Defender of the Realm by Mark Huckerby (review)

In this contemporarily set fantasy, Prince Alfie is only ten seconds older than his twin, the much stronger and more charismatic Prince Richard, but that’s enough to make him the heir to the throne of England and his brother the spare. Meanwhile, Hayley finds herself in the wrong place when her visit to the Tower of London is interrupted by a battle between a white knight, the Defender, and a monstrous beast, the Black Lizard. After his father dies, Alfie learns that there is much more to the monarchy than he thought, and that his dad was, in fact, the Defender who was just felled. It takes a long time and a lot of support from Hayley (who ends up in the training mix) and a whole team of others before Alfie is ready to face his destiny as king and Defender, and even then it’s not entirely clear if he’ll be up to the task. Alfie’s brother, Richard, is a complex character who appears to be rather straightforward at first, so the startling final reveal may have readers dipping back to see if they could have spotted his secrets earlier. Alfie and Hayley are effective foils for one another as Hayley is about as brash, loud, impetuous, and street smart as Alfie could ever hope to be, if he had lived a completely different life out from under the weight of royalty. Given the book’s screenwriter authors, it’s no surprise that the cinematic fight scenes are particularly gripping. Pure action fans will likely gloss over the occasional passage about kings past, but historical fiction buffs will appreciate how those stories underlie Alfie’s.