Return to the captivating world of Elfhame with this illustrated addition to the New York Times bestselling Folk of Air trilogy that began with The Cruel Prince, from award-winning author Holly Black. Once upon a time, there was a boy with a wicked tongue. Before he was a cruel prince or a wicked king, he was a faerie child with a heart of stone. #1 New York Times bestselling author, Holly … of stone. #1 New York Times bestselling author, Holly Black reveals a deeper look into the dramatic life of Elfhame’s enigmatic high king, Cardan. This tale includes delicious details of life before The Cruel Prince, an adventure beyond The Queen of Nothing, and familiar moments from The Folk of the Air trilogy, told wholly from Cardan’s perspective.
This new installment in the Folk of the Air series is a return to the heart-racing romance, danger, humor, and drama that enchanted readers everywhere. Each chapter is paired with lavish and luminous full-color art, making this the perfect collector’s item to be enjoyed by both new audiences and old.more
Nice supplemental book to The Folk of Air series!
This story takes place after the end of the final book, although most of it are flashbacks to Cardan’s childhood and youth. It’s the only time we get to hear his part of the story and honestly, I LOVED it. The illustrations are wonderful and the whole story feels like a fairytale. As the title already suggests, the novella describes a chain of events that explains why Cardan isn’t too fond of stories later on in life. Although this story is not a part of the trilogy, I would definitely highly recommend it to those who would like to fully understand the series.
I love how you get to see more of his character and you go deeper into stories that were mentioned in the series. Also I love the art in it!
I love Holly Black’s series from Elfhame and the relationship between Cardan and Jude so I couldn’t resist getting How The King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories because I had missed these characters. With stunning illustrations that fully compliment the writing, Rovina
Cai adds beauty to every tale that bring the whole book together.
This book is a welcome return to somewhere you have grown to love, but you get to see it through different eyes in the way this book enfolds. As you can imagine from the title, this focuses more on Cardan rather than Jude and wd get insights through the storytelling he both listens to and tells, into his life in a way that hadn’t been done before.
We see him as a child with a heart of stone, a young fae boy who should have everything and be happy but is nothing but a bullied child who learns that being thr bully is the only way he can survive. I have to stress, I despise this side of him but also could relate to that need to protect himself, he just goes about it in the worst possible way but let’s be honest? He’s surrounded by arrogant, self absorbed *insert expletives* and learns by example – not an excuse, but the sad truth.
He learns through the stories he hates, that he doesn’t have to be that way, and sees the reality of what had happened to him and done by him. It is a story of the true Cardan, even if he initially doesn’t want it to be.
Sadly, the stories are short, I wanted so much more because again, I missed Elfhame and was left wanting but I thin kid this book had been the size of War and Peace, I would have pouted for more please.
I love my villainous son Cardan.
“The possibilities are always endless and we always have choices in life.” Those are the simple words that this book left me with.
So many times we jump to conclusions without fully understanding situations and it’s a habit that should be avoided since often times we tend to be wrong.
An in depth look at Cardan’s life which gave some insight into why he acts and does. I enjoyed the Fairy tale stories which helped tell the story. I listened to this book and I missed out on the illustrations but will get a copy to check out the book with them.
Very short but it has good illustration in it
Audiobook review: Borrowed book from my public library. Interesting tale of the High King from three different timelines that lend a bit of perspective. The narrator did a good job with providing unique voices for each character and appropriate tone inflections for each scene.
Black’s writing is as beautiful and engaging as ever. However, as basically an explanation of Cardan’s backstory, I didn’t find very much plot in this novella. You need to have read the rest of the series to get the full impact of this book.
Having read the other books, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories gives some nice insight into Cardan’s personality and fills in a few details that were pleasant, but not strictly necessary, to know. At only 173 pages with pictures to boot, it is an incredibly fast read, and well worth the diversion for any fan of the series.
This is beautifully imaginative! I loved this from beginning to end. I’m a huge fan of this world and it’s inhabitants. Cardan and Jude have my heart because they are so delicious together. They play off of each other’s strengths and that is a beautiful thing.
I often wished while reading The Folk of the Air series, that we got more of Cardan’s childhood because it seemed so tragic and strange and utterly unbelievable. This is a present wrapped up with a huge golden bow.
The artwork is gorgeous and generously peppered throughout this tale. I love how much each illustration added to the stories.
I loved reading of Jude and Cardan together after their happily ever after! It was the icing on the cake! Thank you so very much Holly Black! I loved, loved, loved this!
The Folk of the Air Trilogy (The Cruel Prince, etc.) is one of my all-time favorite series. When I saw this book of stories from that world release at the end of 2020, I had to get the beautifully illustrated hardcover.
Revisiting these beloved characters was a true treat.
What I loved most was how the stories all weaved together to form a larger “complete” tale. The story of the boy with the stone of heart and cursed daughter was ingenious and cleverly executed throughout the book.
At first I thought the book was missing a lot of information in between scenes, but then I realized this book is part of The Cruel Prince series, which I have not read. However, the characters and the world in this illustrated book has definitely intrigued me to start reading them.
Despite not having read the other books in the series, I loved this book. I loved the characters. The drawings were beautiful. There were some really great morals in each chapter. I enjoyed reading a book about the villain’s story, and how he comes to change overtime, and not change in some instances. I’m looking forward to reading the first in the series soon!
I’ve missed Cardan so much
“How the king of Elfhame learned to hate stories” is a collection of stories that made us get lost in Elfhame and in Cardan life. How he had to learn live with no one affection and love, and how he had to learn to defend himself. I could keep read these short stories forever.
Oh and beautiful artwork it’s so stunning and really represents my visions.
This is all Cardan and definitely worth getting it in book, the illustrations are amazing, the audiobook is well narrated but you will miss the amazing pictures.
When the Cruel Prince series came to an end I was incredibly sad. Luckily I read the series not too long ago, so I didn’t have to wait too long for this book to be released. It is always hit or miss when a book comes out after the series concludes. But I was not disappointed with this creation. The book gives us a peak at some of the hidden stories behind Cardan’s upbringing. A huge bonus was the beautiful artwork throughout the book. I was very sad when I reached the end because I felt like there was so much more to learn! I would recommend this book to readers of the Cruel Prince series and even those that have not read the main books but plan to in the near future. Or if you just want to look at a beautiful book! Happy reading.
Reread 5/2021 – I really enjoyed reading this back to back with the series this time, it’s interesting to see the mix of Cardan’s past and present, the moralizing of the troll’s story, and more of this world. I hope we get more, because I’m having a lot of fun reading it.
I was just so dang excited for more of this world, and I enjoyed this a whole bunch. The art was very cool, and the story was fun. I hope this means there will be more in this universe, because I really enjoy it.
Look at Cardan trying to out charm Charming! He’s so oddly pleasant here, I don’t know what to make of it! These stories were genuinely so fun to read, and Cardan is my favorite character in this world, so I’m absolutely here for any stories surrounding him. Add in the stunning art of Rovina Cai that brought each story to life, and you have just a delightfully fun read.
What I loved best about this beauty:
A. Cardan
B. A quick read
C. More fey awesomeness