A review by pepitaphc
The King Without a Kingdom by Maurice Druon

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It hurts me to tag a Maurice Druon book with "bad writing" but my goodness, I struggled with this one! The sharp narrator of the first six books is replaced by a church official, for some reason, who speaks in the first person throughout the whole book in a way that it's difficult to appreciate (1) what's happening; (2) why this is important; and (3) whether the narrator is credible. I don't doubt John the Bad, Charles the Good, and the Black Prince were intriguing characters, but they are dulled through the POV character's narration. This is honestly shocking to me, and I wonder what happened in the seventeen years between this and Book VI that made Maurice Druon produce this book for the ending of such an acclaimed series. I would honestly have accepted Book VI, for all its limitations, as the final book.