The Queen of the Tearling

Set on a fictional continent many years in the future, American author Erika Johansen’s fantasy novel The Queen of the Tearling (2014) tells the story of Princess Kelsea's efforts to fight injustice and restore the Kingdom of Tear to its former glory. The first book in a trilogy, The Queen of the Tearling is followed by 2015's The Invasion of the Tearling and 2016's The Fate of the Tearling.

When Princess Kelsea is an infant, her mother—Queen Elyssa of the Kingdom of Tear—hides her away in the countryside to protect her until she comes of age. Elyssa dies at the age of 28, throwing her kingdom into turmoil. As arranged by her mother, when Kelsea reaches 19 she receives a visit from the Queen's Guard, informing her that she will travel with them to her new home in the Keep, located in the Kingdom's capital of New London. Before she leaves, her surrogate mother, Carlin, gives Kelsea a sapphire necklace just like the one she's had her whole life. On the morning of her departure, she wakes up to find her original necklace glowing.

On the way to New London, the royal retinue is set upon by a group of brigands. The guard is scattered, and Kelsea and her guardsman Lazarus are separated. They are rescued by a second group of brigands who fight off the first but keep Kelsea and Lazarus captive. The leader of the group is an infamous masked bandit, the Fetch, to whom Kelsea is drawn. While Lazarus is kept in chains, Kelsea is permitted to travel freely among the brigands. Impressed by Kelsea's politics, intelligence, and good-hearted nature, the Fetch releases Kelsea and Lazarus and escorts them to New London himself. Meanwhile, the Fetch keeps Kelsea's second sapphire necklace and promises to return it should she live up to her potential as a ruler.

Kelsea is shocked by much of what she observes in New London. For example, she learns that the Tear sends 250 slaves a month to the adjacent kingdom of Mortmesne as a form of appeasement to avoid a war. Mortmesne is led by the wicked Red Queen. Upon finding the slaves in cages ready to be shipped to Mortmesne, Kelsea orders them released, their cages burned, and the barbaric practice halted. While this endears her to the common folk of New London, some of her royal peers are mortified that she would threaten war with Mortmesne. Her Uncle Thomas, for example, tries but fails to assassinate Kelsea in an attempt thwarted by Lazarus. Rather than execute Uncle Thomas, Kelsea exiles him in an act of mercy.

Meanwhile, Arlen Thorne is under pressure to restart the slave deliveries. His wife is among the slaves sent to Mortmesne, and the Red Queen vows to release her should Thorne do the Red Queen's bidding. Thorne sends a man to assassinate Kelsea while she's in the bath, but her necklace releases some sort of magical pulse that kills the would-be assassin. From that point forward, Pen is assigned as Kelsea's personal bodyguard as Lazarus is too busy with other duties as the head of the Queen's Guard to watch over Kelsea all the time.

In a vision, Kelsea sees that the Red Queen has mobilized her forces in preparation for an invasion of the Tear. Hoping to find a new home, Uncle Thomas and his men travel to Mortmesne to defect. On the way, the Fetch kills all of Thomas' men. Before killing Thomas, the Fetch takes off his mask, surprising Thomas with his identity. In another vision, Kelsea sees women and children of the Tearling countryside being taken by the Red Queen's soldiers as slaves. Kelsea insists on traveling with Lazarus and Pen to save them. As they travel, Kelsea feels her necklace pulling her along. Whenever she removes it, she grows pale and weak. The necklace leads the group to the Argive Pass separating the Tear and Mortmesne, where they see Thorne and others transporting cages of slaves. While Kelsea's men raid the encampment, Kelsea is approached by the Fetch, who has been observing her. He gives her back the second necklace, which begins to glow wildly. Kelsea feels energy flow through her body as she finds herself galloping toward the fight. Blue energy from the necklaces wipes out any enemy in her path. Kelsea and her guard win the battle and free the women and children.

After the battle, Kelsea is dazed and frightened of her power. She learns from Lazarus that her adoptive parents killed themselves with cyanide as soon as Kelsea departed to avoid being tortured for information or ransomed. Kelsea adopts their surname Glynn to honor them. The Fetch returns to New London with Uncle Thomas' head on a pike, a tribute to Kelsea.

Meanwhile, in Mortmesne, the Red Queen is tormented by Kelsea's popularity and power. She sacrifices a slave boy to create a monster she hopes will counsel her. The monster tells her she must call off the invasion of the Tear.

ReactorMag.com calls The Queen of the Tearling "a perfectly capable novel."