Six Wild Crowns (Queens of Elben)
The six wives of Henry VIII have provided rich inspiration for many works over the years: novels, biographies, films and TV series. Their different characters and fates are endlessly fascinating. The popularity of the musical comedy SIX is yet another development, each of the wives competing to determine who had the worst experience at the hands of Henry.
Perhaps this latest evolution of the story has paved the way for Holly Race’s new novel, Six Wild Crowns. The novel’s tagline – ‘The Tudor Queens as you’ve never seen them before’ – is both true and not true. The epic fantasy setting is certainly new. In the Kingdom of Elben, the king must marry six queens, and doing this gives the island magical protection against its enemies. However, the protection is failing, and Boleyn decides to find out why an ancient (male-dominated) spiritual resource should start to falter. There are, inevitably, dragons, monsters, kelpies and krakens.
The narrative moves between Boleyn and Seymour. We recognise Boleyn’s fiery, intelligent temperament from history; Seymour is also familiar initially as the docile, biddable co-queen – although we soon learn that she may not be all she seems. There is a host of well-known secondary characters. The story is engaging and exciting; I liked the way that Race took her facts from history and reworked them to meet the needs of her narrative arc.
When I started reading, my overriding question was whether a fantasy version of Tudor history would work. As the story progressed, my answer became increasingly clear: yes, it does. It’s not a novel for the historical purist. But there is enough context for lovers of history; and it is used to create an engaging fantasy story. It is the first in a trilogy, and I’ll be interested to see where the story travels next.
