Title: The Stagsblood King
Series: The Stagsblood Trilogy: Book Two
Author: Gideon E. Wood
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 404 Pages
Category: Dark Fantasy
Rating: 4 Stars
At a Glance: The Stagsblood King is some good dark fantasy, most certainly not a book to delve into if you’re looking for an uplifting, feel-good read, but with featured characters who are, by turns, charming, sincere, noble, faithful and forthright. I’m looking forward to seeing how the author concludes the trilogy.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: The people of Feigh finally enjoy security and prosperity, but a new darkness threatens . . .
Tel has begun to heal his kingdom in the six years since the civil war. His grief-stricken heart is another matter. He has committed all his love and energy to his country and Ofya, his adopted daughter. For the first time in centuries, the world is free of war. To celebrate this triumph, Tel and his Omelan friend, Turo, conceive of the Peace Games. All nations are invited to send their strongest and fastest to Feigh for a festival of friendly athletic competition.
But a mysterious self-proclaimed king rises on the border of Feigh and Sheruck. He believes Tel plays a critical role in an ancient prophecy and will stop at nothing to see the foretelling through. Blindsided by the new monarch’s aggression, Tel finds himself in an impossible position.
Stripped of his magic and facing an unstoppable enemy with powerful secrets, Tel must rely on the strengths of Caip, Dar, Bin, and Ofya to save Feigh. And he must rely on the strengths of Turo to save himself.
Review: “We do not suffer by accident.” – Jane Austen
Tel of Foghar knows what it is to lose—his mother and father to death, two lovers to the same, his magic which he sacrificed to bring his corrupt brother’s reign to an end. One might assume that the suffering he has endured will not culminate in something so simplistic as a series of unfortunate events from which there is nothing to learn or gain. Nothing Tel has done, now or before, has come without a cost, and life, it seems, is not finished exacting a price. How he will pay remains to be seen.
Tel has already contravened his spiritual beliefs and spilled blood in the name of peace, killed in the name of protecting his land and its people, and is now, himself, the king of Feigh. The title was always his to claim, though, had he not been steeped so deeply in drink, debauchery, and despair. But he is sober now, more disciplined—perhaps to the opposite extreme—and is capably and compassionately ruling his country while raising his adopted daughter who was left orphaned after the war.
Set in a world where peace has reigned under Tel’s rule, author Gideon E. Wood upends that peace with the introduction of a character who brings a shocking revelation along with an army of faithful minions to Feigh, not the least of which is a prophecy that declares this stranger its rightful king. The concept of spirituality versus cult fanaticism comes into play in the lengths—up to and including mass murder—this sect will go to in order to force this prophecy to come true and to make Tel suffer, ostensibly for his own good and the good of the people, in order to install the self-proclaimed Stagsblood King on the throne and return their deity, the Stag, to the world.
Tel’s losses are incalculable, his fear for his daughter and surviving friends immense, and without his dynasty (elemental) powers, he’s all but helpless to resist the demands of a mad man who believes Tel can deliver the relic necessary to fulfill a destiny. That, however, does not mean Tel is content to fall into line based solely on that man’s interpretation of an alleged divination of the future. Tel has a secret he’s been keeping, one which may or may not give him some advantage, and his fear for his daughter and friends as well as his concerns for the safety of his people means he must persevere, or die trying, all while still grieving the death of the man he loved—a loss for which he blames himself—and finding ways to resist falling in love with a friend, Turo, who is kind, strong, and wonderful, but who will most assuredly suffer if Tel allows him to get close.
No one punishes Tel or holds him to a higher standard than Tel does himself. No one keeps score of his mistakes and failures than he keeps himself. In other words, it’s sometimes difficult to be in Tel’s head, not because he isn’t a good and honorable man but because he doesn’t often see how good and honorable he is. Never mind forgiving himself or giving himself any sort of leeway for the things he’s done and choices he’s made, the things he’s had to do to ensure peace. His guilt is made heavier with the suffering and sacrifices others have endured for his decisions. It’s a heavy burden he carries, and readers carry it with him, making this series nothing like a light read.
And now, knowing that the mercy Tel showed to a merciless foe is coming back to haunt him, readers are left to wonder if there is a path to happiness at all for this king.
The Stagsblood King is some good dark fantasy, most certainly not a book to delve into if you’re looking for an uplifting, feel-good read, but with featured characters who are, by turns, charming, sincere, noble, faithful and forthright. There are losses over the course of these first two books that contribute to its bleakness along with feelings of hopelessness as things spiral out of Tel’s control and hold sway over his future happiness, which means no sense of security between now and the final installment of the series. What Wood does is successfully bait the hook, as I’m anticipating what lies in store next for King Tel and Turo and the rest of Tel’s found family.
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