Review: Exquisitely brilliant!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 12, 2014
Ralph Smith’s ‘Seal of the King’ is the fantasy book you’ve always wished to read—with its clear, textured language that crackles with wit and throbs with just the right emotional gravitas, this is a tale that will immediately reel you in right at the get-go—and will stay with you long after reading it.Like many other books of the genre, ‘Seal of the King’ is about unlikely heroes representing the forces of good that must battle the overwhelmingly powerful forces of evil, with mankind’s existence at stake. But beyond the familiar plot is a powerful story that’s ambitious enough to drop your jaws, yet reads so personal as though you’re under the skin of the main characters. David is just a man more attuned to the vagaries of the weather and the health of his crops, than about slaying beasts. But when he was a child, David would have persistent visions of a girl only he could see and whom he had grown to love. On the other hand, hundreds of years in the past a girl named Aurora would also have strange visions of a boy. The lives of the two characters are separated by centuries between them, and just when they think they’re never meant to actually meet in life and merely stay as each other’s “hallucination”, the fruition of some ancient prophecy makes the unthinkable happen: they meet in David’s timeline, where they must work together to fight for God and battle the forces of evil. And oh, did I mention there’s a “healthy” amount of erotic scenes here—nothing vulgar, but more than enough to take your breath away and add much more color to the story.Moreover, although this is fantasy, the development of the characters is believable enough to propel you forward. For example, although David is a farmer, the events demand that he must adapt quickly, forcing him to throw in everything he has just to be not only a good warrior, but one that actually survives. And at the center of it all is his deep love for Aurora, which informs his actions and aspirations and is one that makes his dramatic transformation quite plausible.Let me suffice it to say that ‘Seal of the King’ is a richly entertaining book I’d highly recommend to fans and even non-fans of the genre. This is one high-quality fiction you’ll enjoy reading on the train or taking to the beach to keep you awake. Get a copy.