Harks back to an earlier time, when magic didn't need to make any sort of sense, the age of legends could be within a generation, and women were either princesses or wenches. Or maybe evil sexy sorceresses. Or maybe shape-changing non-talking animal spirits who make perfect life companions. It doesn't get any better.

It's a valid literary choice, I suppose, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Or that I won't make disparaging remarks about those who make it.

I was going to read the whole thing as an exercise in a completely different style of fantasy - one that ignores all the advances the genre has made since Howard - but at page 186 I admitted I was having far too little fun to wade through the other two-thirds of it. ( )

Seven Princes by John R. Fultz is Epic, Digestible Dark Fantasy.

The Author Interview was a nice extra in which Fultz acknowledges the authors who inspired him, namely Clark Ashton Smith, Tanith Lee, and Darrell Schweitzer. I found Fultz’s writing to be more accessible than these authors, but less deep/intellectual (in this work); though poetic language is frequent. Seven Princes reads as a Young Adult version of dark fantasy and pays homage to Lovecraft and Howard in many ways. Most characters are archetypal “good” or “evil.” We learn about the land's history via ~7 princes and 1 princess who all come of age together in a tumultuous time. I found most princes to be indistinguishable (most are honorable warrior types). Gammir of Khyrei is not included in the core seven, but emerges the most developed character, and is arguably a prince too.

The scope is epic in time and geography, but it is not Tolkien like. Do not expect elves, dwarves, or orcs here. Just giants, and colossal serpents, and lots of magic. This is part of the series “Books of the Shaper” and Shaping is sorcery. There is “good” magic and “evil” magic, that involve “shaping” elements; only the “bad” magic is explained (it requires blood; let’s hear it for vampirism and necromancy!), but the good magic just requires thought apparently.

Despite not having a fully explained magic system, the “shaping” in the story was really how the land was shaped over time via cyclical good/evil struggles. The pacing did fluctuate as other reviewers have noted. The opening chapter is a worthy stand-alone short story and is an outstanding foundation for the rest of the book. The last 150pages would have been better if it was stretched out—lots of epic battles that deserved more pages! For a 500page novel, this read very fast. I am compelled to read the next two: Seven Sorcerers and Seven Kings. I recommend this to those sword and sorcery readers who normally read short fiction (avoiding series of thick books).

The seven princes:
1. Fangodrel of Udurum half-human scholar
2. Tadarus of Udurum half-giant warrior prince
3. Vireon of Udurum half-giant warrior prince
(Princess Sharadza of Udurum)... she’s a sorceress
4. Lyrilan of Uurz … a scholar
5. Tyro of Uurz … a human warrior prince
6. Andoses of Shar Dni … a human warrior prince
7. D’zan of Yaskatha … a young human warrior prince ( )

The sentences are certainly well constructed. Unfortunately, the narrative generated as a result is not. ( )

I'm afraid that this story of seven princes got a very strong meh reaction from me. I'm more of a people driving a story person than a story driving the people person and this didn't do much for me. It was an interesting story but the story arc was over by the end of the book and I felt no real compunction to return to that world or those characters. I did like Sharadza but again not enough to care what happens next. The story is over, it wasn't bad but it wasn't my kind of story. ( )

DNF: Did Not FinishIt started out well enough but didn't totally hook me and when not more than seventy pages in, a character was apparently killed - I say apparently because by all accounts he was, but I don't discount reanimation as a possible option - and it was the only character I had developed any real attachment to, I just gave up. ( )