Ascendance Trilogy
The Ascendance Series is a series of juvenile fantasy novels by Jennifer A. Nielsen. In the Ascendance Series, an orphan named Sage is kidnapped and trained to impersonate Prince Jaron, the missing Prince of Carthya. After Sage ascends the throne, he has to lead Carthya through a destructive war with multiple neighboring nations.
The first book in the series, The False Prince, was first released on April 1, 2012 through Scholastic Press. The book sold well and its paperback reprint placed The False Prince on The New York Times Best Seller list in May 2013. The second book, The Runaway King, was released on March 1, 2013, and the third book, The Shadow Throne, was released on February 25, 2014. In December 2019, Nielsen announced that a fourth book in the series would be published in October 2020, titled The Captive Kingdom, and also confirmed that she would be writing a fifth book in the series.
Reception for the first book was mostly positive, but decreased to mixed for the second and third books. While Paramount Pictures licensed the movie rights for the series in 2012, they did not renew the contract for the series in 2017.
Stories
The False Prince
Sage is a fourteen-year-old orphan who steals a roast from a local butcher, but is saved from his wrath by a nobleman named Bevin Conner. Conner is visiting different orphanages, and buying teenage boys who resemble the missing Prince Jaron, heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Carthya. Conner buys four boys, but a particularly weak one is soon killed as an example, showing that Conner means business.Conner then takes the boys to his estate, Farthenwood. They learn that Conner is a minor regent of the circle that surrounds the King. King Eckbert, his wife Erin and his oldest son, crown prince Darius, have been murdered in secret. Conner is a patriot who wants to see the Kingdom of Carthya preserved, rather than fall into civil war at the hands of Prime Regent Veldergrath. He therefore concocts the plan to place a fraud on the throne to avert the coming war. One of the three boys will be chosen as the imposter, and the other two executed. The chosen boy will impersonate Prince Jaron, the younger son of King Eckbert, who has been missing for years after the ship he was aboard was raided and destroyed by pirates from Avenia, a nation that borders Carthya.
Sage’s argumentative, independent behavior continually lands him in trouble over the next two weeks, as he and the other two boys, Roden and Tobias, compete against each other to become Conner's choice for the impostor. On one occasion, he steals back a rock that Connor took from him, which Connor claims is imitators gold and Sage insists is real gold. Because of this, Connor orders him to be whipped in an attempt to bend Sage to his will. During his stay at Farthewood, he also meets a kitchen maid named Imogen.
As the two weeks draw to a close, Tobias cuts Sage with a knife one night in an answer to Sage’s challenge to “prove himself,” but the attempt quickly backfires as Sage pulls out another knife and blackmails him into staying out of the race to impersonate Prince Jaron. By the end of the two weeks, Roden is chosen, but at the last minute, Connor notices Sage rolling a coin over his knuckles, and chooses Sage because of this, as this was a special trick which Prince Jaron was known for. In a flashback, Sage reveals to the readers that he is Prince Jaron himself. Many years ago, he had been sent to a boarding school in the country of Bymar by his parents, which he considered a disgrace. As a result, he deserted the ship before it even left the port, and thus spent the years since then going under the pseudonym of Sage, pretending to be an orphan.
When they arrive at the royal castle in the city of Drylliad, they are refused entrance inside, so Jaron takes them inside by way of the castle sewer. At this point, Roden, angry over not being chosen to impersonate Prince Jaron, challenges Jaron to a sword fight. Jaron accepts and ultimately wins, but chooses to show mercy to Roden by allowing him to live. Roden decides to leave Jaron, and Jaron continues on to the castle. Jaron reveals himself to the crowd at the castle as Prince Jaron, stunning everyone, including Connor and his late father’s advisor Lord Kerywn. He then reveals that Connor is the one who killed the royal family by poisoning them and that Connor was the one who hired the pirates to kill him. Connor is arrested at once, and Jaron assumes the throne.
The Runaway King
When King Jaron is walking in the castle garden, he is attacked by Roden, who is still angry over losing the throne to Jaron. Roden tells Jaron that he has joined the Avenian pirates, and that the pirates are seeking to kill Jaron, because they failed to accomplish this the first time. Before leaving, Roden allows Jaron to live for the present, but tells him that the pirates are giving Jaron ten days to surrender, or else they will attack Carthya. Jaron realizes that the pirates are in alliance with Avenia to kill him and destroy Carthya.During the encounter, Roden threatened to kill a person dear to Jaron if Jaron refuses to cooperate, and Jaron realizes that this person is none other than Imogen, so he decides to send her away to keep her safe. At the same time, he wants her to leave without looking back, so he lies to her and says he has used her to reclaim the throne, and they are not friends. Imogen leaves the castle in anger. Jaron also visits Connor in prison that day, accompanied by Gregor, the captain of his guard. Connor tells him that the poison he used to kill Jaron’s family came from the pirate king Devlin.
When the regents of the kingdom find out about the assassination attempt on Jaron, they propose that Jaron go into hiding for safety and appoint a steward to rule for him until he is of age. Jaron believes that they need to defend themselves, but the regents are all for following King Eckbert’s footsteps in avoiding war through negotiation. Jaron reluctantly agrees to leave the castle, opting to return to Farthenwood with Tobias and Mott, Connor’s former right hand man who grew to respect Jaron during his time at Farthenwood and has now become a loyal friend.
At Farthenwood, Jaron arranges for Tobias to impersonate him and return with Mott to the castle. Knowing that Carthya could not survive the forces of both Avenia and the pirates, Jaron intends to go to the pirates all by himself, in attempt to either kill Devlin or turn his loyalty to Carthya. On his way to the pirates, he runs into a band of Avenian thieves, who have crossed the border into Carthya to raid the local farmers, rescuing a young girl and her dying mother. With her last breath, the mother has Jaron promise to escort her daughter to her grandfather Harlowe’s home. Jaron spends a night at Harlowe’s estate, and Harlowe treats him very kindly and urges him to stay, but Jaron departs for Avenia and arrives the next day. He is taken by Erick, leader of the Avenian thieves, and convinces Erick to take him to the pirates, telling Erick that wants the pirates help to steal a vast amount of hidden Carthyan treasure.
To his surprise, Jaron discovers that Imogen is working for the pirates as a kitchen maid. Imogen tells him that she and Amarinda, a foreign princess betrothed to the Carthyan throne, figured out that Jaron would come to the pirates, and Imogen decided to come as a last effort to discourage Jaron from his fool’s errand. Devlin makes Jaron a pirate, and several days pass. Jaron gets Imogen to escape from the pirates on horseback with Fink, a young boy who came with Erick and Jaron from the thieves, but Gregor, on his way to the pirates, comes upon them and brings them back. Jaron realizes that Gregor was a traitor. Gregor exposes Jaron’s true identity to Devlin, but Jaron challenges his position as pirate king, and Devlin is obliged to answer as part of the pirate’s code. Jaron wins, but surrenders to Devlin in exchange for Imogen’s release.
Roden returns from sea early just as Jaron is about to be whipped, and becomes angry because he had been promised that he could deal with Jaron as he pleased. He kills Devlin and becomes the new pirate king. Considering his victory over Carthya as good as secure, Roden locks Jaron in a secure room with Erick and Fink and breaks Jaron’s leg to ensure that no escape is possible. But with aid from Erick and Fink, Jaron climbs through a window onto a cliff, and from there scales the cliff and challenges Roden as pirate king. As they spar, Jaron expresses his desire for Roden to come to his side and return to Carthya as the captain of his guard. Jaron almost wins, but a pirate kicks Jaron’s broken leg, and Jaron collapses. But Roden, having been won over by Jaron and recognizing Jaron's commitment to Carthya, surrenders and agrees to return with Jaron. Jaron goes back to Drylliad and finds that Tobias has convinced the regents not to replace Jaron with a steward. Jaron also makes Harlowe his new prime regent and mends his relationship with Amarinda, which was previously on the rocks. In the epilogue, Jaron is informed that Avenia has invaded Carthya and captured Imogen.
The Shadow Throne
Avenia, Gelyn, and Mendenwal are waging war against Carthya. Roden and Jaron have staged a public argument in hopes that his enemies will believe Carthya's armies are disorganized and quarrelsome, while providing a cover for Roden to march out to defend the borders. Jaron receives word that Imogen has been captured by Avenia, but Mott insists on rescuing Imogen in Jaron's stead, because the mission is too risky for Jaron. Jaron sends Amarinda, Tobias, and Fink to Amarinda's home country of Bymar for their safety and to ask for Bymar's aid.When Jaron discovers that Avenia captured Imogen not to lure Jaron, but Mott, Jaron's most trusted man, hoping to use Mott's duty to Imogen as leverage to force information from Mott, he changes plans and breaks into the Avenian camp to rescue them. Mott escapes, but Imogen is shot with an arrow and Jaron is captured. After some time, Tobias joins him in his prison cell and is shocked to realize that Jaron is alive, as he and Amarinda overheard Avenian soldiers claiming that Jaron was dead. Upon hearing this, Amarinda decided to return to Drylliad to encourage and lead the people while Fink went on to request Bymar's aid, but Amarinda and Tobias were separated on the way back and Tobias was captured. They are held as prisoners for a time until Mott and Harlowe rescues them from the camp. Before they leave Avenia, Jaron pays a visit to the Avenian pirates to request for their aid, but the pirates respond with unwillingness and anger. Erik assures Jaron that, whether or not the rest of the pirates come to Carthya's aid, he will aid Jaron.
On their way to Drylliad, they meet Amarinda. Jaron rejoins Roden in a battle at Drylliad, reinforced by Bymarian cavalry. A Bymarian soldier informs them that Fink refused to believe Jaron was dead, and tried to prove it by going to the Avenian camp to search for Jaron after he had succeeded in his mission of requesting Bymar's aid. Although the battle at Drylliad is eventually won, Jaron realizes that most of the soldiers were not Avenian, meaning this battle is just a distraction as the bulk of Avenian soldiers await a different mission. Jaron goes out to meet the enemy at a dry lake. Jaron contrives a plot to lure the soldiers that are already there into the lake before bursting the lake's dam and drowning them, and tricking those that remain into surrendering. But even as the enemy surrenders, the bulk of Avenia's armies arrive, vastly outnumbering the Carthyans. Jaron and his troops are trapped in the battle against Avenia and Mendenwal and are forced to retreat to the woods. During this time, Fink is able to rejoin Jaron.
Jaron surrenders to the Avenians to get a medical help for his soldiers. The Avenians take Jaron to Farthenwood; there, he meets Roden, who was captured, and Imogen, who did not die when she got shot and was able to recover. The next day, King Vargan of Avenia tells Jaron that since Tobias offered to trade his life for Jaron's, and they have two gallows built, Jaron can choose which two of the three of them will be hanged; Jaron says that he and Roden will go to the gallows.
At the gallows, Conner, who appears to have sided with the Avenians, subtly gives Jaron a knife, allowing Jaron to cut his and Roden's ropes. The Avenian pirates and the remaining Carthya soldiers fight with the soldiers of Gelyn, Mendenwal, and Avenia. While trying to escape, Jaron is cornered by Vargan and about to be killed, but Conner intervenes, causing Vargan to kill Connor instead. Vargan makes another attempt to kill Jaron, but is stabbed by the hand of his own commander, who has come to respect Jaron and believes enough blood has been shed already and wished to surrender. Jaron makes peace with Mendenwal, Avenia, and Gelyn. Harlowe is revealed to be Roden's birth father, and the two are reunited. In the end, Jaron weds Imogen and Tobias weds Princess Amarinda, as the two have grown to love each other.
Inspiration
Nielsen had considered writing a book where someone was forced to impersonate royalty – the underlying premise for The False Prince – for some time. However, she had not yet conceived of a main character strong enough to carry the plot. At the time, Nielsen was working at a program for troubled youth and was struck by one boy who people doubted would succeed, but ended up being one of the first to achieve program milestones. He was the inspiration for Sage and helped pull the book together for Nielsen.Reception
Critical reception for the first book in the series was mostly positive. The False Prince was named one of the New York Times' Notable Children's Books of 2012. Praise for the first entry in the trilogy centered upon the book's appeal to a wide age group, as well as for the book's plotting and characters. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, calling it "highly enjoyable." However, the reviewer from The New York Times, describing the novel as a "grim story that takes an occasional, though only very occasional, mordant turn", concluded that it "makes the effort of reading worth the getting to the end" but that the "absence of a fully furnished world keeps this particular page turner from lingering very long after the book is closed".Popular reception for the first book was also positive. The paperback reprint of The False Prince placed it on The New York Times Best Seller list in May 2013. It also won the 2015 Intermediate Sequoyah Book Award, which is voted upon by students in Oklahoma. Nielsen has been grateful for the response to the series from reluctant readers and their families.
Reception for the second entry was more mixed, with Publishers Weekly calling it a "solid sequel" but commenting that the book's villains were "perhaps too easily manipulated by the young king". Common Sense Media also gave a mixed review, criticizing Jaron's arrogance and saying that "the reasoning behind his reckless schemes is often unclear, so he seems to constantly put himself into needless danger". The Buffalo News, in a brief review, was more positive, stating that "Nielsen offers memorable characters, a complex world... and a vivid political backdrop" and that the book raises good questions about war and personal sacrifice.
Reception for the third book was also mixed. Praise for the book came from how it provided a satisfying ending to the series and was "gripping," while the book was criticized for how the plot seemed unrealistic and the action was over-summarized.