The Black Beast
core novel 1982 The Book of the Isle
Record
| First published | 1982 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.74 (232 ratings, collected 2026-11-02) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780671441173 |
| Internal chronology | 4 |
Synopsis
Prince Tirell, heir to the kingdom of Melior, has grown bitter since his father, the king, had Tirell's peasant lover Mylitta killed and forced him into a political marriage. Tirell's grief resists every comfort. With his healer brother Frain, he sets out to find an army that can overthrow the king. Their search takes the brothers into the regions of Vale, where a goddess lives. They must also face a dark force known as the Black Beast, which is spreading through the land and haunts the characters. The book is an adventure about passion, loyalty, love and war.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Book of the Isle
- Series: The Book of the Isle core; position 4 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Nancy Springer
Notes
- From the series record (The Book of the Isle): Five heroic fantasy novels set on the island of Isle, each following a new hero across the history of the land.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Book of the Isle: position 4 of 5: previous The Sable Moon (1981) · next The Golden Swan (1983)
Sources
- Fantastic Fiction
- Rising Shadow
- Open Road Media (Apple Books listing of the omnibus)
- FictionDB (Pocket, September 1982)
- Akademika (publisher description)
← The Book of the Isle dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.