The Golden Horse

Title: The Golden Horse
Author: M King
Publisher: loveyoudivine
Genre: M/M, Fantasy, Romance.
Length: 37 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

A guest review by Erastes

THE BLURB

When horse dealer’s son Shem falls foul of the local squire, he’s forced to repay his debt. But what he finds in his lordship’s stables is far from ordinary.

The golden horse—an animal of rare value and mystical properties—holds an astonishing secret, which sets Shem on the way to a journey that will take him a distant land, and to the very heart of what is means to be human, and to be loved.

THE REVIEW

Like The Green Man, this is one (and the second book) of the Traveller’s Tales series by this author, and although all the stories concentrate on the Romani, the stories aren’t connected. (At least these two books are not.)

I must just give a shout out to the covers which are perfect, in my opinion.  The author does her own art, and I find both covers quite beautiful.

Shem’s father decides to take matters into his own hands when the local squire refuses to give his best stallion as stud to Shem’s father’s mare,  which, quite rightly, gets him–or rather Shem–into hot water.  Shem agrees to work off the offence to the squire by working in the stables, and while he’s there he takes charge of a beautiful new arrival – an Akhal-Teke, one of the oldest and most distinctive horses in the world, a real “golden horse” from Turkmenistan.  From the first moment Shem is the only one who is able to manage the fiery animal, and he tends with horse with a slavish devotion, and being lonely he pours out his heart to the horse.

As you’ve probably guessed, the horse isn’t exactly what he appears.  Being a horse-lover, this book touched me on many levels.  It’s less fairy-tale familiar than The Green Man, and as I started reading them as historicals I was genuinely surprised when the fairy-tale element kicked in as the historical grounding is entirely convincing.  I loved the Romani language interspersed with the text, evocative words like Frost Moon which really bring home that these people have a very different take on life than ordinary mortals.

Again, as with the previous book, the author teaches us much of the Romani tradition, their living condition, their customs, their indomitable pride without overdoing it.

The relationship between Shem and the young man he comes to love is beautiful and incredibly touching without being overly saccharine.

Again, the writing is completely delicious. It sucked me in and kept me reading. It’s very rare that I find something in this genre that I can call “beautiful writing” but this definitely fits the bill for me, without being over-written in any way.

One night, cool and clear with autumn’s mellow grace deepened out into soft shadows, talk turned again to Cinderella and the champions she could bear. They all sat by the fire, the flickers of flamelight painting shadow shows on the sides of the wagons, their colours glimmering and the patterns dancing in the night. Dogs slumbered in the warmth, and an atmosphere of gentle conviviality hung over the camp, product of full bellies and contentment.

The way the fairy-story develops and the way that it is resolved was much less derivative than The Green Man–although I’m not fairy-tale scholar–with a good twist that I didn’t expect, even though I thought this section was a little rushed, and I had to re-read it twice to get the full gist of what was actually going on.

If I have one complaint, it’s that the Squire’s daughter is a real pest–setting her cap at Shem and even cornering him at one point to the extent where he has to rebuff her.  I didn’t find this particularly realistic (ironic, since it’s a fantasy, I suppose) but considering the overweening arrogance of the Squire himself, I found it odd that his daughter would even speak to a Romani, let alone want him to kiss her.  Plus–it felt shoehorned in, I didn’t see the point of it.

But, all in all, a wonderful little short story.  I hope that one day M King can put all these tales into a print edition because I’ll certainly be queuing up to buy it.  This author is certainly one to look out for in my opinion.