Frozen Prey
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"It makes the blood run cold. In his case, quite
literally so."
Lucas of Arendelle is the Captain of the Guard. He's also known
as Lucas of Davenport, because for the past twenty years he's only seen sitting
down, filling out forms and filing reports instead of working the streets.
But the Ice Queen herself is in hot water. Her political enemies — and
there are many — are turning up dead, their blood frozen solid. Few people
have a motive, but fewer still have the power.
Princess Anna, the royal sister, is blaming the trolls. Count Olaf suspects
it's a palace coup. The Queen herself thinks everyone's being manipulated... but
by who? And to what end?
Now Lucas has to get back to the streets he once knew, but they've changed
since he last walked them. Danger is around every corner, political schemes are
coming to fruition. And, Lucas realizes, someone has been playing a long game.
Someone with a grudge from the past, who is unable to let it go.
April 1, 2017
Explaining the Joke Ruins the Joke
by Roswell Camp
Minnesota's known to be cold [1], and one of
the books is, in fact, named Winter Prey. I figure
there's about a fifty / fifty chance that one day Putnam will settle on
Frozen Prey for one of the books, which would make this title
prescient.
Still, the title is a bit too serious. It's not flat out ridiculous like Eat Prey Love, not as silly as Choose Your Own Prey. It sounds like a perfectly
reasonable Prey title [2].
And then I saw Frozen on a DVD rack at Target and thought, "Frozen
Prey, set in Arandelle" and I had an April Fools' Cover. It practically writes
itself [3].
The synopsis is... okay. I mean, I got a "Let it Go" joke in at the end
— of course I did — but the rest is a bit pedestrian and bland. I
did giggle to myself at the idea of Olaf the Snowman being given a
County to rule [4], and laughing at your own jokes is a bad,
bad sign. Still, it's there.
Oh, the big castle on the front cover is a (bad) photomanipulation of
Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria [5]. It's the castle the
classic Disney castle was based on. So there's that.
Footnotes
- [Citation Needed]
- In my opinion, it sounds more reasonable than many of the other titles. I was never big on Storm Prey for instance. There was a run of books with sibilent sounds — Sudden, Secret, Certain, all in a row — and while they might be good on their own, I can't see past the grouping now. And for Wicked Prey... does the Wicked really refer to the Prey? Especially since, for the plot, the prey is money? A lot of the titles don't work, is what I'm saying.
- Or does it?
- Yes, I know that if Olaf were made a count, his name would be the name of the county instead of Count Olaf. But when I thought "Count Olaf" I realized I could get in a secret reference to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. So I went that way.
- Don't try to convince me that it's not bad. I might be willing to settle for not very good at all, good gracious no, but it's unlikely. Art-wise, this is probably the weakest cover of this year's crop. The text, however, is fine. Every time I do stuff with text, I learn new tricks. But that's all they are — tricks. Art still eludes me.
Disclaimers
Frozen is a Disney property, and as such is owned by
The Walt Disney Company. Anna, Elsa, Olaf the Snowman, and Arendelle are also
Disney properties. My use here is covered under both fair use and protected
speech (as it's parody). The castle on the cover is Neuschwanstein Castle, in
Baravaria, and isn't exactly covered by copyright (and if it is, said copyright
has expired since the castle was built in 1869).