Drosselmeyer: Curse of the Rat King

by Paul Thompson

Unsure of how he escaped the prison known as Ivanov's Home for Orphaned Boys, Fritz finds himself the newest apprentice in the most powerful Wizard consortium, The Order. After uncovering clues to a decade-old murder, Fritz becomes the unwitting target of someone who wants him dead. To keep him from solving the mystery, they're willing to kill anyone-including Fritz's friends and family.

Now Fritz is in a race against time to unravel the clues and unmask the murderer before the next kill. If he has any hopes of surviving, Fritz must unify his fellow group of dysfunctional apprentices and confront the most deadly enemy he's ever known.

Curse of the Rat King is book one of the action-packed Nutcracker Trilogy chronicling Drosselmeyer's rise to power and setting up the events in the Nutcracker Ballet.

Genres: Fantasy

412 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 25, 2021

About the author

Librarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Amy Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give this four stars. It was an exciting story, and I really enjoyed it as a plausible background to the ballet story. The author is a friend from college days. Somehow I accidentally had the idea that these are for tween age or young teens. But it was way too much gore and violence for kids, as well as references (not explicit but clear) to abuse of boys and one homosexual affair between teen boys and one incident of harassment of teen girls, and two instances of drunkenness, as well as teen romance (not bad, but comments like “she’s hot” or a few kisses). For these reasons I can’t recommend it. I wish he hadn’t included them, because it would make a rip-roaring story without that darkness. It’s like Harry Potter at first.

[Dan Mingo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is a great story teller and develops his characters well. Overall I loved the story arcs and the characters. I did feel as the the main character took a turn at some point that made no sense to who he was. It got a little dark and revenge oriented. While I understood it and it fit, his character was not that at all until a sudden moment. Caught me by surprise. Looking forward to the sequel.

[Patrick S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really a great premise for a book. Taking a world that can be built upon with the backdrop of The Nutcracker, Thompson establishes the magic system and magicians of that world. This being the first book of the trilogy, you can find characters that will pop up in the main story.

What Thompson does is takes the tropes of magic training and gives them weight. Magic is a product of one's energy that can be completed, runes and drawing shapes focuses the magic use, and each magicians has their own genre focus with our main character being under the tutelage of a mage of time. On top of that, Thompson has written characters to care about. Our main character Frtiz/Ddrosselmeyer is not "the chosen one" but is special and he's also kind and focused on doing the right thing. The other magicians in training and people worth caring about and trying to solve the mystery of who is trying to take them out matters to the reader for all of them.

The quality of writing is very well done. Building characters, adding tension, revealing clues and resolving them, and adding hints along the way shows the talent of Thompson as an author and the care he has for the world he is populating. This would be a hit for teenage boys and those who don't need 10, 2,000 page book series to enjoy a good fantasy novel. I'm excited to read the next two! Final Grade - A

[Nathan Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great job. The backstory to why the author wrote this was great. Helps me to look more into the play of the Nutcracker to learn more about the various characters, especially if Uncle Drosselmeyer is involved. Can't wait for the other books in the series. Glad to find you online and being able to purchase during your pre-order time period. Chapter 19 might want to be pre-read by parents, but we did the whole family chapter by chapter each night and was pretty good. Paul satisfied the end of each chapter with "give me more" every time. The kids and my wife would groan when the chapter was done. Solid writing. Thanks for the entertainment, Paul!

[JustEvan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful afternoon read. Just a lot of fun. Quick paced and action packed.
I would say good for the older YA crowd. There is some stuff that might be inappropriate for younger readers, but only hinted at. Worth reading the About the Author part to understand where the story is coming from.

(note: Paul is a friend of mine and that's how I know about the book. But it's still a fun book and I recommend it heartily. Also there are a bunch of Paul Thompson's on here...so I'll get his profile and link to it.)

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved every minute of this book! Fast paced, interesting story, and well-written characters. Wonderful story building for the Nutcracker ballet.

Some gore and language is present. (Didn’t love the language so much)

[Caleb Salmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

It was excited and mysterious with a little bit of magic. I also think it would be good for other teenagers 14 and up

[Mark Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both my teen son and I really enjoyed this book. I am on to the 2nd one.

[Peyton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Way more violent than I thought it would be, but it was still pretty good.