Shadow of a Dark Queen
Rating: 4 Stars
Shadow of a Dark Queen is the first book of The Serpent War Saga. The book focuses on the life Erik von Darkmoor, who is in fact the bastard son of the Baron of Darkmoor. The book also focuses on a character known as Miranda who is on her own mission to find a magician known as Pug.
Erik von Darkmoor begins the book as a smiths apprentice who one day hopes to run his own forge one day. His plans get thrown up in the air when one day he arrives at the forge and finds that his master is dead, a new smithy arrives and agrees that Erik should be able to join the smiths guild if he ever has plans to open his own forge.
News arrives that the Baron is to make an appearance and with that Erik's mother will try and make the Baron finally admit the Erik is his son. The Baron arrives alongside his two legitimate sons, Stefan and Manfred. Stefan and Manfred dislike Erik greatly because they believe that if their father recognizes Erik as a son, they will lose out on inheritance.
One night the Baron's sons visit the town and Stefan entices a friend of Erik's to go off with him. When Erik is told about this by his friend Rupert 'Roo' Avery, Erik decides to chase after Stefan and confront him. When Erik finally catches up to Stefan, he finds the girl known as Rosalyn with her clothes torn and unconscious lying against a tree. Erik is enraged and advances on Stefan with his sword, piercing his chest and killing him. When Roo realises what has happened, he and Erik begin to run.
While on the run they come across an old woman known as Gert. When they meet, she already knows both their names. The two boys hide in Gert's tent when the Baron's guards catch up with them but when the guard opens the tent and looks in he does not see either of the boys. The next day they awaken to find Gert gone and in her place Miranda is looking after them.
Erik and Roo's luck finally runs out when they are first captured by slavers and then by the guards. Both Erik and Roo are sentenced to hang for the crime of murder. Their hanging is faked and along with the other prisoners are forced to become soldiers under the leadership of Robert de Loungville. In order to gain their freedom they have to pose as mercenaries and attempt to join the army of the Emerald Queen. The mission is to gather information on the Emerald Queen's motives. Erik and his band of mercenaries infiltrate the Queen's army and learn that the Emerald Queen plans to become the host of a Valheru spirit trapped with several artifacts. The mercenaries are found out and get pursued by the Saaur, which are nomadic lizard men. Callis who is the leader of the mercenaries finds the artifacts hidden in a cave and destroys them, to further delay the Emerald Queens plan, Erik and the other burn down the shipyard. When this is all done and the remaining members of the group assemble, they get picked up by Prince Nicholas aboard his ship the Freeport Ranger. With the success of their mission, the men are awarded their freedom from the gallows. Robert de Loungville offers Erik the role of Corporal in the army that Calis will be allowed to assemble.
That concludes book 1 of the Serpent War Saga. I look forward to continuing the trilogy. The reason for giving the book 4 stars, was because I was hoping to hear more about what Miranda was up to and I thought she and Erik were going to have more interaction. I guess I will have to wait to see.
