The Queen's Poisoner
Written by Jeff Wheeler
Narrated by Kate Rudd
4/5
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About this audiobook
The first book in the million-copy, Wall Street Journal bestselling Kingfountain series from Jeff Wheeler.
King Severn Argentine’s fearsome reputation precedes him: usurper of the throne, killer of rightful heirs, ruthless punisher of traitors. Attempting to depose him, the Duke of Kiskaddon gambles…and loses. Now the duke must atone by handing over his young son, Owen, as the king’s hostage. And should his loyalty falter again, the boy will pay with his life.
Seeking allies and eluding Severn’s spies, Owen learns to survive in the court of Kingfountain. But when new evidence of his father’s betrayal threatens to seal his fate, Owen must win the vengeful king’s favor by proving his worth—through extraordinary means. And only one person can aid his desperate cause: a mysterious woman, dwelling in secrecy, who truly wields power over life, death, and destiny.
Jeff Wheeler
Jeff Wheeler is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Harbinger and Kingfountain series, as well as the Muirwood, Mirrowen, and Landmoor novels. He took an early retirement from his career at Intel in 2014 to write full-time. He is a husband, father of five, and devout member of his church. He lives in the Rocky Mountains and is the founder of Deep Magic: The E-Zine of Clean Fantasy and Science Fiction. Find out more about Deep Magic at www.deepmagic.co, and visit Jeff’s many worlds at www.jeff-wheeler.com.
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Silverkin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Landmoor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Titles in the series (6)
The Queen's Poisoner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The King's Traitor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Thief's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hollow Crown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silent Shield Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forsaken Throne Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for The Queen's Poisoner
313 ratings12 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent read! Thoroughly enjoyed it! Wheeler is a master author!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great balanced tale with balanced story and good characters, and nuanced rather than heavyhanded on who is good etc.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great reader. Kept me interested the whole way thru. Fabulous book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good book. Lot's of twists and turns. Overall great first book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well written, fun book. Reader on audio version did an amazing job!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I received "The Queen's Poisoner" by Jeff Wheeler for free, when it was one of six book options being given away by Amazon to all Prime members. It turns out to be a perfectly ordinary, low fantasy, young adult novel that follows about a year in the life of 8-year-old Owen Kiskaddon. In backstory, Owen's father, a duke, rebels against the king and loses. As the book opens, Owen is taken as a hostage to the capital of Kingfountain, where he will live as part of the king's household. There, he meets a variety of unrealistic and flat characters, who tend to be drawn to Owen simply because he is a little boy. Several try to protect Owen from the king, going to far as to concoct a rather elaborate ruse that would be unlikely to hold up in the long term, even though the king is not likely to harm Owen anyway. (The king, Severn, is the most interesting character in the novel, and possibly the only one who doesn't fit into a typical archetype.)The large contours of the plot and some characters are drawn from an episode in the historical War of the Roses, which gives the story a vaguely historical feel. This is marred by the "Fountain," the nebulous, spiritual force that underlies magic (and also serves as a replacement for religion) in Wheeler's world. Randomly selected people are bestowed with utterly random magical gifts, such as a baker who can duplicate the amount of bread he bakes, or more usefully, rare individuals who have the ability to see the future through visions. This godless system of random gifts feels neither like a coherent magic system nor like a satisfying religion, so it feels like it's stuffed in there as a plot hook. The novel would have been better if it were devoid of magic- it would not have been hard for Wheeler to come up with alternative ways to advance the plot in the few instances when Fountain magic is involved."The Queen's Poisoner" is not a bad book, by any means, but there really is no reason to read it as an adult. It might be quite enjoyable for a child of the correct age. But if you're going to recommend or give a child a book, why not pick a higher-quality option (like "The Hobbit"), which could offer more depth and value, while being accessible at the same reading level?
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Intriguing
I loved and very much enjoyed this book - it took me a bit to make a lot of progress when I first started reading it, but after I got going, I couldn't stop.
I always admire authors who can weave and tell such stories with all the details and everything in general, but especially so when they do it without all the swearing, violence and such.
I have recommended Jeff Wheeler and all his works to family and friends.
I'm excited to go read the next installment in this series now and see what happens next.
If you haven't checked this series out or this author, you should because you're missing out. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spring 2018, audiobook:
I follow the Goodreads deals of the day and finally could not pass it up when I saw that all six books in this series were on sale for one day at $1.99 a piece. I snatched up the whole set, praying I wasn't making a terrible mistake, and, thankfully, I definitely was not. I'm going to end up reviewing the trilogies as wholes as I've just been moving through them so quickly.
Book One - I loved baby Owen, and the prisoner, and the slow reveal on this being a King Arthur tale. I love the quotes between the sections, and how long it takes to meet the person speaking in all of them. I love the tiny playmates and how much they both get along, don't, and inspire who each other will become.
Book Two - A leap, but an understandable one at least. The straining-to-be love story we knew was coming has arrived, but I am confused because we are now steadfastly loyal to the king after undoing his ruses last time. I did love the reveal of all of Owen's actual powers. I thought the ending, and Evie's conversation about why she had to go was incredibly contrived compared to any of her earlier scenes.
Book - ...especially when Evie's first scene in this book is everything the other one wasn't. Which was a large problem I had in this book. Evie seemed very much not Evie anymore. Which I say while deeply loving The Lady of the Fountain (/Lake), and Owen's second love story. The reveal of the board, and the will or won't it happen takedown of the king winding gyre story is so intense. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The book is decent and probably deserves more stars, but I'm having a hard time getting past the horrible narration of the audio book.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Four chapters
Four chapters, that's how much I could read before putting it down. There's a lot of meandering dialogue - whose sole purpose is to us, the readers, the backstory.
The characters are cookie cutter tropes and the book description misled me to think that this was an adult book - that the book would be about Owen, grown up, navigating the treacherous waters of the king's court. Instead from the few chapters I've read, I can see that this is actually a children's book and I'm not interested in that. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nice, slow-paced fantasy with interesting characters (child and adult) and credible, underplayed magic.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm not generally a fan of YA and younger books, but I truly enjoyed this one. Interesting ideas, characters you can care about and not an angst in sight.