book 7/7 in the Accursed Kings series. No need to read this book! Books 1-6 are a superior read and the end of book 6 ties up all the story lines. Book 7 was written 17 years after book 6 and it's just a summation of book 6 with a few bits about John II. This book was narrated by a cardinal telling his life story to his nephew or cousin. What a sad way to end such a wonderful series. I would give this series a rating of 5 overall, but this particular book only a 3, and just barely! 368 pages. ( )

This is the seventh and final novel in Druon's Accursed Kings series of novels set in 14th century France. The previous six novels were a splendid series of novels full of drama, conflict and scandal, a colourful Medieval soap opera of fighting kings and their families and nobles, marred on occasion by the author's tendency to "infodump" chunks of history instead of showing it through the plot. This final volume of the series jumps forward over 25 years to the reign of John II and the run up to the Battle of Poitiers. The style is very different and is told in the first person by the Cardinal of Perigord, who is travelling across France and between the lines trying to make peace between French and English. This unfortunately leads to even more infodumps, whole chapters of it, especially in the first part and not much of a feeling that I was reading a novel. So a bit of a disappointing close to the series. ( )

I read this book long ago, so I do not remember pretty well several facts that are in it I just remember that I read it because I need it to finish the saga, it was such a good saga that I need it to know how the author close this story that is part of Europe´s history. The narrative is very different from the rest I will not say that this is bad but I just did not feel that this book was as rich as the others in it;s writing, maybe Druon did not know how to close it properly but I feel that he made this book just to close the last open stories of the other books, nevertheless is a pretty good saga. ( )

Druon trata com mordacidade o reinado do vaidoso e irrefletido Jean II, o Bom. A batalha de Crécy é impressionante. Mesmo quando Jean II age acertadamente, o autor nota que nem mesmo o maior dos ineptos pode ser desastroso ininterruptamente.
Os personagens que mais me interessaram foram o Delfim, o Cardeal de Périgord, o jovem Philippe da Borgonha, o Príncipe Negro e Johann de Hainaut. Alguns não somente por esse livro ou por essa série.
“E lá, ao que consta, quando chegaram, o Delfim teve dificuldade em retirar a manopla, de tão inflamada que se achava a sua mão direta, inteiramente roxa. E viram-no chorar.”
Adorei a mudança narrativa nesse livro. ( )