“Don’t
you know,” she said, “that mortals are incredibly dense?”
It has been
prophesied that Prince Idris of the Seelie Court will unite the two courts of
the Fae. But King Adoh of the Unseelie
Court doesn’t care for this idea. When he attacks the young prince, leaving him
blind and marred, all believe that the prophecy can never come to pass. Idris retreats to the wild lands, where he
lives with seven goblins too ugly to be bothered by his ruined face. Yet King Adoh is not satisfied to leave Idris
alive. Fortunately, he has an assassin
that he can send after the blind prince…
Keeva the
huntress has never trusted anyone. When
she comes to the wild hills, the prey that she hunts may not be what she expects…
High Points
Idris and
Keeva are both really enjoyable to read about. They have a great relationship and a lot of
fun dialogue. I especially related to
Keeva, who has a lot of baggage to carry around. What we get of her backstory is really
interesting; I would have liked to know more, but that would probably have given
away a major plot twist!
This story
is gender-swapped, with a male Snow White, yet Williams incorporates many of
the story’s original motifs: apples, a poisoned comb, a deathlike sleep, a
villain in disguise. Each of them feels
integral to the new story—they aren’t just added as part of a Snow White
checklist.
“Fairest Son” has a brand-new overarching theme that is
sustained through the story with rich imagery.
I like stories that make me think about the world, so I especially
enjoyed that aspect of the tale.
Caveats
(Hmm… surely
there’s something I can complain about…
People are more likely to take a review seriously if you say something
grumpy…)
A lot of the
description in this story is done in a heightened tone. This usually works well, but in the prelude
in particular there are a number of places where the tone fails suddenly or
where a twenty-dollar word is used incorrectly.
There are also some typos that seem to have been introduced when the
story was converted to an ebook.
A nitpicky thing: the author uses both the “seelie” and
“sidhe” spellings. These are the same
word, one spelled according to the Irish tradition, one according to the
Anglicized tradition. Also, since
Williams uses these regionally-specific designations for the Fae… is the story
set in Britain or Ireland somewhere? I didn't think so when I was reading it.
Bottom
Line
This is a
fun, edifying, and well-written story that I will definitely reread in
the future. I paid for my copy and don’t
regret it. :)
Links
Find it as
an ebook or paperback here.
Hannah’s
website is here.
