Six Wild Crowns
Six Wild Crowns
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Proudly Independent • Based in the UK
By Holly Race
Description
NO KING CAN RULE THEM ALL.
From a major new voice in epic fantasy, Six Wild Crowns is a breathtaking epic fantasy of dragons, courtly intrigue, sapphic yearning, and the wives of Henry VIII as you've never seen them before.
As tradition has it, the king of Elben must marry six queens and magically bind each of them to one of the island's palaces or the kingdom will fall.
Clever, ambitious Boleyn is determined to be her beloved Henry's favorite queen. She relishes the games at court and the political rivalries with his other wives. Seymour is the opposite - originally sent to Boleyn's court as a reluctant spy and assassin, she ends up catching Henry's eye and is forced into a loveless marriage with the king.
But when the two queens become the unlikeliest of things - friends and allies - the balance of power begins to shift. Together, they uncover a dark and deadly truth at the heart of the island's magic. Boleyn and Seymour's only hope of survival rests on uniting all six of the rival queens - but Henry will never let that happen.
"Readers of historical fiction or fantasy will thoroughly enjoy this feminist reimagining of King Henry VIII and his wives."
—Booklist (starred review)"Holly Race puts a deliciously fantastical twist on the world of Tudor England ... it’s twisty and satisfying."
—PasteAbout the Author
Holly Race is a writer and script editor, and has worked for companies including Working Title Films, Aardman Animations and Red Planet Pictures. She is a Faber Academy graduate, and her YA urban fantasy trilogy, MIDNIGHT'S TWINS, A GATHERING MIDNIGHT and A MIDNIGHT DARK AND GOLDEN was published by Hot Key Books (2020-22). She lives in Cambridge.
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Fantastic! The strongest character writing I've encountered in a while.In the author's note, the book is introduced as "a historical fantasy about a polyamorous king living in a world where horses and stags live alongside dragons", and that's an accurate description, but also add: female rage, sapphic yearning, oracles, castles under the sea, castles above waterfalls, water spirits, goddesses and magical herbs. I loved everything about this.When I started, I was afraid that my lack of knowledge about the Tudors would lessen my reading experience, but that was not the case. I watched a couple of short documentaries to get some familiarity with the historical events that inspired the story and, while they enhanced my appreciation for certain parallels and easter eggs, they were not necessary at all to enjoy the book.The strongest part of the book were the two main characters, Boleyn and Seymour—yes, these are their names, as in this world the eldest daughter is always given the family name as a first name. They were extremely compelling from the beginning, Boleyn with her self-assurance and ambition and Seymour with her quiet honesty, but it was amazing to see them learn and grow and slowly stretch to their full potential. The plot was engrossing, the world fascinating with its variety of magical artefacts and prophecies and creatures (and it is queernormative!), but the character writing was truly superb and what kept me reading for hours and hours every day. They were both real women to me, with believable reactions to events and feelings, from the pettiness to the heroism.History and legacy were one of the main themes of the story, with particular attention dedicated to rumours. How much of what the characters know about one another and the queens of the past is true, and what is just gossip turned reality? Just like with the real wives of Henry VIII, it is easy to assign motivations and imagine jealousy or ambition and forget that women are women, no matter their status, and their inner lives are more complex than what it is "safe to assume".The nature of the story and history also led to some interesting reflections on the coexistence between abuse and love. How, sometimes, even acknowledging the former is not enough to end the latter. This is explored without denying the female characters of their agency, which is difficult to do well. The book succeeded in that, for me at least.I have a guess we will focus on two different queens for each sequel, and I already know which ones I want to see next. Off I go to hunt the author's social media for clues about a date and title!