I heard about this book from Krysta at Pages Unbound and it sounded really interesting so I hunted down the nearest library copy. As expected, I was not disappointed.

The Letter Tor The King starts with Tiuri keeping vigil. This is the last task that he has to do before he becomes a knight. But when someone knocks at the door asking for help, Tiuri knows that the knightly thing to do is to help. Even if it means giving up his knighthood. And so, Tiuri starts a quest to deliver an important letter to the king of the neighbouring kingdom, one that will bring him much danger and many friends.

For some reason, this book reminded me of The Book of Three from The Chronicles of Prydain. While it doesn’t have as much humour as The Book of Three, it has the same classical feel. It’s a pretty straightforward quest and the emphasis is really more on Tiuri growing than it is on the plot (although Tiuri’s growth is not as obvious as Taran’s). I liked that Tiuri got to meet a lot of different people on the way. The main characters are Tiuri and Piak, his companion, but there was a steady amount of characters that they get to meet. I feel that having two main characters help in allowing the minor characters to have an adequate amount of page-time without it being too overwhelming.

Although the plot wasn’t the most fast-paced, I enjoyed it. There was the right amount of mystery that made me want to read on and I was pretty satisfied by the ending as well. This isn’t like most YA fantasies that have battle after battle, but is more like The Book of Three and Lord of The Rings, which for the most part aren’t the fastest paced books.

The Letter For The King is a classic fantasy YA that will probably appeal to fans of books like the Chronicles of Prydain. It feels like it’s aimed towards a slightly younger audience than the Chronicles of Prydain and the Hobbit, but I still really enjoyed it. I realised at the end that there are other books in the series, which I’ll have to read too.