Review - History of Beauty by Meraki P. Lyhne

More than a thousand years before Daniel was born, another royal emerged in the Norse regions of Europe. Like Daniel, Elakdon was almost immediately faced with dealing with new problems coming to the ancient Cubi peoples. Chief among these is a new religion sweeping north: Christianity. It’s a faith whose beliefs demonize and directly threaten the Cubi, who have traditionally lived openly alongside humans.

“History of Beauty” is a story within the larger story of the Cubi series. The bulk of this book is the tale related by Elakdon about his experiences on coming to power. It’s full of situations relevant to the current struggles facing Daniel and the American Cubi. But there are aspects to the story that give us more background on Elakdon himself.

Elakdon was already a key figure in the previous few books, as one of the main royals coming to support and empower Daniel. Through this story we get to know him even more. While there are definite parallels to Daniel’s rise, there are also many differences, which makes Elakdon stand out as a character in his own right. Like Daniel, Elakdon had no inkling that he was a royal until he started his empowerment as a Cubi after coming of age. Unlike Daniel, Elakdon was raised in the Cubi community and is surrounded by a support network the moment it’s realized what he is.

The times Elakdon came to power in were very different, and there’s a bit more violence on display than we’ve seen for a few installments of this series. It’s all in keeping with the times, and even serves to provide some important life lessons for the young royal. 

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this volume of the series is Elakdon’s relationship with Randr, a man who doesn’t, on the face of things, fit the high standards for beauty of the Cubi. And that’s before what happens to him over the course of his relationship with Elakdon. The sub-plot serves to illustrate a point made in the earlier books, that the Cubi value honor as much as beauty.

There’s one negative note about this book, and that’s the proofing. There are a lot of minor word-use and other spelling mistakes, as well as a couple of mangled sentences. They’re all the type of errors you make when you’re writing, and should have been caught in a proof-read. Previous books did not have this problem, so hopefully it was just an oversight.

“History of Beauty” is available from Amazon.