HOW TO SAVE A QUEENDOM

A poor, lonely girl’s adventure into unknown territory.

Stub, an orphan, has lived and worked at a subpar tavern for all of her 12 years. She sleeps in an unused chicken shed next to the magically enhanced, oversized animals. With no apparent path out of her wretched circumstances and carrying some trauma from mistreatment, Stub has a rather unhappy life. One of the only things she has to look forward to is the country’s centennial Peace Day celebration, an annual remembrance of a brokered truce with foreign armies. Out of nowhere, a shrunken man appears, a wizard no less, who is now magically attached to Stub—by accident, of course. The wizard serves at the palace of the current Peace Queen, who’s Stub’s age, and he shares with her some troubling information that threatens the queendom and the peace. Stub, her pet chicken, the pocket-sized wizard, and a young, eager tavern cook set off across the queendom to stop the mysterious plot. The characters’ episodic journey and the slow-reveal plot never quite click. Overall, the tale explores some good ideas, but the author tries to pack so much in that the execution suffers. The narrative makes a point of emphasizing this world’s heavily matriarchal society. Physical descriptions are limited, but most people in Maradon are said to have light brown skin.

A promising premise let down by an overstuffed plot.