This novel is subtitled A Ballad of Lies, Deceit, and Redemption, a pretty accurate accounting of what you’ll find within the pages. The story focuses on Liam, a minstrel who has been raised from poverty through a king’s proclamation and trained as a musician. He makes his living traveling around with a band of performers, but never are the pickings better than in the king’s city. Only the first thing they learn is that the benevolent king has died and the kingdom has fallen to one of twin brothers while the other is at the distant reaches of the kingdom.

An observant nature, combined with the new king’s wish to fete his nobility gives Liam a unique perspective on this new court, one he would have much rather left to some other soul.

This is a story of big events shown through little eyes, meaning Liam does not have the political, economic, or agricultural background to understand the implications of what he observes, but that knowledge comes to him through what he hears and after Shamus, the other twin, takes Liam into his employ as a historian, things get more complicated.

Minstrel is a non-traditional narrative in that while there are big, epic events occurring all around them, it’s a people story with the “farm boy becomes king” theme. The focus is not on the kingdom, or even on just what Liam becomes entangled in. The events are less important than the reactions, interactions, and intentions of the people involved, whether royalty or a gutter-born minstrel.

Marissa Ames offers an unusual perspective on the epic fantasy, but one that won me over. I read this book in paper, the first in quite some time, and so had to adjust my reading methodologies to free two hands. This didn’t stop me from reading quickly because I wanted to know what would happen next, and even had an “Oh no, you didn’t” moment when events in the story turned in a direction that made sense to the story but denied everything I, as a reader, wanted. This is not a simple read with a straightforward narrative. It is, as I said before, a people story, and people are complicated. Things happen, choices are made, and sometimes those aren’t the “dream come true” type decisions, but they’re also the right ones, no matter how harsh.

I will admit I stumbled over the first page, but kept going, and by the second page, personalities started to manifest, the description in the beginning started to make sense as more than just scenery, and I was hooked.

This book came from Grassroots Books, my local bookstore, because Marissa Ames is a Reno author. I met her online, through NaNo, I believe, but it was the book copy that piqued my interest. I’m happy to say my support paid off in a wonderful read.