The Deer King by Ben Spencer

The Deer King by Ben Spencer
Publisher: Knock-Knee Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Length: Short Story (77 pages)
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

One girl. A reincarnated war god. The chance to stop the carnage before it begins.

Emmaline Rain’s father is the Stoneman. His responsibility: travel into Massaporan lands and end the life of the reincarnated Massaporan deity—the Deer King—the instant he is born. But when he fails in this task, the delicate equilibrium between Emmaline’s people and the Massaporans is disturbed. It seems likely that the violence of the past will be renewed.

She reports purchase cialis online that the intention and purpose of the school is to groom these young girls to one day be future leaders. According to health experts, Kamagra oral jelly canadian sildenafil like flusing, blocked nose, headache, and dryness in eyes. Also, it should decide for consuming prescribed dosage which might be a good idea for a cialis canada generic man to have thick, long, firm and healthy erection for pleasing intercourse. It can happen after taking antibiotics, discount buy viagra some medications, eating many sugars, or drinking soda, using alcohol, etc. Emmaline’s father is soon murdered by a priest of the Bronze Titan for his shortcomings. Newly orphaned, Emmaline absconds with the Saving Stone in the hopes of finding the Deer King and completing her father’s work. But when she comes face-to-face with the Deer King, she realizes that relations between her people and the Massaporans are more complicated than she has been led to believe.

The Deer King is the first in a planned series of fantasy novellas set in Dreyland, a colonial world where the indigenous people rely on the strength of a reincarnated god to help them offset the technological superiority of the settlers.

Some people know what their destiny is from the beginning of their life, but Emmaline isn’t one of those folks. Only time will tell what she’s supposed to do.

The world building in this story was incredibly well done. Even before I had any idea of what sorts of secrets the main character’s neighbors were keeping from her, I felt the fear, reluctance, and uncertainty of that community through every interaction they had with the Rain family. Little details like these made the city of Mossbane feel like a real place.

There was only one small thing I would have liked to see done slightly differently with the plot, and it had to do with the physical descriptions of the characters. It would have been nice to have a few more details about what everyone looked like due to the large number of characters who were introduced to the audience in such a short amount of time. I could tell everyone apart pretty well based on their personalities and where they lived, but having just a couple of extra clues about what they looked like would have made that process effortless and earned this book the full five-star rating I so wanted to give to it.

Emmaline was an intelligent young woman who could quickly make smart decisions in a crisis. These are both things I value highly in a protagonist, so I was thrilled to find both of them so strongly represented in her. She was exactly the sort of resourceful person I’d want to be around if someone with violent tendencies started sneaking around my backyard. While I hoped she’d always remain safe, I sure did enjoy watching her figure out how to survive under such dangerous circumstances.

I can’t recommend The Deer King highly enough to anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre. It was a wonderful introduction to Dreyland.