The Choices of the King

The Choices of the King is the ninth in a series of Queen of Gondal books and is a quasi-historical AU of the BBC Sherlock series set (more or less) in three fantasy kingdoms devised by the Bronte children. It is also a cross-over with the BBC Life on Mars series. You might like to refer to their suggested reading order, family trees & series information.

The Choices of the King deals with the immediate aftermath of the final scene of The Abbess of Norburyness. With the Crown Prince missing, his numerous enemies at Court strive to blacken his name with accusations of everything from cold-blooded murder to treason. The King is forced to take drastic action to prevent all-out revolt in Council, though it feels like cutting off his own right hand.

Warnings: The author chooses not to warn.

Advisory: The time period is the late seventeenth century and readers should bear in mind that this saga contains the doings of a set of supremely dysfunctional more-or-less European Royal families steeped in the “divine right of kings” ideology of monarchy, filtered through an early nineteenth century Romantic/Gothick sensibility and then depicted using the freedom of expression afforded by the early twenty-first century internet.

Furthermore, if the Greek myths contemplated it, some member of the Royal houses of Gondal, Angria or Gaaldine has probably put it into practice somewhere.

Gentle reader, consider yourself advised accordingly.

Acknowledgements:
As every, thanks to caulkhead for betaing.

The original central cover image is taken from a  photograph of pieces from the game Gnav, an old Norwegian board game by Aaa324. The fonts used in this book are from the Source Serif Pro font family by Frank Grießhammer.

The images and fonts were used under license detailed on their respective website pages at the date of this book publication.

As usual, Russ from shoes for industry designed the book cover, produced the books and compiled the on-line work.

The opinions, prejudices, faults and spelling herein are all my own work, and I apologise in advance for them.

---

This short story is rated Teen (15). You might also like to consider other books set in the Sherlock or Life on Mars fandoms or read more books in the Queen of Gondal series.

- First Edition: 12th May 2012
- 2nd Edition: 18th May 2012
- 3rd Edition: 12th Apr 2021

This work is created as a transformative work on a not-for-profit basis. All rights in the underlying properties are those of their respective holders.