Book Review: Die Rubinrote Konigin (Red Queen and Dark King)

Thanks to Google searches and online translators, I get to see what German readers are saying about my stories. I recently found this little gem shared on the German Fantasy Review Site, fantasybuch.de for Die Rubinrote Konigin (The Ruby Red Queen). For English readers, Die Rubinrote Konigin is books 5 and 6 of The Mapper Series – Red Queen and Dark King – now available in the U.S.

Below is the review…just in case there is any trouble with the link. 

When the veil Villagnan and Adara spit out, they do not know how much time they have lost. While Adara is still trying to kill her archenemy, who has slapped her family, even her whole people bestialized, Vill. He can hardly convince Adara that he has changed and is now one of the good guys. And good can Abrogan need now. After the Red Army has rolled over it, now a black man is ready to wipe out the survivors’ remains.

The cover shows Skye, the capital of Abrogan. The picture is a mixture of painted map and built city. I find it wonderful for the book chosen because it shows for me a mixture of unreality and tangible. A mixture that perfectly mirrors the event.

The Ruby Queen is part three of a wonderful series about the chart writer Wexford Stoli and the country Abrogan. With every band I thought that Royce Buckingham could not possibly improve, but somehow he managed to do it again and again. Perhaps it is because he has remained a child deep inside him and shares this with his readers. He takes us into a world that could not be more fantastic. Playful yet serious, light and yet thoughtful, fantastic and yet real. If Buckingham understands one thing, this is definitely a way of living life and amusing me.

His writing style is characterized by exciting tension, which keeps the entire book high. One event chases the next and leaves me hardly resting. Not only that, but also permanent change of scenery kept the tension upright and made it difficult for me to put the book aside. In addition, there were also the pictorial descriptions of the author, which let his world Abrogan arise before my inner eye. Abrogan is a world that is similar in many respects to ours and yet quite different. The buildings are slightly different, just like the forests and mountains, the people, beings and animals. A completely new and very lively world that captivated me and which I was very glad to kidnap.

The plot is hard to describe, because it is incredibly diverse and always new directions, with which I had never expected. War, feuds, personal destinies, myths and magic; Everything is represented and yet the event does not seem unstructured or confused, but comically, straightforward and goal-oriented. Again, a mixture that the author seems to love.

Villagnan and Adara are at the center of the events. Both of them had been trapped in the veil for a long time, and suddenly faced their home, which had developed without them. Friends, family, and acquaintances have died, and nothing else but the connection with the past. However, while Adara is only eating her hatred for Villeneuve, since he has slaughtered her people, a new life begins for Vill. For in the time before the shadow, he was a mass murderer and butcher. But when the darkness released him, she also let the shadow of his soul be lifted, and Vill returned his humanity. The development and how he is with all the knowledge of his atrocities, came close to me and I could build a deep connection to this truly extraordinary character. Adara also liked me very much, seemed alive and alive, but I believe that Royce Buckingham has laid all his heart blood and abilities in Villmagnan.
My little personal highlight was, of course, the reunion with the card writer Wexford Stoli and his cows. In the first part he stole my heart and since then he has taken a place that no one can take him anymore.

My conclusion

The Ruby Queen is a true masterpiece from the first to the last page!