ROC Tradepaperback January 2014. Third in the Blue Moon titles.
A lot of Simon Green’s books overlap in some way, either with background or characters. This one does both since it’s the third in the Blue Moon titles and uses the characters Prince Rupert and Princess Julia, a.k.a. Hawk and Fisher, who also appeared in the six Hawk and Fisher books. And once again they’re back home in the Forest Kingdom solving a number of problems. One of their own to start with, in that the Demon Prince has kidnapped their two adult children, and there’s also a number of troubles in the Forest Kingdom that need fixing as well since they’re on the spot. The book is lively, entertaining, a number of old friends appear in it, and as ever Rupert and Julia save the day. Compared to the first two Blue Moon Rising and Beyond the Blue Moon, I feel that this one was fractionally weaker. But then the first, Blue Moon Rising, set such a high standard it was inevitable that subsequent books about this duo would be slightly less. It’s the problem with being that good. However this is still an excellent book, the plot is more complicated, the mix of characters is very good (old, new, and very peculiar,) and the background is familiar even if time has moved on and it shows. That provided a faintly ‘weary’ air to the events, a sort of jaded disillusionment, that, for me, dropped it that notch in enjoyability. If Mr. Green does ever decide to pick up the characters again I hope he goes back to the feeling of the first two books, which had a cynicism that was funny, without giving off that world-weary air. I heartily recommend the book, but without quite the fervent enthusiasm I had for the first two,