Defying Fate – Two Tales of the Warden by D. L Morrese

I have just finished reading the free ebook Defying Fate – Two Tales of the Warden by D. L Morrese.

At the beginning this seemed to be a very simple, but slightly humorous fantasy story, but after a while, I realized that there was more to come. As I kept reading, the story became more complex, but still, to some extent, slightly humorous, which is ok with me. Briefly, it’s the story of a young prince, Donald, who’s travelling around his father’s kingdom (and a neighbouring country) as a learning experience. He is accompanied by a guide/bodyguard, who’s an old soldier with a very pessimistic outlook on life. Later on Donald makes more friends. It turns out there’s even more to this story than I originally thought. One of Donald’s new friends, is really a several thousand years old android. Another is an equally old robot dog. Basically, the plot centers around Donald’s quest to stop an unnecessary war between his country and the ‘stoutfolk’ (dwarf) country Gotrox. At first it seems his task is hopeless, but Donald just won’t give up and his friends do their best to back him up.

Mostly, this is a well-written and fascinating, but simple story. My only complaint is about the grammar – the author seems to have an inexplicable dislike of the perfect tense. It’s only ever seen in some of the dialogue. Without exception, the author seems to have chosen to replace the perfect tense with the past tense (imperfect). It was driving me crazy. I found myself rephrasing each sentence in the way I felt it should have been. Other than that, this was a fun, light read, with many sympathetic and funny characters.