The Jaguar Knights: A Chronicle of the King's Blades [Hardcover]

"The Jaguar Knights" is the sixth book in Dave Duncan's "King's Blades" series (it can also be said it is the third book of the second King's Blades trilogy). "The Jaguar Knights" is set in the land of Chivial. A "Blade" is a master swordsman who is magically "bonded" to the King, and this forces unwavering loyalty to the wishes of the King. One of King Athelgar's Blades is a man named Wolf. Wolf is one of the best of the Blades, but is in the bad graces of the King. They share a mutual dislike and disgust of each other. When the King learns of a massacre at a fortress that was supposedly impregnable, he sends Wolf to investigate. This is no simple massacre, however (if a massacre can ever be simple). The invaders slew several Blades, which is exceedingly difficult for anyone who is not another Blade. The invaders also captured the wife of the man in charge of the fortress, but to complicate matters this woman was the former mistress of the King and also has a past with Wolf. Wolf's main motivation, other than doing his job, is that his brother Lynx, also a Blade, was wounded at the massacre.

With Wolf comes an Inquisitor of the Dark Chamber who is pursuing her own investigation. Blades and Inquisitors seldom see eye to eye and had a mutual distrust of each other. When they arrive at Quondom castle, they learn something disturbing: the invaders may not have been completely human. The invaders appear to be part human, part beast, and it is these "monsters" which have taken the King's former Mistress. Further investigation points across the ocean, and Wolf and The Inquisitor are still on the trail.

Not being familiar at all with the other works of Dave Duncan and the King's Blades, I was unsure how much I would be missing by reading this sixth volume first. While I can't be positive about this, not having read the other volumes, but "The Jaguar Knights" stands on its own and can be easily read without knowing anything else about the series or Chivial. I believe there are little bits about different characters and events that will enrich the experience for the informed reader, but my enjoyment was not lessened by trying to figure out who everyone was and how this all fit together.

The beginning to "The Jaguar Knights" was a little slow and I spent time trying to figure out who Wolf is and what exactly a Blade is, and what "bonding" is, but as the novel continued, everything was explained in enough detail to understand the story, the background (to an extent) and get the story moving. At the point that Wolf and the Inquisitor are paired up is when Dave Duncan hooked me on his story. It also helps that Dave Duncan did an excellent job writing this novel and took it in a direction that surprised me at several turns. My high praise is that after reading this book I want to go back and read the rest of the King's Blades series. Duncan is unsparing in what he puts his characters through, and that is something I appreciate.

-Joe Sherry

The Jaguar Knights by Dave Duncan is the latest edition in the King's Blade saga. By all accounts this will be the last King's Blade book as well. I believe I read somewhere that Duncan said their tale had been told and he doesn't envision going back there. That's a shame as the King's Blade books are some of the more refreshing fantasy books I have read lately.

This story is a tale of one Blade Sir Wolf going on a mission that accomplishes two things. One he helps the Inquisitors, but more importantly he tries to help his disgraced brother, another Blade, Sir Lynx. The majority of this story takes place away from Chivial and adds an assortment of new characters and ideas. Duncan does a good job at introducing just enough information as to keep some things fresh and exciting while at the same time explaining enough so the reader is not lost and confused.

The plot in this book is interesting and well scripted; however, at times it feels that the writing does not bring the richness out of it that I think could have been done. There are moments where the reader must think to themselves, that was too easy, or something didn't make any sense of why it happened like it did. This is the sixth book I have read from Duncan, all being in the King's Blades saga and this one just doesn't measure up to the others. It `feels' almost as though Duncan rushed to write this and get it on the shelves. Don't take me wrong though, this is better than some fantasy out there today, but this just doesn't measure up to what I was expecting from Duncan.

The characters in this book also don't measure up to what I would expect from a Duncan book. Simply said, I didn't care about the vast majority of characters in this book as I have with the other Duncan books. I really can't explain why, but the characters seemed disjointed at times. About the only character I cared about was Flicker, but even then he did things that made little to no sense for an Inquisitor to do. Wolf and Lynx could have been countless other characters from prior fantasy books. I didn't really feel like I was reading anything new with them as characters.

Overall, this book is average at best in terms of modern fantasy books and sub=par in terms of Duncan's writing. Yet, in the same breath, I would recommend it to anyone who has read the previous five King's Blades books, simply to continue the tale. If this is truly the last King's Blade book it a shame it ended on what I would consider a low note.

I've had the pleasure of reading all of the blade books, and enjoyed each and every one in a unique way- for each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

In each of the blade stories the blades are mind warped with powerful enchantments which make them into unswerving patriots- and the accompanying evil which comes with such simplicity of purpose. And true to form as in the other books, the characters in "Jaguar Knights" struggle with their conscious as they perform abhorrant tasks in the name of their ward. This complexity of purpose- the conflict between serving their enchantment and higher goals- makes each of these books an interesting read.

Among the collection, this is not the strongest or best, but it certainly has shining moments and is well worth reading. Duncan comes through with his witty reparte between characters and byzantine political machinations which makes his worlds spin. (And your head spin if you actually try to follow the political motivation of every underling).

Like "Lord of the Fire Lands" much of the action takes place in lands far from Chivial, and part of the excitement of reading is in exploring these new worlds with the characters. Thus, this is like travel writing, but traveling to places far more exotic than anything here on earth has provided.

There are three main characters here, Wolf, Dolores, and Lynx. Each of them figure promininently in the unfolding action, and true to form the combination of loyalties and mind bending enchantments each of them are involved with make up a good part of the story (and each characters motivations).

I actually would have preferred to see more of the conflict which the character Lynx undergoes as he participates in two societies- this was interesting.

Overall, I think the book could have used another run through by the author. Parts of it are a bit sloppy compared to his other offerings. However, even with its flaws "The Jaguar Knights" stands tall among most contemporary fantasy writing and is well worth a read.

This book is the third of the first three, but its connections to the other books is largely tangential (characters that appear within appear in other books, but your familiarity with them and their events is not necessary to understand what is going on at all).

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