Power dynamics, enemies to lovers, and . . . The Lion King? Queer fantasy and the 'Captive Prince' trilogy by C.S. Pacat

34.907 - 42.096 Adelaide Jensen

You sound very excited to be here. Today's roundtable episode, we'll be talking about the Captive Prince trilogy by C.S.

56.532 - 59.897 Hannah Armstrong

I can't even think of a book to film adaptation of fantasy right now.

59.918 - 65.606 Lily Crozier

I just did it, Hunger Games. Really? That's your favourite one? Probably the third movie.

66.107 - 85.844 Hannah Armstrong

Ooh, controversial. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It is my favourite book of all time and the adaptation does the book justice and that is a tough call to make. You know, I've never read that book or watched that. I know. I know you haven't. One day you will.

85.905 - 104.556 Adelaide Jensen

One day, Lily, I will finally listen to you and actually listen and actually read that book. All right, well, let's get chatting. The Captive Prince trilogy is a high fantasy political adventure series published back in 2015 by C.S. Pacat, a best-selling Australian author based in Melbourne. It follows the intense enemies-to-lovers journey of Damon and Laurent.

105.036 - 120.775 Adelaide Jensen

Damon becomes a prisoner and slave after his brother violently seizes their father's kingdom of Achilos. He's sent to the land of his enemy, presumed dead in his homeland. His new master, Laurent, Prince of Vere, is a cold, cruel, vicious young man who has his own reasons for wanting Damon dead.

572.313 - 597.566 Hannah Armstrong

I think it's handled well, like personally. I think it's like the story is about Damon realising the issues in his society and realising It's about him seeing the world in a new perspective and then adapting his own society. So it almost serves as like, it serves as an extended metaphor really that's not necessarily exactly about slavery.

597.666 - 619.663 Hannah Armstrong

It's about realising that what you thought is normal and perfectly fine is actually kind of horrendous. And you could apply that to many, many walks of life in regular society. And so I think that it's done in a way that has a lot of nuance and I think it evolves very slowly through the narrative. But in that three book arc, I think it's handled really nicely.

619.963 - 631.374 Adelaide Jensen

I think it's a great point which kind of leads me into what we were going to talk a bit more about, which is about power being like the ultimate theme of this book, the power between the two of them and how it changes in various, very specific, nuanced ways.

631.614 - 648.169 Adelaide Jensen

Because obviously Damon goes from being a prince to being a slave and, as you say very eloquently, kind of realises all that was wrong with the society that he lived in before when he's forced to experience it from a different way. It's so interesting to me the way that's explored, that the way they seize power from each other throughout this really

648.706 - 652.071 Adelaide Jensen

amazing relationship is one of the bits that I loved most about the books.

1814.887 - 1838.43 Hannah Armstrong

It's not just accepted, it's encouraged and it's totally different. And I love the conversation between Laurent and Damon, I think in the late book two or sometime in book three where he's kind of thinking about whether or not he would ever sleep with a woman and the answer is no. But, yeah, it flips all of that on its head and it's just so unlike our society. I love it.

1838.984 - 1857.028 Adelaide Jensen

Yeah, it's so interesting and I loved the historical aspects. But in terms of a fantasy book, the only thing kind of fantasy about it is that the worlds are made up, right? There is no magic. Is that, and in terms of how we talk about often the scale of fantasy, this is much more, I guess, closer to something like Game of Thrones, which is based on historical events.

1857.749 - 1872.417 Adelaide Jensen

Is this, like, I enjoyed that, though, that it was very political. It's much more of a character-driven story, of course, but the politics and the war and everything was really impressive to me, how she she built in these battle strategies and the interest and the intrigue there.

1873.924 - 1893.608 Lily Crozier

Yeah, totally. I think when I'm reading fantasy romanticism now, um, Yeah, it's almost like the magic part. Like if you look at like book three where Laurent is like in that prison cell and there's literally like no way he could ever get out. If that was in like a book where there was magic, he just sort of like found a way to magic himself out.

1893.628 - 1897.593 Lily Crozier

And didn't realise that inside me all along was the power to benefit.

1932.678 - 1949.907 Adelaide Jensen

I think that's what makes it so satisfying to read as well is that he is just so clever and he has such a great long-term strategy brain. So even when things seem like they're going wrong, and sometimes they do, it's not like he gets it right every single time, but just like this, you know, you could really like admire that in a character where you're like, damn, I wish I could.

1949.887 - 1952.309 Adelaide Jensen

have some sort of like political ingenuity.

1952.63 - 1970.568 Lily Crozier

Yeah, he's so smart. And I love that whole like the contrast of him having this big massive brain where he's constantly thinking and feels things very deeply. But he has this like very intense mask where he just, you can tell by like the slightest like twitch of like the corner of his mouth what he's like feeling. Yes. I don't know if that has anything to do with the question.

1970.628 - 1971.569 Lily Crozier

I just really like Laurent.

1971.789 - 1986.693 Hannah Armstrong

No, I was also just thinking about how like it also ties back to the romance as well because it's like he is capable of so much. But then he needs Damon. Like he realises that he can't do it all alone and that's just such an exquisite way to build out a romance as well.

2378.156 - 2378.858 Hannah Armstrong

Yes, you shall.

2378.878 - 2380.742 Lily Crozier

I think it's only available in E.

2380.722 - 2402.41 Adelaide Jensen

yeah but highly recommend yeah all right sweet you need to do something about that clearly and on that note i think that kind of wraps up our general book chat i've had so much fun talking about the captive prince yay and who knew there'd still be so much to say i guess about something that is like has been out for so long but it's still relevant it's having its moment and truly if you have not experienced these books you should because they are

2403.031 - 2420.117 Adelaide Jensen

Amazing. Amazing. And just like a masterclass in writing fantasy, I think. Especially enemies to lovers. Especially enemies to lovers. All right. We're going to finish up with a quickfire game of my choosing. I'm going to read out. We're going to have three different quotes from books, and I want you two to guess what book they're from. The first one.

2420.678 - 2422.201 Adelaide Jensen

I need to deliver this in a really dramatic fashion.