I picked Royal Tournament by Richard H. Stephen based on the cover and his website artwork linked in from Instafreebie. I am a sucker for medieval stories and this one looked promising.
Royal Tournament is a novella featuring Javan, son of a local farmer who is the reigning jousting champion in his baron’s territory. Now the king is visiting the baron and holding the royal tournament at the castle right near Javan. Of course he must compete.
Compliments
The story itself is unusual for a fantasy set in a medieval world. Javan makes friends with a dark-skinned man from one of the kingdom’s allies. The stranger defeats one of the kingdom’s knights who is badly injured in the joust. His men take revenge on the stranger and then turn their violence on Javan when he tries to intervene. I’ve noticed more fantasies taking on themes of racism and basic fairness, and it was good to see a novella that handles this without moralizing or sermons. Javan simply does the right thing for the right reasons; he acts honorably.
The other plot-related pleasant surprise is the ending. Normally the young hero wins the competition, somehow defeating everyone. That doesn’t happen, resulting in a more believable outcome.
Not So Good
I’m no expert in feudal economics but the whole Javan set up didn’t make a lot of sense. If he and his father worked their land alone – without hired hands or even seasonal help – then they could only farm a small plot. In that case they couldn’t afford the trained warhorse or even dented armor for Javan or be on such good terms with the baron.
There were a few other points that felt off, but the economic set up was the most obvious.
Overall
I enjoyed this short novella, but probably not enough to pursue more books by this author.
3 Stars
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