High Deryni

Chronicles of the Deryni, Book 3

By: Katherine Kurtz

Narrated by: Jeff Woodman

Kelson Haldane is King of Gwynedd, the first liege of magical Deryni heritage in centuries. But the priesthood of the Eleven Kingdoms has no intention of ceding its power - even if it means inciting civil war.Listen to another Deryni epic.©2008 Katherine Kurtz (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Still love this series

I loved it when I was a teenager. I loved it again in my twenties. And now I love it in my 50s.

Good listen!

I really enjoyed this series by Katherine Kurtz. I hope that the later books will also soon be available in audiobook format.

Please do Legends of Camber next!

These works are well spoken and great to listen to. I read these in the 1980’s and on Audible, they are great!

Excellent Work!

Katherine Kurtz gets better with each novel in this world. She has an excellent grasp of court politics and intrigue. I cannot praise the narrator enough, as well.

There are several more books by Ms Kurtz. I would particularly recommend the Adept series, as well as the rest of the Deryni works, were they on Audible! Please Audible, let's have more from this spectacular talent!

Great ending to this trio of books.

Jeff Woodman did an outstanding job with this book continuing the characterizations began in “ Deryni Rising”.

Read them, now listen

I've read them many times, now I can enjoy listening to them. I really can't wait for the rest of the series to be released. Camber of Culdi et al are important foreground to realize the dearth of existence for deryni.

Good book, but..

The ending didn't wind up the story very well. It was like the author was under a time constraint to finish the book instead of writing a better conclusion ..especially for all the characters. I enjoyed the trilogy very much. It just went 'kerplunk" at the end.

Strong Ending to a Strong Series

The third and last book of the series is the best so far. I first read this decades ago and remembered it as an excellent read. My memory did not play me false.

With the exception of the main antagonist, the characters are all strong. (The main antagonist is rather cartoonishly evil.) The plot is tense and fast-moving. And the world is credible and drawn with excellent detail.

The narrator here has the same pronunciation problems as in the previous book, but because the words he has trouble with are not so prominent in the story, his other skills are on display. Given a vocabulary that he can handle, he's really quite good.

Unless you want the standard D&D setting, this is highly recommended.

I plan to continue

3.5 stars. Originally posted at Fantasy Literature. Life's too short to read bad books!

High Deryni, originally published in 1973, is the third novel in Katherine Kurtz’s DERYNI CHRONICLES. In the first novel, Deryni Rising, young Prince Kelson, who has inherited some Deryni magic, took his dead father’s throne after fighting an evil sorceress. In the second novel, Deryni Checkmate, tensions rose after the Church (obviously based on the medieval Catholic Church of our world) excommunicated Alaric Morgan and Duncan McLain, two of Kelson’s relatives and advisors.

As the third novel starts, the Church has just split over the Deryni issue. Traditionally the clergy has viewed any sort of magic as evil, akin to the witchcraft which their Holy Scriptures clearly forbids. They’re also worried that the Deryni will use their powers to overturn legitimate benevolent governments, undermine the Church, and establish malevolent dictatorships. Looking at the history of Gwynedd, and thinking about our own history, it’s easy to understand their point of view. But, unfortunately, the Church has dealt with their fear by persecuting anyone who has any Deryni blood. Recently a more progressive minority of Church leaders has split off. They recognize that since the Deryni power is inherited, being Deryni is not the problem; rather, it’s how a Deryni chooses to use his or her power that the Church should be concerned with. This ecclesiastical unrest threatens to cause civil war at a time when Gwynedd needs to unite against outside enemies.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous review of this trilogy, these days I don’t often find myself in the mood for this sort of heavy-feeling medieval-style epic fantasy, but Kurtz has won me over with her engaging characters and the murky religious, political, and personal issues they have to deal with. In High Deryni we discover that Deryni powers are not as uncommon amongst the clergy as you’d expect based on their talk. We also discover a secret council of Deryni that works behind the scenes and only for its own good. When it’s discovered that some Deryni have the power of healing, something they thought was lost, everyone is forced to deal with fundamental questions about the origins of good and evil.

Some readers may feel like a couple of the critical crises were too easily resolved by talking it out, but I appreciated Kurtz’s acknowledgement that intelligent reasonable people can sometimes work things out using logic and persuasion instead of weapons. In fact, I thought these instances seemed more realistic than if Kurtz had staged showy sword fights. This isn’t to suggest that High Deryni lacks weapons and war because there’s plenty of that, too, along with torture, murder, kidnappings, and rescues, but the tensions that have been building up for two books now do seem to fizzle out fairly easily.

I think most readers would agree that the promised “final battle” is a dud, and I’m on their side with that complaint. Likewise, the plot twist at the end, which caused the final battle to be a dud, was completely unbelievable Why didn’t the imposter just kill the bad guy long ago? He had the power and plenty of opportunity. He could have saved a lot of trouble, not to mention lives, if he had done so. It felt like Katherine Kurtz checked out of the novel just a little too soon.

Still I’m interested in these characters and I want to read on. What will King Kelson be like when he’s an adult? What will happen with Morgan and the lady he fell in love with at first sight (yuck)? How will the Church deal with the Deryni issue from now on? I want to know. I’ll continue to listen to the audio versions of the DERYNI CHRONICLES. These are produced by Audible Studios and they’re excellent so far. I love Jeff Woodman’s performance.