Queen of the World is the debut novel by Ben Hennessey, a fantasy story that follows the adventures of Sarene, a young girl who's grown up in the farmlands of Tamir, but is forced to embark on a long and difficult journey after her home is attacked. The book begins with an introduction to Sarene and her family as they go about their daily lives, and cutaways to other characters bring in the hunter Kanderil, Hawk (a bandit-type fellow), and others.
Each of the characters that we meet are significant in some way, despite being so disparate and distant in the beginning, but their individual threads are more than interesting enough to keep me hooked - I wanted to know who they were, and how they'd end up influencing Sarene's journey.
Sarene herself is, as far as my experience goes, unique among heroines - yes, she's a strong-willed, independent young woman, but she's also mute, which gives her a different set of challenges than those most protagonists have to contend with. She communicates with other characters by gesture, and these are all described in such a way as to make her intentions clear without effectively subtitling what Sarene is intending to say.
I'm loathe to spoil anything (almost as much as I hate having things spoiled), but of course there's More Going On Than Meets The Eye, and Sarene is eventually whipped up into an adventure of worldly proportions. Her significance in that plot is kept nicely obscured for the large part of the book, but even when we do find out why she's being hunted, the reason is subtle and intriguing, rather than silly and overblown.
Ben's writing style flows well, and he's got great descriptions. Each of the characters has a distinctive voice, and there are some great lines of dialogue. I've not even mentioned my favourite character, for fear of spoiling the surprise.
Queen of the World is only available on Kindle at the time of writing (with a paperback coming soon!), but if you have one, and £2.99 to your name, buy it. You won't be disappointed.
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