The Prince of Galerir by Anna Lee

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Reading this book, sometime I had the feeling the author would have liked to write a full historical novel, but she opted for a fantasy to allow her characters to “live”. This is because, aside for a paranormal element, as big as it’s, the presence of dragons, the rest of the novel is pretty much a classical medieval novel, with intrigues and adventures, to a level that, if not for the sex, I had almost the impression this was a young adult novel. Much to this point was the young age of the two main character, just 19 years old and struggling with the duty of being adult but still with the innocence and naiveté of young men.

Tomas is the heir to a throne, Griffin is his best man and knight in shining armor; sometime it was endearing to see these blossoms of men trying to behave as adults, since, truth be told, they have not yet experimented enough to be considered as such. Moreover, they have just found the courage to admit to each other their love, and suddenly that love has become something bigger, more important, almost too important for such young men.

As I said there is sex, and that is perhaps the only reason why this is not a young adult novel; if you remove the sex, and after all it’s not so much in the story, the rest of the novel is really like the old fashioned fantasy novels, with a quest for the young men and many occasions to display courage and noble feelings. Truth be told I didn’t feel as the sex was really important in the story, it worked well even without it. Or better, I appreciate the fact they did have the chance to express their love, but to me it was enough to know even without reading it; I had the strong feeling that was not the main target of the author that instead wanted to write about Tomas and Griffin’s journey towards adulthood. And as for all young men, that is an important journey, and so the story felt as a metaphor of that, didn’t matter they were two young men in a fantasy medieval setting, they could well relate to two teenagers of the XXI century.

http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=AL_GALER

Amazon: The Prince of Galerir
Amazon Kindle: The Prince of Galerir
Paperback: 238 pages
Publisher: MLR Press (October 25, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1608207668
ISBN-13: 978-1608207664

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading+list&view=elisa.rolle