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"Speak softly and carry a big stick" Theodore Roosevelt famously said in 1901, when the United States was emerging as a great power. It was the right sentiment, perhaps, in an age of imperial rivalry but today many Americans doubt the utility of their global military presence, thinking it outdated, unnecessary or even dangerous.

In The Big Stick, Eliot A. Cohen-a scholar and practitioner of international relations-disagrees. He argues that hard power remains essential for American foreign policy. While acknowledging that the US must be careful about why, when, and how it uses force, he insists that its international role is as critical as ever, and armed force is vital to that role.

Cohen explains that American leaders must learn to use hard power in new ways and for new circumstances. The rise of a well-armed China, Russia's conquest of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, and the spread of radical Islamist movements like ISIS are some of the key threats to global peace. If the United States relinquishes its position as a strong but prudent military power, and fails to accept its role as the guardian of a stable world order we run the risk of unleashing disorder, violence and tyranny on a scale not seen since the 1930s. The US is still, as Madeleine Albright once dubbed it, "the indispensable nation."

• Sales Rank: #27508 in Books
• Brand: Basic Books
• Published on: 2017-01-03
• Released on: 2017-01-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.63" h x 1.25" w x 6.50" l, .0 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Features

• Basic Books

Review
Kori Schake, Foreign Affairs
"Insightful."

Walter Russell Meade, The Wall Street Journal
"A balanced and sensitive analysis of America's military record since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001...Mr. Cohen's lucid book is a must-read for anyone interested in military might - and how it can help us maintain the edge we need in this treacherous age."

Jennifer Senior, The New York Times
"Even if you disagree with Mr. Cohen... it's easy to spend time in his company. He writes thoughtfully, methodically, with unfussy erudition... an unfashionable, unabashed and - above all - unwavering case for the use of force in the service of American security and ideals."

John Hillen, War on the Rocks
"When one looks at the world as it is rather than how one may want it to be...Cohen's prescriptions make sense... I hope the valuable strategic analysis in this book will be taken up by the new administration."

Brian Stewart, National Review
"A bracing argument that restores this woefully neglected element of statecraft to its proper position as 'the last argument of kings - or presidents.'"

Mackubin Thomas Owens, The Weekly Standard
"An excellent response to what can only be called strategic happy talk...an immensely useful assessment of military power and why it remains necessary"



Rosa Brooks, The Washington Post
"A vision of American power that's been largely stripped of illusion...a thoughtful and erudite book...To those who ask, 'Why the United States? Cohen offers an implicit challenge: Who else?"

Henrik Bering, The New Criterion
"Timely."

General (Ret.) David Petraeus, commander of the Surges in Iraq and Afghanistan, subsequently Director of the CIA, and now Chairman of the KKR Global Institute
"A brilliant, timely, hugely important, and very well-reasoned book that considers the past fifteen years of war, examines contemporary challenges, and makes a compelling case for American leadership in the world, albeit leadership exercised prudently and thoughtfully, and in a manner that is sustainable. The guidelines Eliot Cohen proposes for the use of force are particularly valuable as America prepares to transition to a new administration."


Michael Chertoff, former US Secretary of Homeland Security
"At a time when threats to global peace and order are multiplying, Professor Cohen lays out a clear, balanced vision for the critical role American military power and leadership must take in securing our world. Vital reading as a new US Administration prepares to take power."


Professor Andrew Roberts, author of Masters and Commanders: How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke Won the War in the West
"Any number of commentators on grand strategy are intelligent and well-informed, but Eliot Cohen is also brave and wise. Brave in unapologetically taking on the new consensus that lauds soft power over hard and trumpets neo-isolationism for the United States; wise in his analysis of what America can and must do to stay as the Top Dog world power in the 21st century. Refreshingly iconoclastic in his opinions and impeccably scholarly in his overview of American military policy from Teddy Roosevelt through to Barack Obama, this is the most eloquent defense of the continued necessity of American hard power you're ever likely to need."


Ambassador William J. Burns, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Deputy Secretary of State
"An eloquent argument for hard power's enduring importance in an age of global disorder and domestic diffidence. Drawing on his superb grasp of history, Eliot Cohen describes in clear and compelling detail how military force and strategy can help enable effective American diplomacy and global leadership in the 21st century."


Eric Edelman, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, 2005-2009
"A century before Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Theodore Roosevelt for his role in ending the Russo-Japanese War. Roosevelt's watchword for diplomacy was "speak softly and carry a big stick." Eliot Cohen has now presented the most compelling case yet for why the "big stick" remains as essential for managing the national security challenges of the 21st Century as it was one hundred years ago. This elegantly argued and persuasive book will be essential reading for the new President's foreign and security policy team as they tackle their new responsibilities."


Peter Mansoor, General Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair of Military History, The Ohio State University
"To a people increasingly enamored with soft power and tiring of their role as "the indispensable nation," Eliot Cohen makes a cogent argument for the use of military force in American foreign policy. The Big Stick is the antidote to the siren song of neo-isolationism as well as to the argument that history-and warfare-have ended."

Professor Philip Zelikow, director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia
"Wither America's military? In a world of disorder and plenty of disillusion from recent wars, the question could hardly be more timely. Eliot A. Cohen has written a remarkably sensible and balanced guide. Yes, he makes the case for American military power in this uncertain world. But his advice is historically grounded and honest about American weaknesses as well as the strengths. In the spirit of Theodore Roosevelt, Cohen urges preparedness, not belligerence. His analysis is not deformed by partisanship and his prose is a pleasure to read."

About the Author
Eliot A. Cohen is the Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The prize-winning author of several books, including Conquered into Liberty, Cohen lives in the Washington, DC area.

Most helpful customer reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
First-rate; I can't commend this book too highly
By Robert L. Goldich
This book is the best I've read on US national strategy since 9/11--actually since decades earlier. Dr. Cohen is particularly good in avoiding the twin traps of saying the sky is falling for US national security or, conversely, arguing that we're in great shape and we have little or nothing to fear. He's scrupulous about noting how the glass is half empty and half full. The Big Stick also is set at just the right level of generalization and specificity. Dr. Cohen analyzes broad trends well, while using enough but not too many specific examples to support his views. A must for anyone in and out of uniform dealing with issues of national defense and foreign policy.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
“American military power is the handmaiden of American statecraft”
By T. Graczewski
There are, it seems to me, two distinct elements to “The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power & the Necessity of Military Force” by Eliot Cohen. First, and in my opinion far most important, is how should our elected and military leaders think about national security strategy and the decision to go to war? Second, why is the use of force still important today and where might it most likely be required in the early twenty-first century?

The vast majority of the “The Big Stick” focuses on the second point and tackles it first, but I’ve flipped the order in this review to reflect what I perceive will be the enduring value of Cohen’s effort: his remarkably sober perspective on how leaders should think about and prepare to execute war.

Before we start, a few words about the author and this reviewer are necessary. Cohen may be a product of Samuel Huntington’s government department at Harvard, but he is, at heart, an historian. I was a student of Professor Cohen’s at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in the late 1990s, where I received a master’s degree in international relations and economics. Despite the words on my diploma, it was the study of history that dominated my academic and extracurricular experience at SAIS. I took a semester-long course dedicated to reading Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War” (along with close study of Sun Tzu, Clausewitz and many others); I led a Prussian military-inspired two-day Staff Ride exploring Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign; and I wrote my thesis on Soviet general Mikhail Frunze’s abandonment of the militia principle in the early days of the Red Army. It’s been almost two decades since I graduated from Cohen’s program at SAIS, yet his powerful focus on history has never loosened its grip on my approach to understanding the world around me (my 250+ Amazon history book reviews are proof of that), even though my career has been made in the fast-paced world of technology in Silicon Valley.

I write this extended introduction to emphasize the gravity of what I perceive to be the most important point made in this book, namely the last ten pages where Cohen dismisses grand strategy as “an idea whose time will never come, because the human condition does not permit it” and instead enumerates his six basic principles on the use of force. He preaches for a “fundamental acceptance of uncertainty” when it comes to crafting national security strategy and the use of force. He warns against the use of “rules of thumb and strategic aphorisms,” along with convenient but vacuous catchphrases, such as containment, end state, and exit strategy, which he writes “equates to a kind of strategic pixie dust, the sprinkling of which over complex policy problems may seem to make them manageable.”

Rather, policymakers need to embrace “accident, contingency, and randomness” as fundamental to any international engagement, particularly those requiring the use of force. He suggests doing away with the current process of developing watered-down National Security Strategies or the cumbersome defense planning exercise known as the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), neither of which reflect reality. Such strategic documents, he argues, cannot be so conveniently timed, nor should they be drafted by members of the career national security establishment. As an alternative, Cohen recommends “a single document produced at irregular intervals [5 to 7 years feels right to him] under the auspices of the president in his role at commander in chief.”

Cohen’s six principles are really “anti-rules,” so as far as I’m concerned; a collective argument against the use of any prescriptive principles by policymakers in the first place. Moreover, they also feel incredibly relevant to any captain of industry.

First, “Understand your war for what it is, not what you wish it to be.” He recommends a “self-conscious purging of one’s mind of analogies, parallels and metaphors,” a wholesale abandonment of approaches like that made famous by Neustadt and May in “Thinking in Time: The Use of History by Decisionmakers.” Rather, accept that “your war” is unique and understand it for what it is. Clausewitz held that this was “the first, the supreme, the most far reaching act of judgment” a leader had to make. It forms the foundation of Cohen’s strategic mindset and it’s equally applicable to business managers, most of whom crave analogues to guide their decision-making, despite the fact that each market is invariably unique.

Second, “Planning is important, being able to adapt is more important.” Before engaging in any conflict, planners “should build in a large and explicit margin of error,” because “part of the decision to go to war requires accepting that the future will contain surprises.” In other words, nothing is as easy as it seems. It’s an argument that anyone who has had to commit to quarterly revenue targets would understand.

Third, “You will prefer to go short, but prepare to go long.” Even if you genuinely believe the impending conflict will be of short duration, recognize that “the American people have to be informed and persuaded that a campaign is worth undertaking,” because the initial enthusiasm will erode and it will erode quickly. Fortune 500 CEOs (Jeff Bezos not included) regularly have to show Wall Street that their corporate strategy is working after two quarters, or else the market will penalize their company. Cohen’s principle suggests that the same applies for American presidents.

Fourth, “While engaging in today’s fight, prepare for tomorrow’s challenge.” Leaders need to be constantly reviewing and assessing future threats, even while battling a current enemy, because “there will be no end states and precious few exits – only new and different problems.” Just as successful companies are never finished competing, so too with successful nations, it seems. Both just find themselves bumping into other successful companies/countries, such as Amazon and Google competing in the intelligent home device market in 2017 or the US and China in the South China Sea.

Fifth (and, frankly, finally), “Adroit strategy matters; perseverance usually matters more.” Strategy, technology, tactics and training all matter – and matter a lot – but “they do not count as much as sheer grit, at all levels.” In other words, the old adage about the size-of-the-fight-in-the-dog mattering most often applies to wars, too, and also competition in the tech world, as my experience on the losing side against Mint.com, Square, and other tech upstarts can testify.

[Cohen has a final, sixth principle: “A president can launch a war; to win it, he or she must sustain congressional and popular support.” Frankly, I’m not sure why Cohen and his editors felt the need to include this final principle, as the proceeding principles clearly argue for it.]

All of the above is literally covered in the final dozen pages of the book. It is clearly not the focus of the book, despite its undeniable wisdom. Rather, the bulk of “The Big Stick” looks at various arguments against the use of force, what the past 15 years of war have taught us, the relative position of the United States over the next half century of so, and what he sees as the four principle threats to American national security. If “The Big Stick” is remembered 25-years from now and beyond, it will be because of the principles stated above, I believe, and not the insights highlighted below.

There are at least five schools of thoughts that argue against the utility of force. Cohen elucidates them, and then quickly swats away each as more-or-less nonsense. First, there is the “our better angels” argument that the world, from a long range perspective stretching over centuries, is getting less violent (Cohen says that any thesis that casually waves away events like World War II as a random and unfortunate aberration to the overall trend should provide contemporary strategists cold comfort). Second, he discusses “academic/pacific realism” that focuses on the balancing of power and rational state actors (any argument that dismisses the importance of faith and ideology, along with non-state actors, is of limited utility). Third, is the post-Cold War nostrum of “soft power” and its reliance on the power of American influence and culture (while certainly useful, soft power is slow acting, uncontrollable and cannot be directed, severely limiting its effectiveness). Fourth, some argue against American engagement because of repeated failures and clear incompetence (no other countries have been any more successful, Cohen says, and previous failures is not a compelling argument for throwing our hands up and quitting). Finally, “nation building at home” suggests that the United States has plenty of problems at home that need fixing first (the “weakest argument,” Cohen says that there is no evidence that the country can’t easily afford both).

So what have fifteen years of war taught us? What lessons should we take away from the experience since 9/11? Not too many, Cohen claims, rather surprisingly. “It is trite and incorrect to say that generals refight the last war. It is more accurate to say that the efforts to wage war, and the scars they inflict, last, leaving their mark on individuals and institutions alike.” If that is so, what scars have the last fifteen years left? A tougher, more battle-hardened military, for sure, but a more ambivalent political culture; more awareness of the limits of our power, but also possibly less resolute; and overall less amenable to the use of force. Cohen sees this legacy as dangerous and misguided, namely because we live in a very dangerous world in desperate need of American leadership.

Moreover, “despite all the disappointments and losses of recent years, America is immensely strong, across many dimensions of power,” everything from conventional military strength, nuclear weapons, defense R&D and global military logistics to demography, economic growth, technical innovation, higher education, and political cohesion (one feels the need to qualify that last variable with “for now…”). In short, “no other country or collection of countries, has a better hand to play in international politics” than the United States and no collection of states likely will for quite awhile. The real vulnerability, he says, are that some aspects of America’s technical lead are slipping, higher levels of defense organization are growing sclerotic, and traditionally developed concepts of war are inadequate to meet threats in both the near and long terms.

Cohen outlines four primary challenges to the United States, which he addresses in descending order of magnitude. He is unambiguous about where he sees the top threats: China and Islamic radicals, or as he calls them “jihadis” (because it’s what they call themselves). “China is, by virtue of its size, wealth, and aspirations, the great geopolitical challenger of the United States; the jihadists are, by their murderous convictions and practices, the most immediate threat.” That said, Cohen seems to caution us not to make either into the proverbial “ten-foot tall enemy.”

China, as a strategic problem for the United States, is genuinely unprecedented. For its first quarter millennium of history the United States was the dynamic, economic growth engine harboring territorial ambitions and tremendous latent military power that caused rivals concern. Now that shoe is on the other foot. Cohen concludes that “China is a serious and sophisticated challenger, but has its own weaknesses, misconceptions, and limits,” not least of which is a network of Asian countries that are collaborating to resist Chinese expansion.

The second major problem, the Jihadis, will require “a long war against a dangerous minority element of a major religious faith.” And this campaign will have to be multifaceted. Cohen criticizes the over-reliance on targeted drone strikes against terror leaders (“If the history of warfare has one lesson to offer,” he writes “it is that there are no decisive weapons, tactics, or operational concepts.”) Rather, he recommends a re-balancing of how to view the challenge – it is neither a minor threat comparable to traffic accidents, nor an apocalyptic confrontation between cultures – and employing multiple elements in a decades long strategy of “wearing down terrorist organizations, dividing the, waging political warfare against their base, as a last resort intervening to help stabilize countries threatened by them, and working in a coalition.”

Third, Cohen singles out four states – Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan – each with nuclear capabilities or ambitions, and connections to China in one form or another, as potentially destabilizing and, indeed, dangerous. Here the author argues that the US needs to improve the credibility of our deterrent forces, up to and including pre-emptive use of low-yield nuclear weapons, both to reassure allies and deter reckless behavior by states that have been reckless in the recent past. (Many on the Left, no doubt, will view Cohen’s frank openness to the use of tactical nuclear weapons as unhinged.) And, again, he stresses the need for the US to improve its capabilities in so-called hybrid wars that marry “subversion, propaganda, clandestine operations, and the use of proxy forces, as well as conventional operations.”

Finally, there are the non-state threats, the great commons of the open sea, space and cyberspace. Unlike the others, no one knows for sure what conflict in space or cyberspace will really look like. Cohen believes that while the potential gravity of the threats, cyber warfare in particular, have been exaggerated, they should nevertheless be treated the same way as physical attacks (i.e. a nation that launches a cyber attack that shuts down an electrical grid should be treated as no different than if it had achieved the same objective with a cruise missile). In these areas, a host of civilian agencies, along with private enterprise, will play important roles, but, Cohen argues, “military power remains the ultimate guarantor that the diverse great commons of mankind remain accessible.”

In sum, Cohen places a heavy emphasis open-ended thinking and the strenuous use of propaganda and coalition operations to defend the liberties of speech, property and civil society well into the twenty-first century. He concedes that those liberties cannot be imposed by force, but warns that “neither can [the United States] hope to flourish in a world increasingly hostile to those values.”

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
The Wisdom of Peace through Strength
By Todd Greentree
Eliot Cohen deservedly stands tall among America’s strategic thinkers, and whether you are an experienced national security practitioner or an informed citizen, this elegantly written new book needs to be read and taken seriously. Like Supreme Command, his 2002 study of leadership in wartime, The Big Stick is both digestible and filled with distilled wisdom. The title carries the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt, taken from the enlightened proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” But the book’s hero is Winston Churchill, whose indomitable will and faith in Britain’s alliance with the United States produced victory in World War II, which in turn created the enduring architecture of the world we live in today.

Cohen is not making an argument in favor of war, but rather for “peace through strength.”
His message is that in order for the United States to exist as a nation of ideas and a global leader, hard power is the necessary complement to soft power. A strong national defense is all the more important today as threats have multiplied and international competition has become more serious than at any time since the Cold War ended more than two decades ago. Cohen walks us through the ways in which the U.S. Armed Forces remain indispensable to responding to China’s rising power, combating Jihadi terrorism, dealing with adversaries such as Russia, and protecting the global commons. He leavens but does not overburden the chapters with the lessons of history, including observations on errors in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He counsels that it is prudent to afford the cost of strong national defense – on the order of 4% of GDP – both to deter war and to be prepared for those that inevitably will occur. The alternative of failing to stand up to these national security challenges is far worse.

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• Operations
• Fractions, percentages, and related concepts

The Word Knowledge section covers:

• What strategies can I use?

The Math Knowledge section covers:

• Numbers and their classifications
• Solving systems of equations
• Triangles

The Reading Comprehension section covers:

• How can I prepare?

The Situational Judgement section covers:

• What do situational judgement questions look like?
• How can I prepare?

The Physical Science section covers:

• How can I prepare?
• Term list

The Table Reading section covers:

• What strategies can I use to answer the questions quickly and accurately?
• What are the common mistakes to avoid?

The Instrument Comprehension section covers:

• How do I read the compass and artificial horizon instruments?
• How can I improve my ability to read the compass and artificial horizon?

The Block Counting section covers:

• How do I know how many blocks are touching the particular block?
• Are there any ways to make it easier to count the number of touching blocks?

The Aviation Information section covers:

• Fixed-wing aircraft
• Flight envelope
• Flight maneuvers

The Self Description Inventory section covers:

• What the Self Description Inventory section is

Any test prep guide is only as good as its practice questions and answers, and that's another area where our guide stands out. Our test designers have provided scores of test questions that will prepare you for what to expect on the actual AFOQT. Each answer is explained in depth, in order to make the principles and reasoning behind it crystal clear.

• AFOQT test prep book that provides a comprehensive review for the AFOQT test.
• AFOQT exam prep that will help you elevate your AFOQT test score.
• AFOQT study manual that will reduce your worry about the AFOQT exam.
• AFOQT review book that will help you avoid the pitfalls of AFOQT test anxiety.
• AFOQT practice test questions and much more...

• Sales Rank: #25939 in Books
• Published on: 2015-08-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 11.00" h x .42" w x 8.50" l, 1.05 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 180 pages

Most helpful customer reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Supplemental use ONLY, but not worth the money
By Anonymous
I used this book as part of my test prep for the AFOQT that I took this month, and would NOT recommend it as a primary study guide.
PROS:
It includes a situational judgement portion, which gives you a feel for that section of the test
Science review is physical science only, which matches the new Form T test (yet, the science portion doesn't seem to count for anything according to the official Air Force information pamphlet).
CONS:
The review sections are decent, but very basic. Where it really falters is the practice tests--the questions are basic and very easy, especially on the math portion. For the instrument comprehension, the plane images are a propeller plane, not anything the Air Force flies (refer to the official USAF study material, found on the TBAS website). It works for extra practice, but don't use only this. Block counting images are too large, and somewhat distorted. The table reading section is rather worthless, though this is consistent with the other study book I used. I would again refer you to the official USAF study material for that section.

The best summary I can provide is what is written on the back cover as a purported "review"--"I finally aced the test after taking it numerous times." Anyone taking the AFOQT should know that you are only allowed to take it TWICE in your lifetime. This very much feels like a poorly put together gimmick. I would instead recommend the Barron's Military Flight Aptitude test book, which I found to be much superior. I have also heard good things about the Peterson's Military Flight Aptitude book, though I have not personally used it.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
I'm really glad I purchased this because I feel like the guidance ...
By FrugalJewelz
I purchased the AFOQT Secrets study guide and so far, things are going well. I'm really glad I purchased this because I feel like the guidance is more than just step by step, but how to approach, comprehend, and overcome the hurdles that will be thrown throughout the test. I took the test once, cold turkey and I have one more shot to take it--ever. I'll make it count this time with higher scores than before!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A lot with a little
By A Smith
Comparing this book to another one I purchased it isn't as thick and the information is error proof. Clear and precise flow of information, just after reading the first few pages I was more motivated to continue my studies then my previous purchase of different companies AFOQT study guide.

See all 86 customer reviews...

AFOQT Secrets Study Guide: AFOQT Test Review for the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test, by AFOQT Exam Secrets Test Prep Team PDF
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[L559.Ebook] Fee Download Getting started with Julia Programming Language, by Ivo Balbaert

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Getting started with Julia Programming Language, by Ivo Balbaert

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Enter the exciting world of Julia, a high-performance language for technical computing

About This Book

• Work with Julia in a multi-core, distributed, and networked environment
• Learn the techniques to create blazingly fast programs with Julia
• The book walks you through various practical examples to get to grips with Julia

Who This Book Is For

This book is for you if you are a data scientist or working on any technical or scientific computation projects. The book assumes you have a basic working knowledge of high-level dynamic languages such as MATLAB, R, Python, or Ruby.

What You Will Learn

• Set up your Julia environment to achieve the highest productivity
• Solve your tasks in a high-level dynamic language and use types for your data only when needed
• Create your own types to extend the built-in type system
• Visualize your data in IJulia with plotting packages
• Explore the use of built-in macros for testing, debugging, benchmarking, and more
• Apply Julia to tackle problems concurrently and in a distributed environment
• Integrate with other languages such as C, Python, and MATLAB

In Detail

Julia is a new open source programming language that is used in the field of data science computing. It was created to solve the dilemma between high-level slow code and fast but low-level code, and the necessity to use both to achieve high performance. This book will give you a head start to tackle your numerical and data problems with Julia. Your journey will begin by learning how to set up a running Julia platform before exploring its various built-in types. You will then move on to cover the different functions and constructs in Julia. The book will then walk you through the two important collection types―arrays and matrices. Over the course of the book, you will also be introduced to homoiconicity, the meta-programming concept in Julia.

Towards the concluding part of the book, you will also learn how to run external programs. This book will cover all you need to know about Julia to leverage its high speed and efficiency.

• Sales Rank: #645729 in Books
• Published on: 2015-02-27
• Released on: 2015-02-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.25" h x .49" w x 7.50" l, .83 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 159 pages

About the Author

Ivo Balbaert

Ivo Balbaert is currently a lecturer in (web) programming and databases at CVO Antwerpen (www.cvoantwerpen.be), a community college in Belgium. He received a PhD degree in applied physics from the University of Antwerp in 1986. He worked for 20 years in the software industry as a developer and consultant in several companies, and for 10 years as a project manager at the University Hospital of Antwerp. From 2000 onward, he switched to partly teaching and developing software (KHM Mechelen, CVO Antwerp). He also wrote an introductory book in Dutch about developing in Ruby and Rails, Programmeren met Ruby en Rails, Van Duuren Media. In 2012, he authored a book on the Go programming language, The Way To Go, iUniverse. In 2013, in collaboration with Dzenan Ridzanovic, he authored Learning Dart and Dart Cookbook, both by Packt Publishing.

Most helpful customer reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
A Nice First Step
By MSE fanatic
When I learned about the Julia language I was thrilled that there is a community which wants to marry the simplicity and joy of coding in Python/R/Matlab with the power and speed of C/Fortran. This book is a rapid introduction into the basic structure, syntax, and building blocks of the Julia language. The book goes over data/collection types, functions, control flow, metaprogramming, and parallel programming in a first delievery approach. There also are comments and a few pages which provide programming tips on how to ensure top performance of your Julia code.

My main criticism of this book is you won't find detailed examples highlighting what makes Julia superior, which is its multiple dispatch and use of LLVM-JIT compiler. There are also no examples related to technical computing (e.g. numerical algorithms) which I think is necessary to convince traditional user of Python/Matlab and C/Fortran to adapt Julia as part of their toolbox. Overall this is a nice quick introduction to a very promising language and is worth reading if you prefer not to start with the Julia manual.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Great Intro to Julia
By Jason Enochs
Here's 4 things I liked about the book followed by 2 things I didn't

1. The author’s name looks foreign so I was concerned the book may suffer from a poor translation and/or bad grammar. That was not the case. The grammar was on par for a technical book and there weren’t many typos.

2. The topics were presented in a logical order. When the author was forced to mention a topic that had yet to be covered, he referenced the upcoming chapter where it would be covered. This ensures the reader isn’t just left scratching their head.

3. The author used Julia-v0.3 but would mention where he thought something would change in Julia-v0.4. When explaining slices be states that v0.3 provided a copy (by default) instead of a view of the original matrix but v0.4 would return views instead of copies. I tested this with versions v0.3.9 and v0.4.5 and I saw no difference in the default behavior. The author's comment spurred me to read the documentation and eventually I found the explanation (on their wiki). Spoiler, it didn't change in v0.4. The note in the book may have been incorrect but notes like that are very helpful when the language is still under development. Some comments about future releases are going to be wrong because development can change course over night.

4. Each time I referenced the index, I found what I was looking for.

------- 2 Things I didn't like -----------

1. So what's one reason not to buy this book or any other Julia book? The language is still under development. This book was published in 2015. I'm reading it in April 2016 and as I work through the examples I'm getting a LOT of deprecated syntax warnings (v0.4.6-pre) and as I pointed out above, some things the author said would be implemented in v.0,4, were not. If you go to the Julia website and click on Docs, you will see a well written and easy to read manual that's up-to-date (of course). You will notice the chapters of the online manual are similar to the ones in this, and other, books. The online documentation has all the information and it's kept up-to-date. Until Julia 1.0 is released, you probably won't do any better than reading the online Julia manual and searching their wiki for answers to your questions. The author used v0.3. I used the latest stable v0.4.6-pre to work the book's examples. At the time I wrote this review, the current version is v0.5.0.

2. A couple places (for example the dictionary example section) give a lot of deprecated code warnings as you try the examples. Then several pages later, grouped in one small paragraph, the author lists examples of syntax, that's already been used extensively in the examples, that would be deprecated in v0.4 along with the new syntax. That information is NOT useful when tucked into a small paragraph several pages after you could have used it. That information should have been included in notes alongside the applicable examples earlier in the chapter.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Quick read
By Dirk Harms-Merbtiz
Quick read and to the point. Took a couple hours to go through. Amazon, don't require so many words in reviews.

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Every day thousands of people are losing their jobs, their income, and their security - perhaps you are one of them. And for others, a job alone might not be enough. With the right strategies, however, you can achieve financial independence - faster than you ever thought possible. The Laptop Millionaire provides 32 easy-to-follow step-by-step strategies proven to make real money online. You'll learn how you can replace your income in 90 days or less, and forget about having a job; instead, create your own economy!

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• Sales Rank: #6584 in Audible
• Published on: 2012-05-14
• Format: Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Running time: 541 minutes

Most helpful customer reviews

146 of 151 people found the following review helpful.
Reads more like an infomercial, but some great nuggets of information
By Joanna Daneman
This book goes over how to set up online businesses using social media, webinars and other click-advertising methods to generate a stream of income, while not investing much at all of your own capital. Stay-at-home moms who need income, those with underpaying jobs, or no jobs are going to be very interested in what Mark Anastasi has to say.

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The good news about this book is that the information is gathered conveniently into one place. The bad news is that you probably can get this yourself if you study online enterprise, and meanwhile you have to wade through the fluff and sales pitch. I will say, that doing all this research yourself online is time-consuming and you do get a number of ideas here (ebooks, informational websites that pay per click, webinars, referral sites) as well as a concise list of opportunities for earning a living with a web-based business.

I am giving the book three stars because a lot of what is in here is true, at least for the current year 2012, and if you are wanting to branch out on your own, start a business with a minimal startup cost, this could be very helpful. I just didn't enjoy the writing; too much anecdotal come-on, hype and cheerleading, too little meat and potatoes of information. You'd need more than this book if you are serious.

76 of 85 people found the following review helpful.
A Long Infomercial -
By Loyd Eskildson
The primary purpose of 'Laptop Millionaire' is to get readers to sign up for his more expensive products, such as $40 software, but much more focused on his $2,000 and $5,000 seminars (plus travel, room and board). I also noted that all the testimonials are authored by others in the 'get rich quick and easy' business. The book is really just an infomercial, with very little of value.

48 of 53 people found the following review helpful.
Gotta give PROPS for a really good book on making money online
By marc
This book lays out all the popular sales channels (as of 12' april) to earn big money sitting in your underwear at home using popular sites such as facebook, twitter and such.

I mainly picked up the book for more tips to increase my ebook business and I ended up learning more than I thought I would.

If your looking for the most current ways to make money online "at least until a new crop of sales channels open up" this book will satisfy your needs.

It lays out the endless potential in accessing billions of consumers all over the world and then actually shows you how to tap into them.

Update...it is June 1 2014 and I'm still referring to this book. The author should follow up with a training series. There really is some good advice in the book. Gonna start licencing that I learned about...good stuff..just changed from 4 stars to 5

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[R789.Ebook] Download Ebook Four-Stroke Performance Tuning, by A. Bell

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This fully revised and updated edition is one of the most comprehensive references available to engine tuners and race engine builders. Bell covers all areas of engine operation, from air and fuel, through carburation, ignition, cylinders, camshafts and valves, exhaust systems and drive trains, to cooling and lubrication. Filled with new material on electronic fuel injection and computerised engine management systems. Every aspect of an engine's operation is explained and analyzed.

• Sales Rank: #1770585 in Books
• Brand: Brand: Haynes Publishing
• Published on: 1999-01-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.50" h x 1.00" w x 6.75" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Features

• Used Book in Good Condition

About the Author
A. Graham Bell is an acknowledged expert on engine tuning, with many years’ experience in this field. Other books to his credit are Modern Engine Tuning, Two-Stroke Performance Tuning and Forced Induction Performance Tuning. He lives in New South Wales, Australia.

Most helpful customer reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Foundational book for any high performance library
By Joe
I purchased this book after reading the authors equally great book on forced induction. Although it uses some of the same photos the forced induction book is not a rehash of this book.

This is the best and most complete book I have read on building and tuning performance motors.
In the last thirty plus years I have built and tuned several high performance motorcycle engines. I bore my own cylinders, have my own flow bench, balance cranks. I have quite a bit of experience.
Most all my motors have exceeded my expectations.
Some of what is in this book I knew from my experience massaging these motors to be daily drivers. This book is a much less expensive way to learn. This is not a vague "fluff" book like so many in print. If you want to learn regardless of your level of knowledge you will enjoy it. Sizing ports, valves, exhaust head pipes, step headers, primary pipe lengths, and on and on. Just having it all in one book is priceless.

It covers practically every area of engine design and modification well. It covers both motorcycles and cars.
The book is full of tricks that will save you hours, days, and sometimes weeks of work. What is it worth to get the compression ratio, or the cam right on the first try?
Need a chart on how much increase in flow you get from an injector by raising the fuel rail pressure? Got one. How about air cooled vs water cooled valve guide clearances. Got that too.

Great book, cheap at any price.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Great primer on engine performance
By Pedro P.
Besides the basic idea on how an engine works, I was clueless as to what was going on inside of them. This book ended up being a perfect source of knowledge. It is a little scattered in its organization, but does a good job taking you step by step through how things work and how modifications can help or hurt tuning efforts. It is not book for people looking for specific modifications for specific motors, it focuses on theories and the calculations behind them. I also bought the forced induction book by same author, again a little scattered and hard to read at times, but both books are perfect for someone looking to understand engine performance

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A Must have guide to tuning
By Shaddow
Even if your a beginner or someone who has been modifying cars for a while this book helps explain and expel the myths around tuning. It forms a sound basis to help you gain the best performance from your vehicle. If all else fails it will allow you to justifiably tell your mates why their mods aren't preforming or how they will fail, cause lets face it, without proof that isn't just your own experience some people will not listen. Now you can throw the book at them. Physically as well as it is a hard cover book. :D

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[N234.Ebook] Ebook Free Kings Rising: Book Three of the Captive Prince Trilogy, by C. S. Pacat

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The stunning conslusion of worldwide phenomenon—from the boldly original author of Captive Prince and Prince’s Gambit.

His identity now revealed, Damen must face his master Prince Laurent as Damianos of Akielos, the man Laurent has sworn to kill.
 
On the brink of a momentous battle, the future of both their countries hangs in the balance. In the south, Kastor's forces are massing. In the north, the Regent's armies are mobilising for war. Damen's only hope of reclaiming his throne is to fight together with Laurent against their usurpers.
 
Forced into an uneasy alliance the two princes journey deep into Akielos, where they face their most dangerous opposition yet. But even if the fragile trust they have built survives the revelation of Damen’s identity—can it stand against the Regents final, deadly play for the throne?

• Sales Rank: #26882 in Books
• Brand: imusti
• Published on: 2016-02-02
• Released on: 2016-02-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 7.99" h x .96" w x 5.14" l, 1.00 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Features

• Berkley Pub Group

Review
Praise for C. S. Pacat and the Captive Prince Trilogy

“You will be completely enthralled and on edge.”—USA Today

“Have you read Captive Prince? If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?”—HeroesandHeartbreakers.com

“The cumulative effect of reading them back to back is mind blowing.”—Dear Author

“Pacat’s powerful debut, a blend of intense erotica and political fantasy, is disturbing and intriguing in equal measure...The intricacy of the political entanglements gives depth to the novel’s erotic turmoil...Fans of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series will eat this up with a spoon.”—Publishers Weekly

“Fans of Pacat’s internet-serial sensation will need no convincing of the merits of this series, but new readers should take note—this book lives up to every word of praise it has garnered. The lush setting, full of intricate historical detail, engaging decadence and ruthless scheming, will draw many, but it’s Pacat’s characters...who’ll surely keep readers captive. Their tenuous, fractious relationship is the heart and soul of this trilogy, and thankfully, readers will not have long to wait between installments in order to watch it unfold.”—RT Book Reviews

About the Author
C. S. Pacat is the author of the Captive Prince trilogy. Born in Australia and educated at the University of Melbourne, she has since lived in a number of different cities, including Tokyo and Perugia. She currently resides and works in Melbourne.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

KINGS RISING

C. S. Pacat is the author of the Captive Prince trilogy. She has lived in a number of different cities including Tokyo and Perugia. She is a graduate of the University of Melbourne, and was born in Melbourne, where she currently lives and writes.

About the Author

Also in The Captive Prince trilogy

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Map

Characters

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Acknowledgements

CHARACTERS

CHAPTER ONE

‘DAMIANOS.’

Damen stood at the base of the dais steps as his name spread in tones of shock and disbelief over the courtyard. Nikandros knelt before him, his army knelt before him. It was like coming home, until his name, rippling outwards over the ranks of the gathered Akielon soldiers, hit the Veretian commoners thronging the edges of the space, where it changed.

The shock was different, a doubled shock, a rippling impact now, of anger, of alarm. Damen heard the first voice in outcry, a swell of violence, a new word now in the mouths of the crowd.

‘Prince-killer.’

A hiss of a rock, thrown. Nikandros came up off his knees, drawing his sword. Damen flung out a hand in a motion for halt, stopping Nikandros instantly, his sword showing a half-foot of Akielon steel.

He could see the confusion on Nikandros’s face, as the courtyard around them began to disintegrate. ‘Damianos?’

‘Order your men to hold,’ said Damen, even as the sharp sound of steel closer by had him turning fast.

A Veretian soldier in a grey helmet had drawn his sword, and was staring at Damen as though he faced his worst nightmare. It was Huet; Damen recognised the white face under the helmet. Huet was holding his sword out before him the way Jord had held the knife: between two shaking hands.

‘Damianos?’ said Huet.

‘Hold!’ Damen ordered again, shouting to be heard over the crowd, over the new, hoarse cry in Akielon, ‘Treason!’ It was death to draw a blade on a member of the Akielon royal family.

He was still keeping Nikandros back with the gesture of his outflung hand, but he could feel every sinew in Nikandros strain in the effort to hold himself in place.

There were wild shouts now, the thin perimeter breaking down as the crowd swelled with the panicked urge to run. To stampede and get out of the way of the Akielon army. Or to swarm over it. He saw Guymar scan the courtyard, the tense fear in his eyes clear. Soldiers could see what a peasant mob could not: that the Akielon force inside the walls—inside the walls—outnumbered the skeletal Veretian garrison fifteen to one.

Another sword was drawn alongside Huet’s, a horrified Veretian soldier. Anger and disbelief showed in the faces of some of the Veretian guard; in others there was fear, looking to one another desperately for guidance.

And in the first spilling breach in the perimeter, the spiralling frenzy of the crowd, the Veretian guards no longer fully under his control—Damen saw how completely he had underestimated the effect of his identity on the men and women of this fort.

Damianos, prince-killer.

His mind, used to battlefield decisions, took in the sweep of the courtyard, and made the commander’s choice: to minimise losses, to limit bloodshed and chaos, and to secure Ravenel. The Veretian guards were beyond his orders, and the Veretian people . . . if these bitter, furious emotions could be soothed among the Veretian people, he was not the one to soothe them.

There was only one way to stop what was about to happen, and that was to contain it; to lock it down, to secure this place once and for all.

Damen said to Nikandros, ‘Take the fort.’

*   *   *

Damen swept along the passage, flanked by six Akielon guards. Akielon voices rang in the halls and red Akielon flags flew over Ravenel. Akielon soldiers on either side of the doorway drew their heels together as he passed.

Ravenel had now changed allegiance twice in as many days. This time it had happened swiftly; Damen knew exactly how to subdue this fort. The skeleton Veretian force had quickly buckled in the courtyard, and Damen had ordered their two senior soldiers, Guymar and Jord, brought to him, stripped of armour and under guard.

As Damen entered the small antechamber, the Akielon guards took hold of their two prisoners and thrust them roughly to the ground. ‘Kneel,’ the guard commanded in mangled Veretian. Jord sprawled.

‘No. Let them stand.’ Damen gave the order in Akielon.

Instant obedience.

It was Guymar who shrugged the treatment off and regained his feet first. Jord, who had known Damen for months, was more circumspect, rising slowly. Guymar met Damen’s eyes. He spoke in Veretian, giving no sign that he had understood Akielon.

‘So it’s true. You are Damianos of Akielos.’

‘It’s true.’

Guymar purposefully spat, and for his trouble was backhanded hard across the face with a mailed fist by the Akielon soldier.

Damen let it happen, aware of what would have happened if a man had spat on the ground in front of his father.

‘Are you here to put us to the sword?’

Guymar’s words were spoken as his eyes returned to Damen. Damen’s gaze passed over him, then over Jord. He saw the grime on their faces, their drawn, tight expressions. Jord had been the Captain of the Prince’s Guard. He knew Guymar less well: Guymar had been a commander in Touars’s army before he’d defected to Laurent’s side. But both men had been ranked officers. It was why he had ordered them brought here.

‘I want you to fight with me,’ said Damen. ‘Akielos is here to stand by your side.’

Guymar let out a shaky breath. ‘Fight with you? You will use our cooperation to take the fort.’

‘I already have the fort,’ said Damen. He said it calmly. ‘You know the manner of man we face in the Regent,’ said Damen. ‘Your men have a choice. They can remain prisoners at Ravenel, or they can ride with me to Charcy, and show the Regent we stand together.’

‘We don’t stand together,’ said Guymar. ‘You betrayed our Prince.’ And then, as though he almost couldn’t bear to say it, ‘You had him—’

‘Take him out,’ said Damen, cutting it off. He dismissed the Akielon guards, too, and they filed out until the antechamber was deserted, except for the one man he allowed to stay.

In Jord’s face was none of the mistrust or fear that had been stamped so clearly on the faces of the other Veretians, but a weary search for understanding.

Damen said, ‘I made him a promise.’

‘And when he learns who you are?’ said Jord. ‘When he learns that he is facing Damianos on the field?’

‘Then he and I meet each other for the first time,’ said Damen. ‘That was also a promise.’

*   *   *

When it was done, he found himself pausing, his hand on the doorframe to catch his breath. He thought of his name, spreading through Ravenel, across the province, to its target. He had a sense of holding on, as though if he just held the fort, held these men together long enough to reach Charcy, then what followed—

He couldn’t think about what followed, all he could do was keep to his promise. He pushed open the door and walked into the small hall.

Nikandros turned when Damen entered, and their eyes met. Before Damen could speak, Nikandros went to one knee; not spontaneously as he had done in the courtyard, but deliberately, bending his head.

‘The fort is yours,’ Nikandros said. ‘My King.’

King.

The ghost of his father seemed to prickle over his skin. It was his father’s title, but his father no longer sat on the throne at Ios. Looking at the bowed head of his friend, Damen realised it for the first time. He was no longer the young prince who had roamed the palace halls with Nikandros after a day spent wrestling together on the sawdust. There was no Prince Damianos. The self that he had been striving to return to was gone.

To gain everything and lose everything in the space of a moment. That is the fate of all princes destined for the throne. Laurent had said that.

Damen took in Nikandros’s familiar, classically Akielon features, his dark hair and brows, his olive face and straight Akielon nose. As children, they had run barefoot together through the palace. When he’d imagined a return to Akielos, he’d imagined greeting Nikandros, embracing him, heedless of the armour, like digging in his fingers and feeling in his fist the earth of his home.

Instead, Nikandros knelt in an enemy fort, his sparse Akielon armour incongruous in the Veretian setting, and Damen felt the gulf of distance that separated them.

‘Rise,’ said Damen. ‘Old friend.’

He wanted to say so much. He felt it welling up inside him, a hundred moments when he had forced back the doubt that he would ever see Akielos, the high cliffs, the opaline sea, and the faces, like this one, of those that he called friend.

‘I thought you dead,’ said Nikandros. ‘I have mourned your passing. I lit the ekthanos and made the long walk at dawn when I thought you gone.’ Nikandros spoke still partly in wonder as he rose. ‘Damianos, what happened to you?’

Damen thought of the soldiers bursting into his rooms, of being lashed down in the slave baths, of the dark, muffled journey by ship to Vere. He thought of being confined, his face painted, his body drugged and displayed. He thought of opening his eyes in the Veretian palace, and what had happened to him there.

‘You were right about Kastor,’ Damen said.

It was all he said.

‘I watched him crowned at the Kingsmeet,’ said Nikandros. His eyes were dark. ‘He stood on the Kingstone and said, “This twin tragedy has taught us that all things are possible.”’

It sounded like Kastor. It sounded like Jokaste. Damen thought of how it would have been in Akielos, the kyroi gathered among the ancient stones of the Kingsmeet, Kastor enthroned with Jokaste beside him, her hair immaculate and her swollen belly swathed, slaves fanning the air in the still heat.

He said to Nikandros, ‘Tell me.’

He heard it. He heard all of it. He heard of his own body, wrapped and taken in the processional through the acropolis, then interred beside his father. He heard Kastor’s claim that he had been killed by his own guard. He heard of his guard, killed in turn, like his childhood trainer Haemon, like his squires, like his slaves. Nikandros spoke of the confusion and slaughter throughout the palace, and in its wake, Kastor’s swordsmen taking control, claiming wherever they were challenged that they were containing the bloodshed, not causing it.

He remembered the sound of bells at dusk. Theomedes is dead. All hail Kastor.

Nikandros said, ‘There’s more.’

Nikandros hesitated for a moment, searching Damen’s face. Then he pulled a letter from his leather breastplate. It was battered, and by far the worse for its method of conveyance, but when Damen took it and unfolded it, he saw why Nikandros had kept it close.

To the Kyros of Delpha, Nikandros, from Laurent, Prince of Vere.

Damen felt the hairs rise over his body. The letter was old. The writing was old. Laurent must have sent the letter from Arles. Damen thought of him, alone, politically cornered, sitting at his desk to begin writing. He remembered Laurent’s limpid voice. Do you think I’d get on well with Nikandros of Delpha?

It made tactical sense, in a horrifying way, for Laurent to have made an alliance with Nikandros. Laurent had always been capable of a kind of ruthless pragmatism. He was able to put emotion aside and do what he had to do to win, with a perfect and nauseating ability to ignore all human feeling.

In return for aid from Nikandros, the letter said, Laurent would offer proof that Kastor had colluded with the Regent to kill King Theomedes of Akielos. It was the same information that Laurent had flung at him last night. You poor dumb brute. Kastor killed the King, then took the city with my uncle’s troops.

‘There were questions,’ said Nikandros, ‘but for every question Kastor had an answer. He was the King’s son. And you were dead. There was no one left to rally behind,’ Nikandros said. ‘Meniados of Sicyon was the first to swear his loyalty. And beyond that—’

Damen said, ‘The south belongs to Kastor.’

He knew what he faced. He had never supposed to hear that the story of his brother’s treachery was a mistake: to hear that Kastor was overjoyed by the news that he lived, and welcomed his return.

Nikandros said, ‘The north is loyal.’

‘And if I call on you to fight?’

‘Then we fight,’ said Nikandros. ‘Together.’

The straightforward ease of it left him without words. He had forgotten what home felt like. He had forgotten trust, loyalty, kinship. Friends.

Nikandros drew something from a fold in his clothing, and pressed it into Damen’s hand.

‘This is yours. I have kept it . . . A foolish token. I knew it was treason. I wanted to remember you by it.’ A crooked half-smile. ‘Your friend is a fool and courts treason for a keepsake.’

Damen opened his hand.

The curl of mane, the arc of a tail—Nikandros had given him the golden lion pin worn by the King. Theomedes had passed it on to Damen on his seventeenth birthday to mark him as heir. Damen remembered his father fixing it to his shoulder. Nikandros must have risked execution to find it, to take it and to carry it with him.

‘You are too quick to pledge yourself to me.’ He felt the hard, bright edges of the pin in his fist.

‘You are my King,’ said Nikandros.

He saw it reflected back at him in Nikandros’s eyes, as he had seen it in the eyes of the men. He felt it, in the different way Nikandros behaved towards him.

King.

The pin was his now, and soon the bannermen would come and pledge to him as King, and nothing would be the way it was before. To gain everything and lose everything in the space of a moment. That is the fate of all princes destined for the throne.

He clasped Nikandros’s shoulder, the wordless touch all he would allow himself.

‘You look like a wall tapestry.’ Nikandros plucked at Damen’s sleeve, amused by red velvet, fastenings of garnet, and small, exquisitely sewn rows of ruching. And then he went still.

‘Damen,’ said Nikandros, in a strange voice. Damen looked down. And saw.

His sleeve had slipped, revealing a cuff of heavy gold.

Nikandros tried to move back, as though burned or stung, but Damen clasped his arm, preventing the retreat. He could see it, splitting Nikandros’s brain, the unthinkable.

His heart pounding, he tried to stop it, to salvage it. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Kastor made me a slave. Laurent freed me. He gave me command of his fort and his troops, an act of trust for an Akielon he had no reason to elevate. He doesn’t know who I am.’

‘The Prince of Vere freed you,’ said Nikandros. ‘You have been his slave?’ His voice thickened with the words. ‘You have served the Prince of Vere as a slave?’

Another step back. There was a shocked sound from the doorway. Damen whirled towards it, releasing his grip on Nikandros.

Makedon stood in the doorway, a growing horror on his face, and behind him Straton, and two of Nikandros’s soldiers. Makedon was Nikandros’s general, his most powerful bannerman, and he had come to pledge to Damianos as the bannermen had pledged to Damen’s father. Damen stood, exposed, before them all.

He flushed, hard. A golden wrist cuff had only one meaning: use, and submission, of the most private kind.

He knew what they saw—a hundred images of slaves, submitting, bending at the hip, parting their thighs, the casual ease with which these men would have taken slaves in their own households. He remembered himself saying, Leave it on. His chest felt tight.

He forced himself to keep untying laces, pushing his sleeve up further. ‘Does it shock you? I was a personal gift to the Prince of Vere.’ He had bared his whole forearm.

Nikandros turned to Makedon, his voice harsh. ‘You will not speak of this. You will never speak of this outside this room—’

Damen said, ‘No. It can’t be hidden.’ He said it to Makedon.

A man of his father’s generation, Makedon was the commander of one of the largest of the provincial armies of the north. Behind him, Straton’s distaste looked like nausea. The two secondary officers had their eyes on the floor, too low-ranked to do anything else in the presence of the King, especially in the face of what they were seeing.

‘You were the Prince’s slave?’ Revulsion was stamped on Makedon’s face, whitening it.

‘Yes.’

‘You—’ Makedon’s words echoed the unspoken question in Nikandros’s eyes that no man would ever say aloud to his King.

Damen’s flush changed in quality. ‘You dare ask that.’

Makedon said, thickly, ‘You are our King. This is an insult to Akielos that cannot be borne.’

‘You will bear it,’ said Damen, holding Makedon’s gaze, ‘as I have borne it. Or do you think yourself above your King?’

Slave, said the resistance in Makedon’s eyes. Makedon certainly had slaves in his own household, and made use of them. What he imagined between Prince and slave stripped it of all the subtleties of surrender. Having been done to his King, it had in some sense been done to him, and his pride revolted at it.

‘If this becomes common knowledge, I can’t guarantee I will be able to control the actions of the men,’ said Nikandros.

‘It is common knowledge,’ said Damen. He watched the words impact on Nikandros, who could not quite swallow them.

‘What would you have us do?’ Nikandros pushed the words out.

‘Make your pledge,’ said Damen. ‘And if you are mine, gather the men to fight.’

*   *   *

The plan he had developed with Laurent was simple, and relied on timing. Charcy was not a field like Hellay, with a single, clear vantage. Charcy was a pocketed, hilly trap, half backed by forest, where a well-positioned force could quickly manufacture a surround on an approaching troop. It was the reason the Regent had chosen Charcy as the place where he would challenge his nephew. Inviting Laurent to a fair fight at Charcy was like smiling and inviting him to take a stroll across quicksand.

So they had split their forces. Laurent had ridden out two days ago to approach from the north and reverse the Regent’s surround by bringing up at the rear. Damen’s men were the bait.

He looked for a long time at the wrist cuff before he walked out onto the dais. It was bright gold, visible at some distance against the skin of his wrist.

He didn’t try to hide it. He had discarded his wrist gauntlets. He wore the Akielon breastplate, the short leather skirt, the high Akielon sandals strapped to his knee. His arms were bare, as were his legs from knee to mid-thigh. The short red cape was pinned to his shoulder by the golden lion.

Armoured and battle-ready, he stepped out onto the dais and looked out at the army that was gathered below, the immaculate lines and shining spears, all of it waiting for him.

He let them see the cuff on his wrist, as he let them see him. He knew by now the ever-present whisper: Damianos, risen from the dead. He watched the army fall silent before him.

He let the Prince he had been drop away, let himself feel the new role, the new self settle about him.

‘Men of Akielos,’ he said, his words echoing across the courtyard. He looked out at the rows of red cloaks, and it felt as it felt to take up a sword or fit a gauntlet to his hand. ‘I am Damianos, true son of Theomedes, and I have returned to fight for you as your King.’

A deafening roar of approval; spear-butts hammering into the ground in approbation. He saw arms raised, soldiers cheering, and caught a flash of the impassive, helmed face of Makedon.

Damen swung up into the saddle. He had taken the same horse he had ridden at Hellay, a big bay gelding that could take his weight. It struck its front hoof on the cobbles, as though seeking to overturn a stone, arching its neck, perhaps sensing, in the manner of all great beasts, that they were on the cusp of war.

The horns sounded. The standards went up.

There was a sudden clatter, like a handful of marbles cast down steps, and a small group of Veretians in battered blue rode into the courtyard on horseback.

Not Guymar. But Jord and Huet. Lazar. Scanning their faces, Damen saw who they were. These were the men of the Prince’s Guard, with whom Damen had travelled for months. And there was only one reason why they had been released from confinement. Damen held up a hand, and Jord was allowed through, so that for a moment their horses circled each other.

‘We’ve come to ride with you,’ said Jord.

Damen looked at the small clump of blue now gathered before the rows of red in the courtyard. There weren’t many of them, only twenty, and he saw at once that it was Jord who had convinced them, so that they were here, mounted and ready.

‘Then we ride,’ said Damen. ‘For Akielos, and for Vere.’

*   *   *

As they approached Charcy, long-range visibility was poor and they had to rely on outriders and scouts for information. The Regent was approaching from the north and the north-west; their own forces, acting as bait, were downslope and in an inferior position. Damen would never bring men into this kind of disadvantage without a counter plan. As it was, it would be a close fight.

Nikandros didn’t like it. The closer they came to Charcy, the more obvious it was to the Akielon generals how bad the ground was. If you wanted to kill your worst enemy you would lure him to a place like this.

Trust me, was the last thing Laurent had said.

He envisaged the plan as they had constructed it in Ravenel, the Regent overcommitting, and Laurent at the perfect moment sweeping down from the north. He wanted it, wanted a hard fight, wanted to seek out the Regent on the field, find him and take him down, to end his reign in a single fight. If he just did that, just kept to his promise, then after—

Damen gave the order to form up. There would be the danger of arrows soon. They would take their first volley from the north.

‘Hold,’ was his order. The uncertain terrain was a valley of doubt, fringed by trees and dangerous slopes. The air was laden with tense expectation, and the high-strung, raw mood that came before battle.

Distantly, the sound of horns. ‘Hold,’ Damen said again, as his horse fidgeted, fractious, beneath him. They must fully engage the Regent’s forces here on the flat before they counterattacked, draw them all here, in order to allow Laurent’s men to manufacture a surround.

Instead he saw the western flank begin to move, too soon, under the shouted order of Makedon. ‘Call them back into line,’ Damen said, putting his heels hard into his horse. He reined in around Makedon, a small, tight circle. Makedon looked back at him, dismissive as a general of a child.

‘We are moving to the west.’

‘My orders are to hold,’ said Damen. ‘We let the Regent commit first, to draw him out of position.’

‘If we do that, and your Veretian doesn’t arrive, we’ll all be killed.’

‘He’ll be here,’ said Damen.

From the north, the sound of horns.

The Regent was too close, too early, with no word yet from their scouts. Something was wrong.

Action exploded to his left, movement bursting from the trees. The attack came from the north, charging from the slope and the tree line. Ahead of it was a solitary rider, a scout, racing flat out over the grass. The Regent’s men were on them, and Laurent wasn’t within a hundred miles of the battle. Laurent had never planned to come.

That was what the scout was screaming, right before an arrow took him in the back.

‘This is your Veretian Prince exposed for what he is,’ said Makedon.

Damen had no time to think before the situation was on him. He shouted orders, trying to take hold of the initial chaos, as the first rain of arrows hit, his mind taking in the new situation, recalculating numbers and position.

He’ll be here, Damen had said, and he believed that, even as the first wave hit and the men around him began to die.

There was a dark logic to it. Have your slave convince the Akielons to fight. Let your enemies do your fighting for you, the casualties taken by the people you despise, the Regent defeated or weakened, and the armies of Nikandros wiped out.

It wasn’t until the second wave hit them from the north-west that he realised they were totally alone.

Damen found himself alongside Jord. ‘If you want to live, ride east.’

White-faced, Jord took one look at his expression and said, ‘He’s not coming.’

‘We’re outnumbered,’ said Damen, ‘but if you run, you might still make it out.’

‘If we’re outnumbered, what are you going to do?’

Damen drove his horse onward, ready to take up his own place on the front line.

He said, ‘Fight.’

CHAPTER TWO

LAURENT WOKE SLOWLY, in dim light, to the sensation of restriction, his hands tied behind his back. Throbbing at the base of his skull let him know he had been hit over the head. Something was also inconveniently and intrusively wrong with his shoulder. It was dislocated.

As his lashes fluttered and his body stirred, he became hazily aware of a stale odour, and a chilled temperature that suggested that he was underground. His intellect made increasing sense of this: there had been an ambush, he was underground, and since his body didn’t feel as if it had been transported for days, that meant—

He opened his eyes and met the flat-nosed stare of Govart.

‘Hello, Princess.’

Panic spiked his pulse, an involuntary reaction, his blood beating against the inside of his skin like it was trapped. Very carefully, he made himself do nothing.

The cell itself was about twelve feet square, and had an entrance of bars but no windows. Beyond the door there was a flickering stone passageway. The flickering came from a torch on that side of the bars, not from the fact that he had been hit over the head. There was nothing inside the cell except the chair he was tied to. The chair, made of heavy oak, appeared to have been dragged in for his benefit, which was civilised or sinister, depending on how one looked at it. The torchlight revealed the accumulated filth on the floor.

He was hit by the memory of what had happened to his men, and put that, with effort, out of his mind. He knew where he was. These were the prison cells of Fortaine.

He understood that he faced his death, before which would come a long, painful interval. A ludicrous boyish hope flared that someone would come to help him, and, carefully, he extinguished it. Since the age of thirteen, there had been no rescuer, for his brother was dead. He wondered if it was going to be possible to salvage some dignity in this situation, and cancelled that thought as soon as it came. This was not going to be dignified. He thought that if things got very bad, it was within his capabilities to precipitate the end. Govart would not be difficult to provoke into lethal violence. At all.

He thought that Auguste would not be afraid, being alone and vulnerable to a man who planned to kill him; it should not trouble his younger brother.

It was harder to let go of the battle, to leave his plans at their midway point, to accept that the deadline had come and gone, and that whatever now happened on the border, he would not be a part of it. The Akielon slave would (of course) assume treachery on the part of the Veretian forces, after which he would launch some sort of noble and suicidal attack at Charcy that he would probably win, against ridiculous odds.

He thought, if he merely ignored the fact that he was injured and tied up, it was one on one, which weren’t terrible odds of his own, except that he could feel in this, as he could always feel, the invisible guiding hand of his uncle.

One on one: he must think about what he could practically achieve. On his best day, he could not take on Govart in a wrestling match and win. And his shoulder was dislocated. Fighting free of his bonds at this moment would accomplish, precisely, nothing. He told himself that: once; then again, to quell a deep, basic urge to struggle.

‘We’re alone,’ Govart said. ‘Just you and me. Look around. Take a good look. There’s no way out. Not even I have a key. They come to open the cell when I’m done with you. What do you have to say to that?’

‘How’s your shoulder?’ said Laurent.

The blow rocked him back. When he lifted his head, he enjoyed the look he had provoked on Govart’s face, as he had enjoyed, for the same reason—if a bit masochistically—the blow. Because he couldn’t quite keep that from his eyes, Govart hit him again. He had to strap down the impulse of hysteria, or this was going to be over very quickly.

‘I always wondered what it was you had on him,’ Laurent said. He forced himself to keep his voice steady. ‘A bloody sheet and a signed confession?’

‘You think I’m stupid,’ said Govart.

‘I think you have one piece of leverage over a very powerful man. I think whatever it is you have on him, it’s not going to last forever.’

‘You want to think that,’ said Govart. His voice was heavy with satisfaction. ‘Want me to tell you why you’re here? Because I asked him for you. He gives me what I want. He gives me whatever I want. Even his untouchable nephew.’

‘Well, I’m an inconvenience to him,’ said Laurent. ‘You are too. It’s why he throws us together. At some point one of us will dispatch the other.’

He made himself speak without undue emotion, just a mild remark on the facts.

‘The trouble is, when my uncle is the King, no leverage in the world will stop him. If you kill me, whatever it is that you have on him isn’t going to matter. It will just be you and him, and he’ll be free to disappear you into a dark cell too.’

Govart smiled, slowly.

‘He said you’d say that.’

The first misstep, and it was his own. He could feel the distracting beat of his heart. ‘What else did my uncle tell you I’d say?’

‘He said you’d try to keep me talking. He said you had a mouth like a whore. He said you’d lie, wheedle, suck up to me.’ The slow smile widened. ‘He said, “The only way to make sure my nephew doesn’t talk his way free is to cut his tongue out.”’ As he spoke, Govart pulled out a knife.

The room around Laurent greyed; his whole attention narrowed, his thoughts attenuating.

‘Except that you want to hear it,’ said Laurent, because this was only beginning, and it was a long, winding, bloody road till the end. ‘You want to hear all of it. Every last broken syllable. It’s the one thing my uncle never understood about you.’

‘Yeah? What’s that?’

‘You always wanted to be on the other side of the door,’ said Laurent. ‘And now you are.’

*   *   *

By the end of the first hour (though it felt longer), he was in quite a lot of pain, and was losing touch with how much, if at all, he was delaying or controlling what was happening.

His shirt was now unlaced to the waist and hung open, and his right sleeve was red. His hair was a tangled mess ribboned with sweat. His tongue was intact, because the knife was in his shoulder. He had accounted that a victory, when it had happened.

You had to take pleasure in small victories. The hilt of the knife protruded at an odd angle. It was in his right shoulder, already dislocated, so that breathing was now painful. Victories. He had come this far, he had caused his uncle some small consternation, had checked him, once or twice, forced him to remake his plans. Had not made it easy.

Layers of thick stone stood between him and the outside world. It was impossible to hear anything. It was impossible to be heard. His only advantage was that he had managed to free his left hand from its bonds. He couldn’t let that be discovered, it would gain him nothing. It would gain him a broken arm. It was growing harder to stick to a course of action.

Because it was impossible to hear anything, he reasoned—or had reasoned, when more detached—that whoever had put him in here with Govart would return with a wheelbarrow and sack to take him out, and that this would happen at a prearranged time, since there was no way for Govart to signal. He therefore had a single goal, like moving towards a retreating mirage: to reach that point alive.

Footsteps, getting closer. The metallic scrape of an iron hinge.

Guion’s voice. ‘This is taking too long.’

‘Squeamish?’ said Govart. ‘We’re just getting started. You can stay and watch if you like.’

‘Does he know?’ Laurent said.

His voice was a little hoarser than it had been starting out; his response to pain had been conventional. Guion was frowning.

‘Know what?’

‘The secret. Your clever secret. What it is you have on my uncle.’

‘Shut up,’ said Govart.

‘What is he talking about?’

‘You never wondered,’ said Laurent, ‘why my uncle kept him alive? Why he kept him in wine and women all these years?’

‘I said shut your mouth.’ Closing his hand around the hilt of the knife, Govart turned it.

Blackness burst over him, so that he was only distantly aware of what followed. He heard Guion demanding, in a tinny voice far away, ‘What’s he saying? You have some private arrangement with the King?’

‘You keep out of it. This isn’t your business.’ Govart.

‘If you have some other arrangement, you will disclose it to me, now.’

He felt Govart let go of the knife. Lifting his own hand was the second hardest thing he had ever done, after raising his head. Govart was moving to face down Guion, blocking his path to Laurent.

Laurent closed his eyes, wrapped his unsteady left hand around the hilt, and pulled the knife out of his shoulder.

He couldn’t contain the low sound that escaped him. The two men turned as his fumbling hands cut his remaining bonds, and he staggered to stand behind the chair. Laurent held the knife in his left hand in as close to a correct defensive posture as he could presently manage. The room was wavering. The hilt of the knife was slippery. Govart smiled, amused and pleased, as a jaded voyeur at some unexpected minor final act of a play.

Guion said, with mild irritation but absolutely no urgency, ‘Get him back under control.’

They faced each other. Laurent had no illusions about his skill as a left-handed knife fighter. He knew how negligible a threat he presented to Govart, even on a day when he wasn’t swaying. At his best, he would land a single knife strike before Govart closed on him. It wouldn’t matter. Govart’s structural bulk of muscle was layered over with a secondary bulk of fat. Govart could weather a single knife cut from a weakened, weaker opponent, and keep fighting. The outcome of his brief excursion into freedom was inevitable. He knew it. Govart knew it.

Laurent made his single clumsy left-handed strike with the knife, and Govart countered it, brutally. And indeed, it was Laurent who cried out at the tearing pain beyond anything he had ever known.

As, with his ruined right arm, Laurent swung the chair.

The heavy oak hit Govart in the ear, with the sound of a mallet striking a wooden ball. Govart staggered and went down. Laurent half staggered, too, the weight of the swing taking him part way across the cell. Guion was moving desperately out of his way, pressing his back to the wall. Laurent focused all his remaining strength on the task of reaching the barred door and placing himself on the other side of it, dragging it closed behind him and turning the key that was still in the lock. Govart didn’t get up.

In the stillness that followed, Laurent found his way from the bars, to the open corridor, to the opposite wall, which he slid down, finding at the midway point that there was a wooden bench, which took his weight. He had expected the floor.

His eyes closed. He was dimly aware of Guion, tugging at the cell bars, which rattled and clanged and stayed irrefutably closed.

He did laugh then, a breathless sound, with the sweet, cool feel of the stone at his back. His head lolled.

‘—how dare you, you worthless traitor, you’re a stain on your family’s honour, you—’

‘Guion,’ said Laurent, without opening his eyes. ‘You had me tied up and locked in a room with Govart. Do you think name-calling will hurt my feelings?’

‘Let me out!’ The words ricocheted off the walls.

‘I tried that,’ said Laurent, calmly.

Guion said, ‘I’ll give you anything you want.’

‘I tried that too,’ said Laurent. ‘I don’t like to think of myself as predictable. But apparently I cycle through all the usual responses. Shall I tell you what you’re going to do when I stick the knife in for the first time?’

His eyes opened. Guion took a single, gratifying step back from the bars.

‘You know, I wanted a weapon,’ said Laurent. ‘I wasn’t expecting one to walk into my cell.’

‘You’re a dead man when you walk out of here. Your Akielon allies aren’t going to help you. You left them to die like rats in a trap at Charcy. They’ll hunt you down,’ said Guion, ‘and kill you.’

‘Yes, I’m aware that I have missed my rendezvous,’ said Laurent.

The passageway flickered. He reminded himself that this was just the torch. He heard the dreamy sound of his own voice.

‘There was a man I was supposed to meet. He’s got all these ideas about honour and fair play, and he tries to keep me from doing the wrong thing. But he’s not here right now. Unfortunately for you.’

Guion took another step back. ‘There’s nothing you can do to me.’

‘Isn’t there? I wonder how my uncle is going to react when he finds out that you killed Govart and helped me to escape.’ And then, in the same dreamy voice, ‘Do you think he’ll hurt your family?’

Guion’s hands were fists, like he still had them wrapped around bars. ‘I didn’t help you escape.’

‘Didn’t you? I don’t know how these rumours get started.’

Laurent regarded him through the bars. He was aware of the return of his critical faculties, in place of which up to now had been the tenacious adherence to a single idea.

‘Here’s what has become painfully clear. My uncle instructed that if you captured me, you were to let Govart have me, which was a tactical blunder, but my uncle had his hands tied, thanks to his private arrangement with Govart. Or maybe he just liked the idea. You agreed to do his bidding.

‘Torturing the heir to death wasn’t an act you wanted attached to your own name, however. I’m not certain why. I can only surmise, despite a truly staggering array of evidence to the contrary, that there is still some rationality left on the Council. I was put in an empty set of cells, and you came with the key yourself, because no one else knows I’m here.’

Pressing his left hand to his shoulder, he pushed away from the wall and came forward. Guion, inside the cell, was breathing shallowly.

‘No one knows I’m here. Which means no one knows you’re here. No one’s going to look, no one’s going to come, no one’s going to find you.’

His voice was steady as he held Guion’s gaze through the bars.

‘No one’s going to help your family when my uncle comes, all smiles.’

He could see Guion’s pinched expression, the tightness in his jaw and around his eyes. He waited. It came in a different voice, with a different expression, flatly.

‘What do you want?’ said Guion.

CHAPTER THREE

DAMEN LOOKED OUT at the sweep of the field. The Regent’s forces were rivers of darker red, driving inroads into their lines, mingling their armies together, like a stream of blood hitting water, then diffusing. The whole vista was one of destruction, an unending stream of enemies, so numerous they were like a swarm.

But he had seen at Marlas how one man could hold a front together, as if by will alone.

‘Prince-killer!’ screamed the Regent’s men. In the beginning, they had thrown themselves towards him, but when they saw what happened to the men who did that, they became a churning mass of hooves trying to fall back.

They didn’t get far. Damen’s sword hit armour, hit flesh; he sought out centres of power and broke them, stopping formations before they began. A Veretian commander challenged him, and he allowed one ringing engagement before his sword sheared through the commander’s neck.

Faces were impersonal flashes, half shielded by helms. He was more aware of horses and swords, the machinery of death. He killed, and it was simply that men got out of his way, or were dead. Everything narrowed to one purpose, determination sustaining power and concentration beyond human endurance, over hours, longer than one’s opponent, because the man who made a mistake was dead.

He lost half his men in the first wave. After that, he took the charges head on, killing as many as were necessary to stop the first wave, and the second, and the third.

Fresh reinforcements arriving at that moment would have been able to slaughter them all like week-old pups, but Damen had no reinforcements.

If he was aware of anything beyond the fight, it was of an absence, a lack that persisted. The flashes of brilliance, the insouciant sword work, the bright presence at his side was instead a gap, half filled by Nikandros’s steadier, more practical style. He had grown used to something that had been temporary, like the flash of exhilaration in a pair of blue eyes for a moment catching his own. All of that tangled together inside him, and tightened, through the killing, into a single hard knot.

‘If the Prince of Vere shows himself, I will kill him.’ Nikandros half spat the words.

The arrows by now were less, because Damen had broken enough lines that firing into the chaos was dangerous for both sides. The sounds were different too, no longer roars and screams, but grunts of pain, exhaustion, sobs of breath, the clang of swords heavier and less frequent.

Hours of death; the battle entered its final, brutal, exhausted stage. Lines broke and dissolved into mess, degraded geometry, heaving pits of straining flesh where it was hard to tell enemy from friend. Damen stayed on horseback, though bodies on the ground were so thick that the horses foundered. The ground was wet, his legs were mud-spattered above his knees—mud in dry summer, because the ground was blood. Thrashing wounded horses screamed louder than the screams of men. He held the men around him together, and killed, his body pushed beyond the physical, beyond thought.

On the far side of the field, he saw the flash of embroidered red.

That is how Akielons win wars, isn’t it? Why fight the whole army, when you can just—

Damen drove his spurs into his horse, and charged. The men between him and his object were a blur. He barely heard the ringing of his own sword, or noticed the red cloaks of the Veretian honour guard before he hewed them down. He simply killed them, one after another, until there was no one left between himself and the man he sought.

Damen’s sword sheared the air in its unstoppable arc and cleaved the man in the crowned helm in two. His body listed unnaturally, then hit the ground.

Damen dismounted and tore the helm off.

Most helpful customer reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
It's good, but missing a few pieces to be great
By Sarah
First of all, I want to say that I love, love this series. I gave Captive Prince a 5-star rating and I gave Prince's Gambit the same. So why is this book, Kings Rising, the last book, the one that we most anticipated, fell short and only receive 3-stars?

Personally, it might have something to do with the fact that the first two volumes were so good that we had so much expectation for the third one. The process to writing Kings Rising must not have been easy.

*SPOILERS, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. ACTUALLY, DON'T READ UNTIL YOU FINISHED THE BOOK*

I have issues with the whole sections near the end, starting with the Kingsmeet all the way until the end of the book.

This is a little harder to describe, but I'll try my best nevertheless. Now, before I jump into it, know that I love Damen and I love Laurent, but I followed Damen throughout three books from pretty much all of his point of view, so I might just be a bit bias when I make an evaluation of him and Laurent in book three.

Damen. I think he didn't live up to his full potential in this book, like maybe his character/actions were a little stunted to make room for Laurent's growth. The fact is this, and that is as much as both Damen and Laurent are fighting to regain their own throne, the antagonist of the story is not Kastor and the Regent. It's just the Regent. I feel like for the sake of letting the uncle-nephew have their battle of wits, for Laurent to finally overcome and cast aside his past, Pacat wrote Damen as a plot device more than as a developed character towards the end.

The meeting at Kingsmeet should have never turned out that way. I feel like if Laurent warned Damen like he did in the book, Damen would have definitely listened or at least gave it consideration. In the book, he arrogantly didn't, something that I would have thought to be beneath him to make such a foolish mistake. In my opinion, Damen should have by now learned that 1) Laurent is always better at seeing through traps and so his words should always be at least considered and 2) the Regent is a dangerous enemy that he should be wary of because even Laurent couldn't beat him for many years. Instead, Damen foolishly and almost, dare I say, uncharacteristically ignored Laurent's words, without a pause.

Laurent also annoyed me for a bit because there was a section prior to the Kingsmeet that said Laurent began sharing his plans with Damen, showing that he was opening up to Damen. Yet, later on, we see that contradicted. He didn't tell Damen of his actual plan for Kingsmeet, understandable because Damen wouldn't have agreed to it if he actually knew, which is exactly what I had a problem with. I don't understand why Laurent would ever let Damen come along to the him-for-child trade, when it was so obvious that Damen would have never agreed to it and would do everything to prevent it.

Skipping along to the court scene. Kastor's presence there was so weak that I almost forgot that he existed. I know that he was an easy-to-manipulate character, but it's ridiculous how focused the court scene quickly became uncle-nephew. Once again, I don't know why Laurent keep secrets that didn't need to be kept, other than for plot device and suspense. There was no reason why he didn't just tell Damen to Loyse is the one who's going to squeal on the Regent. When Damen called for proof of the Regent's betrayal, he called only for Guion. Damen didn't expect everyone, including Loyse, to come along. What would have happened if she didn't? It was so easy for Laurent to just have told Damen in the first place it was Loyse he should call on, and yet, Laurent said nothing until after Guion gave the false testimony that made Damen sick with worry. I feel like Pacat was just trying to make twist where none is needed for.

Don't even get me started on Paschal. I mean, seriously? He brought that information out of nowhere. Did I miss the hints when Nicaise stole the parchment from Govart and passed it onto Paschal? In the first place, why did Nicaise pass the information to Paschal and not Laurent himself? It is implied that the Regent killed Nicaise for knowing, but yet it is the same information that let Govart get whatever he wanted from the same Regent. And the Regent, the ruthless Regent who is willing to kill even his nephew, somehow decided to roll over when Govart got proof of his betrayal? Wouldn't that have been the first sign for him to kill Govart or do his thing where he got Govart to tell him where the parchment is and then burn it? Why let resort to bribery, let Govart hold onto the secret for six years when during that interval of time, Govart could have told anyone the secret?
Laurent seem to try to keep Govart alive for the sake of finding out the secret, yet he does nothing towards trying to figure it out. I don't understand why Laurent and the Regent, both masters of manipulation, decided to just wait for Govart to spill the beans of the location of the parchment. Paschal seemed to be just waiting for Damen's cue to step forward. From I got from the book, Laurent didn't even know that proof existed, since it's Damen who called Paschal out. Isn't Paschal loyal to Laurent? Nicaise died a long time ago, just how long was he holding onto this game-changing information without telling Laurent? What was his reason for not telling, anyway? To not sully his brother's reputation? Because that is one weak defense, and Paschal didn't seem like the type at all to withhold information for such a reason. As you can see, I had a lot of issues with this section.

Moving on, the last scene, the Kastor-Damen-Laurent fight. Once again, I feel like this scene didn't do Damen justice. I don't think Damen would have fallen for Kastor's trick. I think he would have at least keep up his guard while he offered Kastor the way to live because he should have definitely known better by now after living in Vere for months, which means that when Kastor attacked him, Damen would have definitely able to prevent it. I know, he is on the stairs and everything, but Damen was shown throughout all these books to be a strong fighter who caught a spear out of thin air, who was so powerful that it left all the soldiers with him at Charcy awed. I highly doubt that if he kept up his guard, he would have been injured. I kept expecting him to do something, except he did nothing and I didn't understand why. Then Laurent appeared after Damen is down and I knew. Laurent was why. Pacat did a parallel with Auguste-Damen and Kastor-Laurent, which I thought was clever, clever and clever, but at the sacrifice of Damen looking incompetent when he wasn't. I liked the parallel a lot and I saw why she did it and why it was necessary, but I didn't like the way she went about it.

Also, I know I just said I liked the parallel, but Damen was so reluctant to kill Kastor just seconds ago, to the point that he let himself get stabbed. Yet. And yet, if it was Laurent who did the deed, it was suddenly okay? It wasn't equivalent, it wasn't like: okay, I killed your brother and you killed mine, so let's just forget about the past. It doesn't work that way and it shouldn't, yet it felt like that's exactly what happened. The parallel was clever, but I didn't like the logic. Laurent went in intending to kill Kastor even before Kastor threatened Laurent, and afterwards, other than a few lines that expressed Damen's sadness at Kastor's death, he seemed completely okay with it.

Lastly, the epilogue, or lack of therefore.

Of everything that I had most of an issue (although issue is perhaps too strong of a word) with Kings Rising, it is the ending. The place where the story ended felt so abrupt that personally, I felt like it left me hanging. Perhaps Pacat just cared about the plot, but it seemed like once everything was pretty much wrapped up and taken care of, she threw up her hands and said done. What she didn't do was provide closure.

I wish that King Rising had an epilogue following the ending, where she can show all that Damen and Laurent promised throughout the book: a scene of them together at the summer house, Damen abolishing slavery, Damen and Laurent ruling together side by side as equals. Anything, really, to show that after all the hardships these lovely characters went through, they finally got a break and was able to enjoy each other's presence in peace without any obstacles standing in between them. Instead of that, however, I got nothing and that left me sort of... disappointed, cheated. I feel like I followed them through their journey together and right when they can finally be happy together, I've been barred from seeing even a snippet of this. Fanfics helped sooth some of this feeling, but nevertheless, Kings Rising's ending left me feeling disgruntled.

Anyway, that's my complete review. I know from all of what I just said, it seems like I hated the book, but I honestly didn't. I love the series and that includes King Rising, even if some parts of it frustrate me. I only talked about what bothered me because I talked about pretty much all I liked about the series in my Captive Prince review. This long review doesn't indicate a long list of reasons of why I didn't like this book. It's the proof that I felt so invested in it that I felt the need to spend so much time talking about how I felt. I know it's not easy writing an ending for this highly anticipated and well-loved series and everything is so intricate and complex that I don't hold it against Pacat for what I saw as an incomplete ending. After reading this book and series, I feel that Pacat is a great writer and I look forward to any other future writing by her, knowing that the Captive Prince series is just a start of her career and her writing is going to get even better from this point on.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Only a slight letdown....
By oceanjasper
It might be unfair, but my grade for this book is based on things that aren't in it as much as things that are. The inevitable result of a long wait for a series finale is that we all imagine what it might be like, and this book didn't quite deliver everything I wanted. But I still really enjoyed it and it's miles better than most things I read in the romance genre.

King's Rising still has the lovely, spare, elegant prose that respects the reader's intelligence; I loved the way that I was expected to interpret the feelings of Damen and Laurent through their words and reactions rather than having everything explained to death. Damen is a tremendously appealing narrator, with his steadfast love for Laurent; no idiotic alpha male posturing for him. The story sweeps along with unpredictable incidents towards the confrontation with the villains.

But as it approached the ending I found myself a bit underwhelmed by the plotting. There were some twists that seemed unnecessary and some leaps of logic on the part of both Damen and Laurent that didn't seem believable. I was asking myself, "But how did he know that?" too many times, whereas in the second book I was time and again delighted by some revelation that was utterly surprising but which made perfect sense. In this book the surprises weren't entirely supported by any evidence earlier in the story.

And no doubt I'm not alone in wishing for more of an ending; it's all over too abruptly for such an epic tale. In some ways the understated expressions of happiness from our heroes is in keeping with the rest of the series, but surely at the end we could have had a bit more affirmation of their feelings and a bit more explanation for the reader. Most epilogues in romance are utterly superfluous and quite annoyingly treacly but in this case a glimpse into the future would have been welcome.

I still loved Damen and Laurent, and I loved the writing. I'm grading this book against the others in the series rather than against everything else I read. It's not the best in the series but it's still well worth reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Loved it!!!
By Amazon Customer
I give this book 5/5 stars because I loved it. The plot line is incredibly captivating and I love the fact that I never know what's going to happen next. The twists in this book were so, so good. I never saw one of them coming. I love Laurent and Damen together- they're so good together. Laurent's cunning is awe inspiring, and I love everything about Damen. I could not put this book down and I didn't want to. However, there was a few times when I had trouble trying to figure out what was going on/being said because of the diction in this book. Also, I found it very annoying how the author would use the one quotation mark ('') when people were talking and the double quotes ("") when someone was repeating something someone else said- I don't know but it drove me nuts. I also didn't like the ending - it was very abrupt and gave like a mini teaser as to their future and then it ended. I wish that there was a little more detail as to what was going to happen next between Damen, Laurent, and their kingdoms, especially since (as far as I know) this is the last book in the series. I really wish that the POV had shifted from Damen to Laurent, even for just a chapter, because I really wanted to read some of this in Laurent's POV. Overall, I loved just about every aspect of this book, but I wish it had a better ending.

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Kings Rising: Book Three of the Captive Prince Trilogy, by C. S. Pacat PDF

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Kings Rising: Book Three of the Captive Prince Trilogy, by C. S. Pacat PDF

Kings Rising: Book Three of the Captive Prince Trilogy, by C. S. Pacat PDF