J.V Jones's The Baker's Boy
Softback. £6.99. Orbit

The first installment of the 'Book of Words' is being marketed as "a thrilling new fantasy adventure series". And don't get us wrong, it's certainly a good enough read and page-turner. But the trade description fantasy is applied very loosely here. With the exception of about four acts of magic, there is nothing in 552 pages that really indicate this is a fantasy novel.

You could have changed the names and setting to modern times and this could have been a political thriller or an episode of dynasty. You could have changed the setting to a real rather than invented middle ages and it could have been a historical drama. This is not so much a criticism as a point for fans to note.

Most the conflict is court-based, with various kings, queens, lords and chancellors poisoning each other and hiring assassins, kidnapping daughters etc etc. The two strongest fantasy elements are the stand-alone tales of a holy knight templar on a teenage proving-himself quest, and a baker's boy (probably a hidden-away by his parents style prince) - and a reluctant magic user to boot - on the run with a spoilt princess escaping a nasty marriage. They are being pursed by the evil royal advisor, also the resident dark wizard, who wants to marry the princess off for his own political ends.

In future books we fully expect the two groups to get together and find out the baker's boy is in fact the lost king waiting to save everyone from the dark forces. In the meantime, this first novel is a diverting enough way to kill a weekend (but no elves or nice furry creatures to help fluff the story-line up a bit for those 'serious' fantasy fans).


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