Reviewed by Chris

TITLE:  The High King’s Golden Tongue

AUTHOR:  Megan Derr

PUBLISHER:  Less Than Three Press

LENGTH:  400 pages

BLURB:  

Prince Allen has trained his entire life to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious mother, who has made their kingdom one of the wealthiest and most influential in the empire. For the past few years he has trained to become the new consort of the High King. The only thing no one prepared him for was the stubborn, arrogant High King himself, who declares Allen useless and throws him out of court.

High King Sarrica is ruling an empire at war, and that war will grow exponentially worse if his carefully laid plans do not come to fruition. He’s overwhelmed and needs help, as much as he hates to admit it, but it must be someone like his late consort: a soldier, someone who understands war, who is not unfamiliar with or afraid of the harsher elements of rule. What he doesn’t need is the delicate, pretty little politician foisted on him right as everything goes wrong.

Publisher note: this is a highly expanded, completely re-written version of the free short that was previously available under the same title.

REVIEW:  

Picked as the man to marry the High King, Allen has been preparing for this meeting for two years. But when Allen walks into the hall, High King Sarrica is less than impressed. He wanted a warrior to fight at his side, and Allen is less a dragon and more a songbird. But what Sarrica doesn’t see is just how strong Allen is, or what he is willing to do to prove his worth. And with an enemy at their gates, and in their halls, both Sarrica and Allen will have to learn to see past the surface if they ever hope to save themselves and their people.

I’m not sure I know how to explain what I liked about this book. I’ve been trying to do it for the last couple days and I’ve come up with less than nothing. Which is annoying since there is so much I loved about this story and these characters. For some reason I just don’t have the words to convey just how happy/content this book made me.

It was like eating a hot-fudge sunday (with just a hint of nuts) and not having to worry about stupid things like calories or having to put on pants.

This book was pretty long, at 400 pages, and yet it felt almost no time before I finished it. And despite the fact that some pretty horrible things happen to several people, it didn’t feel heavy–like the way some books can just sit on you and it becomes almost a living thing and you kinda don’t want to keep reading because it kinda fucking sucks to feel that deeply with the characters.

But, christ, that makes it sound like the book was shallow, or lacking in depth and feeling, but that isn’t it either. This book was like coffee on a rainy day where you had nothing to do but curl up on the couch and lose yourself in stubborn-headed kings and brilliant princes.  Where a fantasy world isn’t just made up of buff white dudes on horses, but every color of skin is found. Where gender and sexuality being non-binary is the norm. Where even the dude who relies more on wit can have a strength inside him that rivals his more muscle-y counterpart. And where people actually talk about things instead of it getting bogged so far down into miscommunications that I want to take a mallet to everyone’s big toes.

Not to mention that I love that this story actually shows ruling a kingdom in a more than just a ‘me-swing-big-sword’ kind of way. I loved that the Sarrica, and then Allen, had to do paperwork and all the boring stuff of ruling. But then again, I’m weird like that (I blame too many reruns of The West Wing).

See, I might not know how to pick apart this book, but I do feel an awful lot about it. It just, well it just made me really happy. It was everything I was hoping it would be when I found out that Megan Derr planned on expanding the original short story. The book works in a way I can’t really quantify, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a great book. And I am really looking forward to reading the next one. Really, really looking forward to it.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:

Less Than Three

Amazon

ARe