Our King and His Court by Rich Larson

Our King and His Court by Rich Larson
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A futuristic story about a high-ranking soldier in a criminal gang who has conflicting loyalties to his monstrous boss and that boss’s innocent young son.

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The world building was really well done. Scipio, the main character, lived in a violent, post-apocalyptic society where only the strongest and most cunning people had any chance of survival. It wasn’t a pleasant place to live by any means, but I did have a vivid impression of what it was like to live in a world run by sociopathic criminals. Danger lurked everywhere there. Escaping it completely wasn’t an option, but someone who was intelligent could reduce their chances of dying painfully if they played the game the right way.

It would have been helpful to have the same attention to detail paid to the character development. I wouldn’t expect to spend a lot of time exploring the personalities and backstories of characters in such a strongly plot-based tale, but it would have been nice to get to know them better as individuals before terrible things began happening to and around them.

I loved the plot twists. It was surprising to see how many of them Mr. Larson was able to squeeze into such a short story. He did an excellent job of gently foreshadowing what would happen next without make it easy for his readers to figure everything out in advance. I especially appreciated how much effort he put into showing how inhumanely El Tirano, Scipio’s boss, treated everyone around him. That clue could have easily given the audience too much or too little information about what was coming next, but the author handled it perfectly.

If you like dark and sometimes disturbing science fiction, give Our King and His Court a try.