Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black starting on May 17, 2024.


Happy Reading!

On my list 😄

Thank you!

Folk of the Air Series:
1. The Cruel Prince (Feb 17) [link]
1.5 The Lost Sisters (companion novella)
2. The Wicked King (March 17) [link]
3. The Queen of Nothing (April 17) [link]
0. How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (May 17)
(collection of prequel, sidequel, and sequel stories)

Stolen Heir Duology (sequel series) following Oak & Suren
1. The Stolen Heir (June 17) [link]
2. The Prisoner's Throne (July 17) [link]

Audio: #2 Wicked King is on Hoopla, whole series is in Spanish
ebook: no free/subscription copies I can find.

If anyone finds library/subscription copies, let me know and I will update.

Going to jump in on this because it's short and I'm feeling the library guilt... 4 people on hold for it right now! >.<

"So long as you're begging, he doesn't mind a bit." LOL

1. The King of Elfhame Visits the Mortal World (view spoiler)[It's interesting seeing things from behind Carden's eyes... (hide spoiler)] These shorts are a lot shorter than I thought they would be.

2. The Prince of Elfhame is Rude (view spoiler)[And now we're back in time...

Enjoying this little tale--the story feels like a traditional fairy tale--a mix of Psyche & Eros, East of the Sun West of the Moon, and the Hag who is a goddess in disguise, asking bread by the road...

And then it ends. Hm. I wonder if this kind of ending would be more traditional Grimms style? Not modern happy style at any rate. Good moral. Sharp tooth trumps sharp tongue. (hide spoiler)]

3. The Prince of Elfhame Hates (Almost) Everything and Everyone. (view spoiler)[Hm. Shows how Carden's cadre got started... and how Carden's act in it was a mask, rather than reality... (hide spoiler)]

Hm. This is less a collection of short stories and more a series of scenes showing Carden's growth into the person he was and is.... Not going to bother with each individual chapter unless I think something specific...

Chapter 6--(view spoiler)[Interesting and sad, seeing how Carden actually did like the Undersea Princess... and originally saw her as a possible escape from his prophecy... But the Undersea does not welcome him... (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 7--(view spoiler)[Interesting structure--the story coming back again, and changing as Carden changes... is Jude the tiger girl then? Or perhaps Faerie? (hide spoiler)]

Finished! (view spoiler)[I liked how the story of the boy of stone was woven throughout, and the different versions that reflected the different phases Carden went through in his life. (hide spoiler)]

started and I am really enjoying. Reading more of Cardan is always fun. And I must say my edition is very pretty, has colored illustrations everywhere. I think the only other books I own this pretty are three of the secret projects of sanderson

until story VII (view spoiler)[ I like seeing how cardan lived and how much he wants to fit in and how jude is in his mind.

Dain framing him for the servants death and no one believing him was sad but makes sense that he couldn't kill him since we know he freed Balekins servants too (hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze, I was surprised too. Some stories are only a couple of pages. They really fly by

2 (view spoiler)[ I really liked that story too. It's very fae, whimsical but dark too (hide spoiler)]

I agree, it's more slice of life than anything but I like it since its about cardan and the beautiful illustrations just add to the vibe

Just started!!

Welcome, Sol!

@Paula--I'm glad I have a physical copy to go along with the audio... very pretty book...

I read this and enjoyed it tremendously!

I’m one of those people on hold so as soon as I get the book I’ll be back to comment lol

Finished! (view spoiler)[ I was enjoying the slice of life so I was surprised that it actually had a thread woven through it. That monster girl story was really good and I enjoy that in the end Cardan saved himself and jude didn't had to fight the ogre (hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze (view spoiler)[ agreed on the story of the boy of stone. The story changed just like Cardan and it was good. I also enjoyed watching how the illustrations changed too (hide spoiler)]

It's interesting--some authors deliver really well with shorts and some don't--this I feel was one of the more successful shorts I've read lately...

on my list, hopefully will join in time LOL!

I am not into shorts but I liked this one too

Started :)

Finished. I like this one better than the one from Jude's sister point of view. Illustrations are very nice addition too.

This made me more curious to see the Oak books coming up.

Actually, speaking of which--are we still good to continue on to those? They haven't been scheduled yet:

Stolen Heir Duology (sequel series) following Oak & Suren
1. The Stolen Heir (June 17)
2. The Prisoner's Throne (July 17)

Do those dates work for people? Looks like this is a closed duology, which is nice. If I get a second OK I'll put in the requests.

The dates work for me, I'm in!

ok for me, have the first one, looking for second :)

Requests made! Will update when the links come in.

Thanks Nirkatze!

Finally got my copy. Such an easy read. Finished it in a couple hours. And I read the physical version (don’t know the last time I read a physical book) and the illustration was beautiful.

Forgot to leave an actual review so editing my post. I really liked it. Given how much I disliked the last book I didn’t have high expectations. But I thought it was really sweet.

Glad you got to end this series on a positive note, Diana.