The Soldier And The Prince

Title: The Soldier And The Prince
Author: D.V. Patton
Publisher: Dreamspinnerpress
Cover Artist: Catt Ford
Genre: fantasy
Length: Novella, 125 pages
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

A Guest Review by Feliz

Summary Review: A fantasy themed sentimental romance that nevertheless struck a chord with me.

The Blurb: Jeremiah is a simple man with a love for farming, ill suited for his life as a Soldier. But war has fallen upon the realms of Men, and vicious Northmen have invaded, sweeping aside age-old empires and changing the world forever. After being captured by the enemy, Jeremiah agrees to transport young prince Tobias to a monastery in return for his freedom. The Soldier and the Prince discover a mutual attraction, one that frightens the repressed Tobias but warms Jeremiah within. Their hearts will face battle, pestilence, and certain death before they can find love.

The Review: Jeremiah was a hostage to Tobias’s father. When the Northmen overran both their countries, the hostage was no longer of value for the king, and Jeremiah fully expected to be killed. But the king swears him into becoming prince Tobias’s protector instead and sends him south, to take the prince into the safety of a remote monastery. For Jeremiah used to be a Red Cloak, and elite soldier, and the Red Cloaks are famous for always keeping their oaths or die trying.

Much like the people of Sparta, the men of Jeremiah’s people start training as soldiers at the young age of seven. Sexual relationships between young soldiers are not unusual, even encouraged. The Red Cloaks serve their country as soldiers until they take wives and settle down.  But unlike his comrades, Jeremiah didn’t want to settle down with a wife – he only wants men. This means he’d have been doomed to remain a soldier until he’d fall in battle, hadn’t his people choosen him to go into hostage.

Among Tobias’s people, love between men is taboo. Tobias is the kings’s third son and as such not very likely to inherit the throne anyway, much less obliged to produce an heir of his own. So when he discovered he leaned towards men rather than women he took a vow of celibacy which prohibited him even from masturbating – a vow very fitting for one who has healing powers and is destined to become a monk.

The journey south is long and cold. The soldier and the prince  are forced to share a blanket for warmth, and as they  are both young, healthy men, one thing quickly leads to another. While Jeremiah embraces, literally and figuratively, everything he and Tobias share, the prince is conflicted. He loves Jeremiah, but he can’t overcome his upbringing.
Something Tobias learns about Jeremiah’s past finally breaks them up.
Now Jeremiah is back with the Red Cloaks on their last stand against an overwhelming enemy, and Tobias is with the few remaining monks who fight a losing battle against the plague. Death and eternal separation are more likely than not for the lovers, and it will take more than a mere miracle to bring them back  together.

This book was written in alternating third person with a little bit of third person omniscient strewn in. Which was mostly fine by me, since the style, seemingly oldfashioned and “stilted”, fit the story and the setting, but also created some distance between the reader and the protagonists. However, the narrative suffered a bit from frequently changing POV’s. The two main characters had a lot of sex during the first part, well-written scenes of which nevertheless one or the other could have been left out without harm.

The worldbuilding here was sketchy at best, as was the background information on much near anything. Religion, culture, setting, the lay of the land – everything was mostly only hinted at. Jeremiah’s and Tobias’s countries remain nameless, as well as the reason why they were at war in the first place. Why did Tobias’s father chose his youngest son to be spared? The Red Cloaks are soldiers, but for whom do they fight, and why? Why, if their people is gone, does the last garrison of Red Cloaks defend the harbor city of Tarth against the Northmen? How did the slave boy Daedulus come about his magical healing powers? And so on.

Tobias and Jeremiah are two healthy men of twenty-one, so the insta-lust between them is comprehensible, particularly with Jeremiah’s gentle persuasion and Tobias’s hunger for affection after a lonely adulthood. Less so, but still acceptable is them declaring their love by the end of the journey, given that they are both young and have slightly dramatic dispositions. But the breakup? Tobias’s ready acceptance of a stranger’s judgement about the man whom he claimed to love? Smacked of the same old, same old. And Daedulus, likeable as he was, acted very much as a convenient Jack-in-the-box-savior for both heroes.

I’m aware I’ve been bitching away for a while now. Why the rating, you’ll ask, if I had so many issues with this book? Because despite all its flaws, this book had a very particular beauty about it that pulled on my heartstrings.  The heroes’ sufferings, their pain and sacrifices were mostly circumstantial. Even though they did the regretful pining for each other thing, particularly Jeremiah, they dealt with their real life hardships in a way that fit their respective personalities. The lovesickness wasn’t blown up to excessive proportions as it is often the case with stories where the heroes suffer a lot. Even with the miraculous reunion and the falling in love all over again this story stayed just this side of saccharine, which I appreciate greatly.

This story delivered the message “Love conquers all” with so much honest sentimentality I couldn’t help feel touched by it. If you’re in the mood for a solid, old-fashioned fantasy-themed romance and don’t mind a little pathos, try this one for a bit of romantic indulgence.