Richard: Distant Son by Michael W Hickman

SPSFC 2023

Richard is an average fifteen-year-old from the hills of Ohio whose biggest concerns are studying for tests and asking Becky out next Saturday. Everything changes one day when, while lying on the sofa in his parents’ basement, he hears someone whisper, I am your gift. A moment later, the sofa shoots straight up into the air, passing like a ghost through the house and then soaring into space. The sofa doesn’t stop until it reaches the moon. There he meets AAL, an artificial life form, who reveals a shocking Richard is the rightful heir to a kingdom spanning the Milky Way galaxy. With AAL’s help, Richard will travel to the distant planet of Krel, the kingdom’s capital, to claim his throne. Along the way, he will encounter wondrous creatures that he once thought centaurs, satyrs, pure white pegasuses, and many others. But powerful forces are already gathering against him, and after centuries without a ruler, many in the kingdom are not ready to accept a boy from a backwater planet as their king. It will take every ounce of strength Richard has, along with help from some unlikely allies, for him to seize his destiny.