Cover of The Baker's Boy

The Baker's Boy

core novel 1995 The Book of Words

Record

First published1995
Original language EN
Work typenovel
Canon statuscore
Reader rating3.80 (8,154 ratings, collected 2026-08-21)
First-edition ISBN9780446602822
Internal chronology1

Synopsis

The Baker's Boy is set at Castle Harvell where the court of the dying King Lesketh is riven by intrigue as rival factions maneuver over the coming succession. A lowly kitchen apprentice named Jack discovers he possesses uncontrollable, seemingly miraculous power that neither he nor anyone else around him understands, a gift that quickly marks him as dangerous to people who would rather see such abilities destroyed than left to grow unchecked. At the same time, the willful noblewoman Melliandra flees a forced betrothal to the sinister Prince Kylock, whose ambitions reach well beyond the marriage arranged for him, setting her on a path across the kingdom that will eventually cross with Jack's. As both young people are pushed from the safety of Castle Harvell into a wider, more dangerous world, the fragile order of the Four Kingdoms begins to unravel around them.

Where it sits

Notes

  • From the series record (The Book of Words Trilogy): J. V. Jones's debut epic-fantasy trilogy.

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 Book of Words Trilogy: position 1 of 3: next A Man Betrayed (1996)
  • Internal chronology, within The Book of Words: position 1 of 7: next A Cavern of Black Ice (1999)

Sources

← The Book of Words dossier · All universes

Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.