Deryni Checkmate
core novel 1972 Chronicles of the Deryni
Record
| First published | 1972 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.03 (4,708 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 302 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780441016617 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
Deryni Checkmate, second novel in the Chronicles of the Deryni, is set some months after the coronation of the fourteen-year-old King Kelson Haldane in the kingdom of Gwynedd, a land divided between ordinary humans and the Deryni, a people with inherited magical powers long shunned and persecuted. Kelson's allies Duke Alaric Morgan and Monsignor Duncan McLain face mounting danger on several fronts: the anti-Deryni Archbishop Edmund Loris demands that Morgan renounce his powers on pain of excommunication and interdict, while Duncan is brought before an ecclesiastical court over his role in the magical events of the coronation. At the same time, a fanatical agitator named Warin de Grey stirs up violent anti-Deryni unrest across Morgan's own lands.
Where it sits
- Universe: Chronicles of the Deryni
- Series: The Chronicles of the Deryni core; position 2 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Katherine Kurtz
Notes
- From the series record (The Chronicles of the Deryni): The original Deryni trilogy, the first 3 Deryni novels Kurtz published. The wider Deryni setting later grew to further trilogies (Camber of Culdi, Childe Morgan) and additional novels/collections spanning decades -- deliberately not researched or registered, out of scope for now.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Chronicles of the Deryni: position 2 of 3: previous Deryni Rising (1970) · next High Deryni (1973)
- Internal chronology, within Chronicles of the Deryni: position 4 of 9: previous In the King's Service (2003) · next Saint Camber (1978)
Sources
← Chronicles of the Deryni dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.