Book Review: The Prince Without Sorrow

 

The Prince Without Sorrow is a dark fantasy novel which serves as the first entry in Maithree Wijesekara’s Obsidian Throne series. The story is set a magical kingdom and follows two central protagonists in a dual-narrative. Shakti is a Mayakari, a race of women gifted with innate magical abilities that allow them to commune with the spirits which inhabit the natural world. Despite their peaceful nature the Mayakari are unfortunately hunted and persecuted by the governing Mauryan Empire.  Emperor Adil is its ruling tyrant and it’s through his personal hatred that the Mayakari have known a lifetime of suffering under his rule.  Prince Ashoka is the third and youngest child of the emperor and despite his sibling’s shared hatred for the Mayakari and their father’s lust for power, Ashoka takes pride in being nothing like his father. After the sudden death of his father at the hands of a vengeful Shakti, the two central characters worlds are destined to collide as the hierarchy of power in the Mauryan dynasty is shifted in a consequential way. 

I likely missed a fair bit of context and detail in that generalisation but in all honesty the depth of this narrative isn’t all that deep as it tries to come off.  I think a lot of the core world building introduced throughout the story does a decent job setting up the primary elements the story requires to deliver its twists and turns, but I feel there’s not much of a care to flesh the wider world out around it. It’s a consolation in that case that the primary elements Wijesekara takes the time to establish for the world, it’s characters and politics work to lay out the story fairly well. I think the best element of the story is its moral core. Wijesekara captures the complicated line the two central characters try to tow on their own personal paths to push for their own brands of justice.  The lack of a conventional good or bad interpretation makes following the characters journeys interesting for sure. I just wish the rest of the narrative wasn’t so predictable however.  I feel this narrative takes inspiration from a lot of existing works and as a result it comes off sadly as quite formulaic.  A lot of key revelations that occurred through the story didn’t leave me all that surprised because they were obviously projected at nearly every turn.  I feel Wijesekara’s biggest weakness on this plot is her lack of subtlety.  Moments she presents to be big shocking moments don’t hit all that well because of how obvious she makes the course of the lead up to them.

In terms of tone and pacing, the story’s upfront approach can leave it feeling fairly inconsistent in maturity.  In some moments, it acts in a mature way, treating sequences with a notable sense of weight and emotion. Yet in others, it feels like you’re reading an angsty teens interpretation of what they feel is smart and heavy writing. This mixed quality of tonal writing does rear its head constantly throughout the book and does stop you from being able to fully immerse yourself in its story. I don’t have anything bad to say about the pacing though, events move in a fairly appropriate speed with a great balance given to character moments as well as more action heavy moments.

I wouldn’t outright dismiss The Prince Without Sorrow even with all of its detractors considered.  I think what here has potential to flourish into a truly compelling fantasy narrative.  I get the impression Wijesekara was a bit too reliant on certain tropes and lacked the confidence to trust their reader in picking up on more subtle writing. These issues do knock the book down from being a true recommendation but I am curious to see where this does go and see if Wijesekara can address the issues noted in her next entry in the series.