Rating: 
Summary: Do you really need 250 pages to establish the spoiled brat?
Review: The general outline of the story has some promise: CAllow young prince striving to grow into his crown. Unfortunately Feintuch goes to such excruciating lengths to establish Prince Roddy's starting point that the reading is a chore rather than a joy. Despite being 16, Roddy acts like a spoiled, obnoxious, and often cruelly violent 6 year old. At his best, he is utterly thoughtless of anyone but himself. As I said, this could make for an interesting story of personal growth, but Feintuch spends 250 pages with example after example of his hideous behavior. At last it dawns on him that maybe he should reform. Feintuch then spends another 150 pages continuing his hateful behavior, with only brief interludes of maturity.
Does anyone actually enjoy reading in that much detail about someone you can only want to slap silly? If you've got the book, do yourself a favor and just skip to page 400 and read the last 180 pages. In the book's defense, if Fentuch had compressed the first 400 pages into about 10 and spent the rest of the book telling about a character we could care about, this would have been worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: molding the prince into a king
Review: This was a great novel. It not only considered the mind of a pampered teenage boy learning to take on responsibility, but also expressed the difficulty of being a nation's leader--and those whom had to deal with him while he was growing. There are many interesting characters that come through and the reader comes to care about, even though you're getting the story through the prince's, Roddy's, eyes, and he's not always too fond of them. The Still is set in a medieval era where noble blood is truly distinguished by the magical gifts inherited by the leaders, but there is a catch: their magic is directly connected to the land. The more one has power over it, the stronger the power. Unfortunately, when the queen dies (gender does not determine who rules), Roddy's still young, their kingdom is under attack, Roddy's uncle wants to unseat him, and the nobles are wavering in their support for him. Roddy needs the votes of 4 of the 7 council members to crown him king--because his magic will not come in power unless his is king--in name, with the crown, and the implements of the Still, his gift of communication with the past kings and queens which will allow him to deal with the threats to his throne and country. The sequel The King, is even better. Feintuch has set the story and the reader is in for an emotional ride in that book.
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