Stephen makes this offer to Anne in the climax to the fourth book. She responds that she can rule alone.
