The Queen's Guard

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Friedrich Schreiner is a proudgefreiterof the Queen's Guard, 2nd Company: the finest fighting infantry on the continent (barring the Temple Guard; but please don't bring that up). Service is honourable but, with the Empire on a peacetime footing, terribly boring.

Affairs take a dramatic turn for the worse when a mysterious invader uses a forgotten and taboo magical means to breach the capital, plunging the nation into chaos and endangering the royal family.

With events spiraling out of control, Friedrich is entrusted with a critical mission. Will hot lead, cold steel, and his determination be enough to see him through?

The Queen's Guard is what I'm calling a black powder fantasy story: it's set in a loose equivalent of the early 18th century (plus or minus a few pieces I decided I wanted or didn't want). Magic exists, but not in a spell-slinging sort of way: it's Earth-shaking undertakings or minor enchantments forged in by master craftsmen, the grand working of a secretive cabal or a slight nudge to the course of a blow.

I, the eternal optimist, have a full trilogy in mind. The first book isThe Prince's Arquebusier, hence the cover and the title disagreeing!

This is my shot at 2021's NaNoWriMo and RR Writathon! I've hitherto been terrible at writing long-form fiction, so this is an effort to break out of that by having some accountability in being supposed to post chapters regularly. Here's hoping it works!

I have an outline, but not too much detail. I'll do my best to avoid continuity errors, doing anything glaringly stupid, or otherwise fluffing my lines, but I can't make any promises on that. Please do let me know any feedback! Always happy to improve.

[participant in the Nov 2023 Royal Road Writathon challenge]

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2021
Author: Arx

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 134
Views: 53,288

Reviews

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Community Reviews(6)

ApolloAboveRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The author is weaving a wonderful story with well thought out action, plot and movement, and I've already shared it with friends. So long as the author takes heart in their work and continues on, they'll soon find themselves an adoring audience here on RR!
Not much is lacking in the story and it's structure, and the characters are strong and developed.
EmpireofTrustRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A great tale set in a time of shot and powder, when clouds of smoke bellowed across fields full of soldiers.
Not quite the usual setting, full of patriotism and faith backed by steel and lead brandished against strange magics.
It describes the heroes tale not as the bards sing it but as the hero lived it.
PakhawajRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Excellent story, with almost constant dire circumstances and frantic action, interspaced by brief moments of respite.
Despite the frenetic pace, there was still room for one to get a good sense of the characters, and engage with the world. This is largely because of the author's skill in evoking landscapes and feelings through descriptive (but not verbose) prose, as well as the characters each of whom was written so distinctly that their unique voices made themselves known to me with seemingly little effort.
I see that there is currently a hiatus which is a shame, as I am eagerly looking forward to reading the second book, though the first is a great read just on its own.
PotassiumRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a more traditional fantasy story than the average on this Site. It is well written, with compelling characters and a clear plot, almost nothing is told and we are gradually shown the world and its magic. Almost no grammatical mistakes, it is a hidden pearl, well worth the read!
theoldestnoobRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is an astonishingly good story in the "black powder fantasy" subgenre, very well written with a realistic-feeling world and characters. So far it is not very "high fantasy" but feels more grounded. There is magic, but none of the characters we've met are capable of using it and aside from some major things early on that kick off the plot, there is not really any of it to speak of as of Chapter 22. The characters are skilled humans with swords, pikes, and 18th century firearms, but clearly not superhuman as you would find in more "heroic" fantasy.
Style
I find the style very readable. It is more elaborately written than many fictions on this site, with a hint of the sort of flowery or formal language that I associate with historical fiction. Not so much to be distracting or break the flow of reading, but enough to give it a sort of distinctive voice.
Grammar
Grammar is excellent. I did not see any spelling or grammatical errors, and the sentence structure tends to be complex enough that I was pleasantly surprised to not find any.
Story
This is an adventure story, involving an elite soldier being detached from his company and sent on a crucial mission after a surprise invasion. It is very much not an action story so far, although there is plenty of (well-written) action in it. Excepting the first few chapters (covering the invasion), it is more "low-level" individual action during a perilous journey than grand heroic setpieces.
The author claims that they have an outline for the story, and I fully believe it - this reads like a story which has been planned, which is an incredibly good thing in my opinion. Author's notes indicate that some sections go on longer than anticipated, but I get the impression that this is due to detail being added and the characters and setting fleshed out rather than the sort of meandering narrative that is frequently found in serial fiction.
Character
The characters are excellent. Every character that is involved in more than a few pa
RilkefanRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is an engaging matchlock fantasy - arquebus and sword with very little magic and no progression. Sort of a Dumas homage told in a less sprawling but more leisurely fashion. The author clearly has done a lot of homework about 17th (?) century Germany, cavalry combat, and early guns. Nothing unconventional in story but absolutely top-notch in prose quality. Unfortunately not being updated regularly, but the first novel is complete and is a satisfactory stopping point.
Grammar: I wish the German words were capitalized and not italicized but oh well. Otherwise no issues. 5 stars.
Story: The story is mostly quite inventive given its very conventional elements. There is one arc told in series, with tension that builds and releases nicely. I didn't find it especially gripping or entirely well-motivated though so 4.5 stars.
Characters: Engaging, well-drawn, nothing beyond the conventional though, and little growth. The main character (and the various secondary characters) are competent but believable. One, a foreign scholar, speaks German using a rich vocabulary but an ungrammatical sentence structure, which I didn't find that plausible, but oh well. 4.5 stars.
Style: The prose style is professional level, an absolute pleasure to read. The novel is worth reading by anyone interested in the craft of writing simply on this basis. Multiple times I found myself reading a sentence or paragraph and thinking I ought to copy it down in case I got around to writing a review and needed a good example of why I was so impressed - pick a random point in the story and see for yourself if you like.