The False Prince (Ascendance, #1) in What's the Name of That Book???

Jan 06, 2013 Jessica rated it really liked it

Shelves: middle-grade, fantasy, whitneyawards

A truly enjoyable adventure in the spirit of Lloyd Alexander's Westmark Trilogy. It reads like an excellent historical fiction, but it's a made-up world, with no magical elements. A nicely twisty plot, full of political intrigue, and an endearingly roguish main character. I've heard a couple of librarians say this was an honor book in their Mock Newberys, and I can see why.

I really want to learn how to roll a coin across my knuckles now. ...more

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Jun 04, 2014 Kate rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: age-middlegrade, age-ya, fantasy, teen-book-club, 2014

When orphan Sage gets picked up by nobleman Connor, he just wants to escape. Then he meets several other boys of similar appearance that Connor has picked up, and learns of Connor's plan to train one of them to impersonate the missing prince. Since Connor is planning to kill the orphans he does not choose, he must compete with Tobias and Roden to become enough to fool a kingdom into thinking he is the prince.

Even though I guessed the twist at the end fairly early on ((view spoiler) ...more

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Apr 29, 2012 emily rated it liked it

Shelves: con-artists-pirates-and-thieves, fantasy-high-fantasy, young-adult, 2011-to-2015, bildungsroman

When I was about a third of the way through this book I realized that this story is what would happen if there had been three of Aladdin, and if Prince Ali Ababwa was a real person they were competing for the chance to impersonate. And not just for a while; not just to win the hand of a princess, but forever. The three boys-- including our main character, Sage-- are competing for the right to assume the place of the presumed-dead Prince Jaron, and to live out the rest of their lives as him. This When I was about a third of the way through this book I realized that this story is what would happen if there had been three of Aladdin, and if Prince Ali Ababwa was a real person they were competing for the chance to impersonate. And not just for a while; not just to win the hand of a princess, but forever. The three boys-- including our main character, Sage-- are competing for the right to assume the place of the presumed-dead Prince Jaron, and to live out the rest of their lives as him. This includes, naturally, taking the throne and ruling the kingdom of Carthya as its king.

There is so much to love about this book. The plot is simple but immediately interesting: the boys have two weeks to learn how to be a prince, so that their master, Conner, will choose them for the right to assume Jaron's identity. The other two will be killed for knowing too much about the plan. I liked Sage from the first page; he's funny, resourceful, smart and not nearly as careless as he lets on. There's obviously more to him than meets the eye, and while the reveal of what that more is was something I had suspected for a while, it didn't make the confirmation any less satisfying. His two rivals are less intricate, a bit more caricatured, but still believable. Tobias is the Percy Weasley of the three, ambitious but most likely a complete coward. However, I think he has potential to grow through the course of the sequels. Roden was a bit easier to like, but more predictable. I predict he'll be back before the trilogy's over.

My only two gripes with the book are its villain and its love interest. I'll take them in reverse order. From the beginning it's clear Imogen is designed to be Sage's love interest, but I didn't really get a good sense of her personality. Perhaps that's because she spends half the book pretending to be mute, but probably not. She's very sweet, but Sage's attachment to her is, in my opinion, disproportionate to the kindness that supposedly earned her it. I hope we get to know her better from her perspective, not from the secondhand stories that give Sage most of his information about her. Conner, on the other hand, was a pretty big letdown as a villain. I wanted so much more from this would-be Machiavelli, but he lost his cool way too often to be the control-freak mastermind that he was supposed to be. He kept letting Sage piss him off, which totally broke the illusion that he was capable of orchestrating the kind of plan he was attempting. It's totally possible to have a villain who's a gentleman, a noble, but also a complete ham-fisted bastard when necessary; I just didn't buy that role from Conner either. He was neither brutish enough nor wily enough to make me nervous; I wasn't that surprised that Sage kept outfoxing him.

But even though some of Sage's supporting cast were far outshone by his awesomeness, that wasn't enough to make me even think about giving this book less than four stars. The world is believable, the plot is interesting and complete while still making my fingers itch to hold the sequel, and Sage is an A-plus narrator with such a clear voice that I could read about him for days. I really can't wait for the rest of this trilogy to come out, I suspect it's only going to get better from here. ...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: old-reads, mt-bookpile-2011-2015

Sigh. This was fun to read, particularly the parts when Sage is defying Connor and yet making alliances with Imogene and Mott and yet it was so predictable.

Sage is one of three orphans bought by Lord Connor; Connor's idea is that since the royal family is all dead (the King, Queen and Heir recently murdered, Prince Jaron died four years previously in a pirate attack on his ship), he can gain power and stabilize the kingdom by producing "Prince Jaron". Sage, Tobias and Redon will have two weeks t ...more

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May 05, 2012 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides rated it it was ok

Shelves: children-ya, fantasy-fiction

It had its moments, and an interesting if not quite believable twist near the end. I might continue this series and I might not. More like 2.5.

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Feb 08, 2013 Carmine rated it really liked it

Shelves: juvenile-fiction, tweens, fantasy, adventure, young-adult

actiony page-turner for middle graders (especially boys) who like their fantasy with lots of political intrigue and not a dragon in sight.

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Sep 04, 2012 Megan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: listened-to, historical-fiction, juvenile-fiction, bookbattlecontender, series, award-winner

AAGGHHH! SO good!!! Fantastic character development, swift writing, action, adventure, bits of non-pukable romance. Awesomesauce. Cannot wait for the second book.

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Sep 20, 2022 Lindsay rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2022

Starts a little slow. Picks up with a great plot line, a little unbelievable, but such great characters, great read.

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Dec 03, 2020 junia rated it really liked it

This was a genuinely fun book and I look forward to the next one because it was a completely story on its own.

The plot is a pretty straightforward but the twists are awesome and who doesn't love just a smart smart character? ...more

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