The Wax King: The Deathtaker's Daughter by Robert Miguel Solis
What's It About?
The months leading up to the holidays are always exciting. Mariah Carey plays nonstop on in every store and radio, the decorations come out in full force, and companies everywhere release their most anticipated products.This is particularly true when it comes to books — especially fantasy, however any real fantasy reader knows that one of the greatest struggles of being a fan of the genre is plowing through these new releases too quickly. Having to deal with the wait between series entries can feel like an eternity, and often you find that nothing can quite scratch that same itch while you wait. Thankfully, author Robert Miguel Solis aims to change that with his new novel The Wax King: The Deathtaker’s Daughter (B&N Press), a unique and engaging tale that draws from classic genre-fare while subverting tropes and carving its own niche.
A MURDER (AND MIASMA) MOST FOUL
As the only deathtaker in the capital city of Belledon, Berol Lackey is kept busy preparing the deceased for burial, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Unfortunately however, her quiet life comes to an abrupt halt when her eccentric friend is discovered dead in her own quarters.
Things become stranger still when Berol meets an old wizard on his way to warn the king of a deadly plague encroaching on the city and consuming entire towns in the process. In a bizarre turn of events her king’s command, Berol finds herself traveling with the wizard on a quest to discover the source of the plague. Along the way, the unlikely party acquires a royal guard captain, an archer, a scientist, the city’s royal tinker and an ancient alien construct.
While the quest seems simple at first, discover the source of the plague and put an end to it, the group soon realizes that it is anything but, and that the only key to saving the city, and perhaps even the world, from darkness is the mysterious occult object known only as the Wax King.
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN FANTASY
Immediately noticeable from the first page is Solis’ poetic prose. Typically, fantasy writers can either write elegantly but lose themselves in flowery descriptions and exposition, or move the plot along at the proper pace at the sacrifice of panache. Solis displays both:
“The sun crested over the eastern mountains and, in an instant, the colors returned from their nightly wanderings and chased the drabness of the morning away. The headstones turned form dull gray to warm amber at the caress of the sun’s morning rays. Shadows behind the stones and fences grew long as dawn worked its way across the land. At last, the brightness found the corpse of the honored dead.”
As enjoyable as Solis’ writing style are his unique takes on classic fantasy tropes. Perhaps the most noticeable is the role death plays in the novel. Typically in fantasy, the protagonists and heroes are actively working against death. Death is always an evil, ugly, antagonistic force that provides a challenge for the heroes to overcome. In The Deathtaker’s Daughter, death is beautiful, peaceful, a natural progression of life, and as one character mentions, “ Eternity does not end with the heart’s last beat. It begins there.”
There are many more instances throughout the book of tropes being turned on their head, which make for a delightfully serpentine and unpredictable narrative.
As I mentioned earlier, The Deathtaker’s Daughter is more than worthy of keeping fantasy readers occupied while they wait for their favorite series. In fact, being only the first entry in The Wax King series, the book and subsequent entries might very well become one of those themselves.
