Review: A Queen in Hiding

Posted by Marzie's Reads January 20, 2020

Review: A Queen in Hiding

A Queen in Hiding by Sarah Kozloff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Queen in Hiding is the first in an epic fantasy quartet, The Nine Realms, by Vassar professor of film Sarah Kozloff. Kozloff received a four-book deal with an unusually rapid publication of all four novels in The Nine Realms series at a monthly pace between January and April 2020. The Queen of the Raiders will publish in February, The Broken Queen in March, and finally The Cerulean Queen in April.

The story, set in the world of Ennea Món, opens at the end of the troubled reign of Cressa, the thirty-five year old queen of Weirandale. After receiving a threatening communique from neighboring Oromondo, with whom Weirandale has a trade relationship, she begins to realize that members of her council, and her palace guard, have turned against her at the behest of her Lord Steward, Matwyck. Her husband, Ambrice, is the Lord of Ships and is away pursuing Pellish pirates. This leaves Cressa all alone, caring for their daughter the princella Cerúlia, with only her Queen's Shield fighters, the legendary catamounts of Nargis (large, rather magical cats), and her own magic as an enchantress to keep her safe. She escapes her palace to safeguard her daughter, leaving her, with the blue hair of her royal line shorn and dyed brown, in a place of obscurity, living with a kind civilian couple Willim, Stahlia, and their daughter, Percia. Thereafter, Cressa flees, seeking to connect with her husband and with her father, King Nithanil's family, in Lortherrod.

In a second storyline, we follow the fate of those remaining in Weirandale under the rule of now Lord Regent Matwyck. A tertiary storyline develops with Thalen, a young scholar, who will be an important character in the second book.

While I enjoyed A Queen in Hiding I can tell readers that it can be quite dark, and even gruesome, not unlike a series that some compare it to, A Song of Ice and Fire. It is epic both in scale and in character numbers, and shows a level of brutality that may give some readers pause. I know I struggled with Cressa's fate for several days after I read it. From the summaries of the three books ahead, which I thank Tor for granting me, I know dark times will follow Cerúlia before she sees the light at the end.

CW: a lot of gruesome deaths, torture that feels a little tossed off, the very real feeling of not being able to have time to process during war.

I also took the time to listen to portions of the audiobook, narrated by Imogen Church. At 17 hours 15 minutes, it's a lengthy audiobook. Because of the large cast of characters, I do recommend a digital version of the book as a backup, or a paper copy if you can afford it or borrow it from the library. As in ASOIAF, having both a map and a character list is a useful support to reader engagement.