Good Morality Tale for Our Times
"I read this some time ago (it's self published and been around a while) and thoroughly enjoyed it, as did my (then) 12 year old daughter.
The tale is very original. A girl in a coma is a the queen of another world called Alegria but a world she can only access in her dreams. Passage between our world and Alegria is possible but that option is only available to other people.
The thing that caught me most about this is that the author has opted to show the story from the perspectives of what would normally be secondary charactes. The child queen's bodyguard Mordalayn is not a good Good Guy yet has an inner core of morality and ethics, despite his penchant for fighting dirty.
Jared Miller isn't the most captivating of heroes yet he is the eyes and ears of the reader. And King James is a villain on par with Negan from The Walking Dead (TV version, not read the comics).
Several touches are either funny, unique or both (the fairies; the terrifying Vagthunder; and the final twist at the end which you won't anticipate, believe me).
The anti-bullying themes are present & correct (the book has been advertised with this as a hook) with Mordalayn going berserk at the spectacle of victimisation (although this may have been displacement issues...read the book, you'll get what I mean) and the novel is dedicated to a murdered young woman from England, UK who was beaten to death for how she was dressed (Sophie Lancaster).
Starts off a little slow but stick with it as the story will have you turning pages and wanting more. I understand that the author also published a sequel which I haven't read yet, but fully intend to.
Really worth a read."