King's Warrior- Jenelle Leanne Schmidt

This is well written, though it needs another edit to cut out sentences that repeat rather more than advance the dialogue. The story leans towards the happy ending fairy-tale rather than harder fantasy, not that that is a fault. What it does mean is that this book is, in my middle-aged opinion, suited best to older children rather than young adults. However, I have no intention of putting of adult readers. King's Warrior has plenty of depth of story for mature readers that like well written tales that don't feel the need to more than imply the bestial. There is a sense of the allegorical, the fight between good and evil, which I see as putting this on a shelf next to C.S Lewis's rather than J:K. Rowling's books.
I was asked to assess this book, completely independently of the author, and gave it a pass as a well conceived, well plotted, and artfully written book. So my reservations are minor. If the author takes the trouble to revisit and tighten the prose I will be only to happy to give it the fifth star. This is absolutely not a criticism of long writing and the use of adjective and adverb to lend texture. I love writing with width, however 'unnecessary' to plot, but just not sentences that fail to add enough to description to justify their inclusion.
The characters are well conceived and well crafted, the swords and sorcery theme is well exploited, and I was left with not a little anticipation for the second book in this series. All in all, this is an excellent read.
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