The Briar King

The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Book 1

By: Greg Keyes

Narrated by: Patrick Michael

Two thousand years ago, the Born Queen defeated the Skasloi lords, freeing humans from the bitter yoke of slavery. But now monstrous creatures roam the land, and destinies become inextricably entangled in a drama of power and seduction. The king's woodsman, a rebellious girl, a young priest, a roguish adventurer, and a young man made suddenly into a knight all face malevolent forces that shake the foundations of the kingdom, even as the Briar King, legendary harbinger of death, awakens from his slumber.

At the heart of this many-layered tale is Anne Dare, youngest daughter of the royal family - upon whom the fate of her world may depend.

©2004 Gregory Keyes (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Although The Briar King will suffer the inevitable comparison with George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, it should be said that Keyes's work is no mere rip-off. This is excellent world building, applied with a dark, powerful touch that should convince Martin fans to become Keyes fans, too." (Amazon.com review)

Slow, but Ok

Any additional comments?

The story seems to always be on the edge towards something great, but never really gets there.

Great Find

I had never heard of Greg Keyes before. Now I will never forget him. Great story and an outstanding performance by Patrick Michael. I sat in a parking lot, listening for the last hour because I could not pull myself away to complete my errands. The characters were very real and believable. Though I liked them all, I want very much to hang out with Cazio :)

Great Book

If you could sum up The Briar King in three words, what would they be?

Everything you could ask for in a fast paced adventure

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

wish I would have had the time to just sit and listen to the whole book at one time.

Good stuff

You might want to skip to first 40 minutes as too battle-gory and 2-dimensional, which is unfortunately part of the sample provided. Especially as you don't need it for the other 19 hours of story. After that, it gets good and follows several 3-dimensional characters, in an interesting plot with mystery, action, and humor. No graphic sex, graphic violence imagary is rare and you can actually follow the story after that first 40 min, good characterization and plot. I've listened to it twice and probably will again. They ought to drop the critic comment about ASOIF series because nothing compares to that and this is not at all trying to be a knock-off.

The narrator seemed well above average and not overly dramatic to me. He also manages to do female characters convincingly without sounding like a drag-queen and making my skin crawl, a mistake many male (and vice versa) narrators make. Most characters are given recognizable and voices matching their personality.

Very slow

I’ve put off reading this book for years as a result starting and stopping from boredom. It took listening to the audible version to finally get through it. I did enjoy most of the characters but the story progresses so slow that like ability isn’t enough to hold attention.
This is a GoT style story with a little magic and otherworldly creatures. We mostly folly the royal family around with sideline character development building to the big end of the book.
I will eventually get around to the rest of the series. The author did put a lot of work into this story and building a somewhat unique realm.