Lost Prince is a bleak story in which the innocent suffer while the evil-doers apparently thrive. In the Prologue, Rey Alonzo II of Spain is cursed by a woman being led to the stake at an auto-da-fé. "As I am innocent and suffer, so your innocents will suffer," she proclaims. Subsequently, Alonzo's frail wife dies giving birth to Don Rolon, and Alonzo's second wife produces two mentally challenged girls who are pronounced unfit to marry. The story jumps ahead nineteen years to find Don Rolon, Alonzo's only legal heir, beginning to suspect that something dreadfully wrong is happening to him every month at the full moon.
As the story unfolds along this theme, it raises questions about the inherent injustice of life itself. In the Spain of Lost Prince, power determines destiny. Those who are principled, honest, and well-intentioned are handicapped by their own virtues when they're confronted by evil. Don Rolon, who is so "innocent" that his virility is constantly questioned, to his annoyance, turns the tables on his enemies when the wolf empowers him. But he detests his curse and goes so far as to seek magical assistance to end it. As the book progresses, we can see the grim fates looming ahead for nearly all the characters, and Yarbro is merciless in letting these play out. If the book contains any moral message at all, it might be found in Alonzo's spineless acquiescence to the Inquisition and its chief executive, Padre Juan Murador. If I had been in Alonzo's position, I'd have had Padre Murador assassinated before he got that far.
The pacing of Lost Prince is slow, dwelling at length on character interactions, description and plot development. At places, the narrative grinds to a glacial crawl, as when it takes eight pages for Don Rolon to read a letter from his father. The early introduction of Inez, who becomes Don Rolon's mistress, seems arbitrary and illogical to me. Don Rolon's character hasn't been developed enough at that point for it to make sense that his friends would collude in providing him with a concubine, especially given the iron grip of the Church and its moral code on everyone's lives in Spain. Inez could have served various functions in the novel as a vulnerability for Don Rolon, especially after she becomes intensely jealous of Don Rolon's Venezian bride, Zaretta. But ultimately, Inez has little impact on the story. Zaretta, who marries Don Rolon in a politically arranged match, is so stunningly beautiful, saucy and independent that she's almost anachronistic, but she does serve to highlight the difference between the harsh Spanish society and other European cultures of the day.
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