Authorpreneur Dashboard – Deborah Jay
THE PRINCE'S MAN (The Five Kingdoms, #1)
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Award winning novel, THE PRINCE’S MAN, has been described as ‘James Bond meets Lord of the Rings’ - a sweeping tale of spies and deadly politics, inter-species mistrust and magic phobia, with an underlying thread of romance. Rustam Chalice, hedonist, dance tutor and spy, loves his life, never better than when he’s bedding a gorgeous woman. So when the kingdom he serves is threatened from within, he leaps into action. Only trouble is, the spy master, Prince Hal, teams him up with an untouchable aristocratic assassin who despises him. And to make matters worse, she’s the most beautiful woman in the Five Kingdoms. Plunged into a desperate journey over the mountains, the mismatched pair struggle to survive deadly wildlife, the machinations of a spiteful god - and each other. They must also keep alive a sickly elf they need as a political pawn. But when the elf reveals that Rustam has magic of his own, he is forced to question his identity, his sanity and worst, his loyalty to his prince. For in Tyr-en, all magic users are put to death.
Book Bubbles from THE PRINCE'S MAN (The Five Kingdoms, #1)
The spies
When I set out to write a fantasy intrigue, I based the character of Rustam Chalice (Rusty to his friends) on James Bond, my favourite spy. One of my greatest frustrations is that Bond is never allowed to grow as a person, so I used him purely as a launch point and let Rusty develop from a shallow womaniser, albeit one devoted to his kingdom's safety, into a character of far deeper morals, who questions not only his own way of life, but the validity of his magic-fearing society. My lady assassin, Lady Risada is modelled physically on a friend, but is entirely her own person! She remains true to her strong beliefs in the rightness of her kingdom's stance against magic, and locks horns with Rusty at every turn, personal and political. There is more to their relationship than either of them realises and even when they finally concede that working together is the only way to save their kingdom, they find that they need more than just their clandestine skills to get the job done.
