The Oddling Prince Book Review

The Oddling Prince by Nancy Springer

From Goodreads: In the ancient moors of Scotland, the king of Calidon lies on his deathbed, cursed by a ring that cannot be removed from his finger. When a mysterious fey stranger appears to save the king, he also carries a secret that could tear the royal family apart.

The kingdom’s only hope will lie with two young men raised worlds apart. Aric is the beloved heir to the throne of Calidon; Albaric is clearly of noble origin yet strangely out of place.

The Oddling Prince is a tale of brothers whose love and loyalty to each other is such that it defies impending warfare, sundering seas, fated hatred, and the very course of time itself. In her long-awaited new fantasy novel, Nancy Springer (the Books of Isle series) explores the darkness of the human heart as well as its unceasing capacity for love. 

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Hmm, even after flying through this book, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. It’s possibly because I’ve been having a rather anxious few days, and so I’ve been trying to plough through my to be read pile in the hopes of feeling productive, but something about this book just didn’t work for me. The plot ticked along just fine, and the characters seemed okay, but it just felt a little lifeless for me.

While I liked the idea of a novel which concentrated on the bonds of brotherhood rather than romance, I just didn’t quite feel the connection to Aric or Albaric. The two characters didn’t have anything wrong with them exactly, I simply couldn’t connect to them.

I think maybe there wasn’t enough fleshing out there, and the story felt a little rushed at times. The book skims over a lot of events too quickly, meaning the novel didn’t have enough of a foundation. There were some events, such as the king’s mood swings, which could have been done better, with more time for the reader to adjust to it, and perhaps more time in the build up showing the good side of his personality too, not just the bad. It was gripping to open the novel and immediately see him on the brink of death, but never at any point throughout the novel did I particularly care if his son saved him or not, because I never got to see him as a good character. Which is a pity, because there was some great potential to add a lot of depth there.

Furthermore, there were elements of the book which I found troubling. Of course, it is set in medieval Britain, so it doesn’t surprise me that things are different, and I’m not against authors highlighting these differences, but I just felt like the whole thing was a bit… icky? The love interest of the novel is a fourteen year-old girl, who the main character admits is too young to marry, and yet despite him frequently suggesting it is just an engagement to see where things go when she grows up, meaning the ball is in her court, I still felt a bit gross when I saw him describing her as ‘my little love.’ Mostly because the things he described about her as being beautiful, usually referred back to her age and her coming into maturity, which doesn’t sit right with me.

With all of this in consideration, I’d give The Oddling Prince a 5.5/10. It was a quick read, and there were some enjoyable parts hidden in it, but between the disturbing romance and the too-fast pace, I can’t really rate it highly.

If you’re a fan of Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s… series, you’ll probably like this novel. It will be released in the UK on May 15th, [according to Netgalley and Goodreads. Waterstones, Book Depository and Amazon seem to be showing different dates]. You can preorder it at Waterstones here, Amazon UK here, or Book Depository here.