Prince of the Blood

By: Raymond E. Feist

Narrated by: Peter Joyce

Prince of the Blood is a work that explores strength and weakness, hope and fear, and what it means to be a man—in a kingdom where peace is the most precious commodity of all.

If there were two more impetuous and carefree men in the Kingdom of the Isles, they had yet to be found. Twins Borric and Erland wore that mantle proudly, much to the chagrin of their father, Prince Arutha of Krondor. But their blissful youth has come to an end. Their uncle, the King, has produced no male children. Bypassing himself, Arutha names Borric, the eldest twin by seconds, the Royal Heir. As his brother, Erland will have his own great responsibilities to shoulder. To drive home their future roles, Arutha sends them as ambassadors to Kesh, the most feared nation in the world. Borric and Erland will be presented to the Queen of Kesh—the single most powerful ruler in the known world—at her Seventy-fifth Jubilee Anniversary.

But they have not even left Krondor when an assassination attempt on Borric is thwarted. Aware that he is being provoked into war, Arutha does not rise to the bait. His sons’ journey will not be deterred, for nothing less than peace is riding on it. Yet there is to be no peace for the young princes. When their traveling party is ambushed, Borric disappears and is presumed dead—sending Erland into spirals of rage and grief as he is forced to navigate alone the court intrigues at Kesh. But unbeknownst to anyone, Borric lives and has escaped his captors. In a strange land, with a price on his head, Borric must use all his wits and stamina to find his way back to his brother.

On separate paths, the two men—one a fugitive and one a future king—make their journey toward maturity, honor, and duty. For every step they take could sway the fragile peace of the land, as those who crave war rally against them—and become ever more daring.

Overall good

I’ve been a fan of the Riftwar series for many years and even after reading and rereading the books, I wanted to listen to the unabridged audiobooks.

The narrator for the 1st series of books was very good with various inflections and differing voices for the characters. This narrator is less skilled and many of the voices are very similar or the supposed accent seems fake. And most problematic is he, IMO, mispronounces one of the main character names throughout the entire book. He pronounces “Arutha” as “Aruta”, dropping the “h”.

Unfortunately he doesn’t compare to the prior narrator. If it wasn’t for liking the series so much, I’d probably not purchase the remaining titles using this narrator but I’m going to give the next one in the series a chance - just because Audible allows for a return

Terrible Narrator

I love the book, but I cannot even get through the first chapter with this narrator. I wish I read the reviews first. His enunciation of names and other things is AWFUL!!!

story naration

i loved it all the whole story it seemed too short . Definitely recommend the book and good narrator.

review

this is an awesome story, but I have heard better narrators, if you can get past that you will love it

Great - but not for youth.

Great narrator. Fascinating story. Adult content. The Riftwar Saga is my favorite series, having reread it multiple times in my youth. I plan to encourage my own kids to read them when they hit Jr. High. (Maybe High School for Sethenon.) Prince of the Blood is a great continuation of Feist's fantastic universe with it's captivating story & wonderful characters - but this journey into the arabesque kingdom of Kesh to the south is also filled with lots of casual sleeping around & arousing descriptions of people regularly surrendering to their baser instincts. The great narrator happened to make it stand out even more than when I'd just read it. If you regularly do that sort of thing (referring to the sex, not the narration) with strangers or have no objection to sleeping your way to the top or to advance your own scheming you may scoff at my warning or think I'm some kind of prude. I enjoyed the book though, & think most everyone else would too. I just think its a bit much for those under 18 when I consider the kind of world I'd like to hand to my kids. However if your someone who can't distinguish between what you do or want & what one should pass on to others, who cares what I think (or anyone else).

Still awesome

I have enjoyed reading and re-reading the entire series. With little free time to sit and read now days, getting to listen has been awesome, while I am commuting or working around the house.
I hope that all the series books make it to Audible.

Realism in character development. Engaging performance

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Wow what a good book

Amazing great book kept me needing more and more. Finally got me hear about Knakal

Awesome book! Horrible narration.

Great book but the narrator made it painful to listen to one of my favorite authors.

Bad narration

The book and story are incredible, as are all books in this setting. However, the narrator obviously has never read the series, or did no background research about it because he mispronounces so many character names. One of the main characters of the entire series is named Arutha. (pronounced ArooTHA) this narrator pronounces it ArooTah. Its so frustrating.

If you can tough it thru the horrible pronunciations, its a fantastic story.