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Book by M.A. Richter
Reviewed by Pennell Paugh
December 9, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – Local author M.A. Richter announces the release of Mystic Prince: Vixen. The book is a fantasy-adventure that follows Khael, an enlightened prince in 2773, who has just regained his crown. He reestablishes a government and places his mother, a princess, to oversee day-to-day governance of the realm. He wishes to travel and to negotiate treaties with other realms. He also wants to continue training to become a master mystic under a mentor.
Khael is in love with Vixen, whose identity is not certain and some believe she has been trained to assassinate him. He makes Vixen, who loves him also, into head of security in an act of trust. He hopes to uncover the mystery around her background and whether she is trustworthy to be a life partner. Can he help her retrieve her memories and become her own person? If so, will she continue to love him?
Using flowery language, he captures a sense of the times. The story begins:
“Khael raised his palms in peaceful surrender. Surely Vixen meant no threat to him, though the shiny, harder-than-steel chronicon dagger she pointed toward him glinted its lethal sharpness. Her kih rippled an overlay of terror over the exquisite energy patterns in her life force that so enchanted him. Could their budding love for each other fall prey to her potential as a Chelevkori assassin sent to kill him?
"Please lower the dagger. It was only a nightmare." Khael spoke calmly, his thoughts racing. Perhaps his soft, level voice would soothe her fears. This had been her first terrifying, predictive dream of many since, weeks ago. However, given her astonishing expertise in collector and assassin skills, a panic attack could easily become fatal. "How much worse than life could it be?"
“The expression on her perfect face under the glossy swirl of her flame-red hair progressed from openly terrified to anxious, to worried, all the way to serene, or at least less stressed.”
Even before Mark Richter’s long career in software development, he had been a lifelong, avid fan of mythology, science fiction and fantasy. In his childhood, he immersed himself in Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" hundreds of times, followed by C. S. Lewis' "Narnia" series many times until he found his true love of fantasy—"The Lord of the Rings."
When he discovered the adventures of fantasy role-playing in the game, "Empire of the Petal Throne," he became enamored with the idea of creating worlds filled with different life-forms, societal structures and a wide variety of professional guilds.
As a resident of San Diego, he is a Distinguished Toastmaster, past president of one of his four Toastmasters clubs, past president of his church, and a long-time member of the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild, Publishers and Writers of San Diego, and the Independent Book Publishers Association.
Mystic Prince: Vixen is the second volume of the Mystic Prince trilogy.
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