The Baker's Boy - J.V. Jones

After being recommended this series some time ago by someone who knows I enjoy Robin Hobb and George.R.R.Martin, I finally got around to starting it this week whilst I was on a weeks holiday from work. While The Baker's Boy, the first part of The Book Of Words trilogy, takes a few chapters to properly get started, I can easily see why it was recommended to me as this first installment has all the hall-markings of being a classic high-fantasy series. Jack is a humble baker's boy, orphaned at an early age with no memories of his father and only the haziest recollection of his mother. Assigned to scribe in his spare time for King's Counsellor, Baralis, he begins ...  Read the complete review

I am not a big fan of chick lit and light weight novels, but there are often times when I am too tired to concentrate on anything weighty and at those times I return to fantasy; the genre that really got me hooked on reading as a child/teen. A friend who knows that I love the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy and the Green Rider series suggested this one, the first book in the Book of Words Trilogy (the others are A Man Betrayed and Master and Fool). These are heavy looking books of 500-700 pages and I was looking forward to immersing myself in fantasy world for a few days. Jack is the eponymous hero, a baker's apprentice working in Castle Harvell in the Four ...  Read the complete review

Firstly I am going to tell you I love big, thick, chunky books that you can really get your teeth into (metaphorically speaking of course!) This is one of those books. 552 pages jam packed with excitement. Surprisingly this book is about a bakers boy named Jack. Ok so that's not surprising but the fact that Jack isn?t your ordinary run of the mill bakers boy is. He runs away from his bakers life in castle Harvell and on his journey meets up with another fugitive called Melli who is running away form an arranged marriage. Individually and together these to get into many scrapes but the bond built in adversity keeps them together. Another ...  Read the complete review

I came across this series when Waterstones was offering the complete trilogy for the price of two. The other books are A Man Betrayed and Master and Fool which I shall try to write opinions on later. The two main character are Jack, a lowly kitchen boy and Melliandre a lords daughter and fiance of the evil Prince Kylock. The two meet when Melli is escaping her marriage and Jack gets lost aside the castle. He has no idea who she is and helps her on her way. They both go off on their seperate adventures but both have repeated meetings throughout the books. Jack is later raised to scribe, but also finds he has magical powers which brings the attention of the ...  Read the complete review

'The bakers boy' is another of those books involving a little lad with an unhappy life who finds out he is not what he thought. His servant mother has died and he is left to fend for himself ,fatherless and alone in a bustling castle where he becomes the bakers boy. There is political intrigue in abundance . The kings chamberlain Lord Barylis is a scheming ,evil wizard in a world where using magic is taboo. I found his antics at times a little distrubing and would definitely not recommend this book to anyone under the age of 15. This book touches on torture,murder,feminism and rape. There are many well crafted characters in this book, woven ...  Read the complete review