“Possibilities” by Nicole Field

We interrupt my social distancing complaints to bring you this installment from the Great Ace Digital Book Box! Possibilities tells the story of Ernest, a prince who suddenly ascends to the throne after his father’s death and sibling’s abandonment. It is also the story of Drel, a royal jester who hopes to make life easier for their king.

The best part of this book is the inclusion of pronouns and gender fluidity into a medieval court setting. Yeah it’s a little strange, but it fits so well into the way that Fields writes. Drel is gender fluid (I will refer to them as they for simplicity’s sake) and the pronouns that they use change day-to-day. This is reflected in the narrative where sometimes Drel is a he, she, or they. And it is even widely accepted in the kingdom, when Drel is hired Ernest asks for their pronouns and Drel adds that this is a fairly common question in this kingdom. Later, in one key passage, Drel wants to be explicit with Ernest about this, and they come up with an arrangement where Ernest asks Drel for their pronouns after breakfast each day. Drel describes this as incredibly intimate for them, they aren’t open about their pronouns to anyone else. It’s so wonderful to see a relationship including a gender fluid person, and how natural it is in this world. And even though it is accepted, it still makes Drel happy!

Unfortunately though I thought the world building here was a little lacking. SPOILERS! The whole plot is a love story between Ernest and Drel. Maybe it’s because I’m a stickler with fantasy, but we never get an answer to why Ernest’s sibling ran off or where to. It revolves around this one relationship. And something about a king marrying his jester feels icky to me. I mean the book presents it in a fine way, everything is consensual and cute, but like. Still. There’s one heck of a power dynamic there. And it never really shows anything messy about their relationship. Ernest is constantly commenting on how graceful and lithe Drel is, how they seem to know what he needs at any moment. I’m not totally sure why Drel is into Ernest. But he doesn’t seem to put any effort in, and Drel never calls him out on anything he does. I don’t know, this is fiction and isn’t supposed to be real but I’m suspending a lot of disbelief here if the ending with them getting married is supposed to be happy.

I should knock it off, it’s a cute story, a quick read, and very well-written with good representation. It’s just something about this leaves a strange taste in my mouth. But hey, it’s a free ebook! Sign up for the mailing list if you haven’t already, the curator is taking a break for corona since this isn’t the best time to get authors to hand out free books, but they will be back afterwards!