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kaigouMore, again, all adult-oriented, of various genres and mixes.
BERRY Nica - Venom’s Bond
HAWKE Morgan - Hungry Spirits
LANE Jourdan - Sacrifice | Deceptions | Bound by Blood
LANGLEY JL - With Caution
MANLY DJ - Melting Ice
MYKLES Jet - Snagged
RAYNE Marty - Bonded Hearts; Reluctant Hearts
RHODES ML - True of Heart
ROSSETTI Denise - Strongman | Tailspin
STRAUSS Katrina - Close to Me | Some Kind of Stranger | Chains of Love
VEINGLORY Emily - Father of Dragons | Nameless God
ZANNINI Maria - Touch of Fire
BERRY Nica - Venom’s Bond
‡ sff ‡ mm, mf ‡ distopic breeder-stock space population etc etc
Rather disturbing on some levels, and definitely not the usual fare for what gets lumped in with romance. Start with most of the human population (on spaceships, woah, like a perverted Battlestar Galactica) rendered infertile by plague; most men die upon reaching puberty and the majority who survive are infertle, so the few that aren’t are, well, walking spermbanks. Add in plenty of sadistic tendencies (but not in a purient sense so much as a humiliating, dehumanizing way). Young man newly introduced to breeding area befriends older man who’s adopted definite coping mechanisms for getting through the daily demeaning treatment. Bluntly, that one ends badly. Young man grows up, story jumps forward, and it’s his turn now to in turn teach another disaffected, isolated newcomer about how to get through with soul intact. Jump to the left and you’ve got lizard-men, and... what is it, cross-species sex? (There are tongues involved, and I do mean tongues.) It’s a happy ending, if you discount all the unhappy middle that it took to get to what is really a rather bizarre ending. Not exactly my box of cookies, but at least it’s relatively well-written and paced, eh.
HAWKE Morgan - Hungry Spirits
‡ paranormal ‡ m-f-m ‡ house-guardian spirit tries to protect lover & family heir
Strong on the Japanese traditions and backgrounds, with some definite liberties taken, but not in a jarring way. The dynamic between the characters feels awkward at times (like the author was still working into a three-way dynamic and I don’t just mean in a sexual sense but just in the basics of keeping distinct voices, motivations, etc), and I wonder if some of that was smoothed out during editing/revising and that’s where the few dregs of awkward weren’t entirely worked out, but it’s not a major issue. There are some eye-rollers but nothing that stopped me from reading. If you’re willing to overlook the potential for misreading and/or focusing too much (as a reader) on specific characters and thus give yourself the impression of a mary sue -- that is, the potential is there. The author balanced it decently, but it’s a very very fine line to walk, and if that doesn’t bother you, then you might enjoy.
One plus for this story is that the main active-dominant force (the house-guardian spirit) doesn’t have issues with being attracted to both genders, so none of that “I’m just gay for you” crap. He’s all about the good-loving from anything that moves. Or doesn’t move. But not in a crass way. Just in a very get-it-while-it’s-good way. The other plus? Hawke doesn’t pull what to me is often an imbalance in MFM, MMF, whatever it’s listed as, stories: where it’s both guys focused on the woman and only implied interaction (if that) between the guys. Seriously, folks, a true threeway relationship means threeway, not oneway in two directions. And lastly, Hawke doesn’t play the Japanese-influenced, yaoi-influenced formalized roles; as the characters start to loosen up (erm, so to speak) they also become more flexible in terms of dominance and power exchange (though not in a truly structured bdsm sense, just in the more lovers-playing kind of sense).
Overall, enjoyable. Not sure I’ll reread, but I’ve not really had my copy long enough to know whether I’ll ever get a taste for rereading down the road.
LANE Jourdan - Sacrifice; Deceptions; Bound by Blood
‡ paranormal ‡ m-m ‡ werewolves vampires oh my plus informal partner-switching
Good: what looks like the usual seme/dominant/top half easily (even eagerly) bottoms, and the power dynamic between the two main interests reflects this equality. So it’s not all the usual mysterious-vampire-lover-who-holds-all-the-cards. Plus, mister dominant-experienced-top-not-really vamp has a sense of humor, which is good. A very good sense of humor, actually.
Not-really-good: it’s on book three and it just keeps going. I’m not saying it’s not entertaining; it is. The story’s original relationships have shifted to new pairings, which is not a problem in and of itself, as group dynamics do evolve (especially over a long storyline). It’s that the level of -- how to put it? -- intensity for everything is rather... Conflict is good but when the story pivots to a great degree on the interpersonal relationships coming together and/or falling apart, it starts to feel a bit too soap-operaish. By that I mean, what leaves the greatest impression when the last pixel is scanned is that of interpersonal: jealousy prompts acting-out, possessiveness prompts retaliation, and so on -- as opposed to an external force (ie, a Big Bad) being the cause of any significant push. That's not automatically bad bad, just... it gets wearying after a bit. So much of the storylines seem to pivot on interpersonal betrayal, and after a while I'd like a bit more rallying around as a core group instead of turning on each other at what sometimes seems like the drop of a hat.
Throw in a main protagonist POV who isn’t fully vamp because he’s still mostly human, a strongly free-love kind of interaction (although not always consumated, definitely played on the sexual-tension and/or mebbe-mebbenot element) with many of the characters in the main core group. Then have the main protag also develop omg! amazing! rare! concurrent werewolf abilities, and I’m starting to sense mary sue powers on the rise. A genuine caring for a wide circle of friends, verging on polyamoury, doesn’t really count as a major flaw when the entire paranormal deck is slowly being stacked in your favor.
There are additional background characters who might have interesting stories of their own, but their motivations can range from inconsistent to too-simple. This is complicated by the style of using first-person POV (a rarity in the romance world, I’ll admit), which means those background characters just aren’t going to get the focus except as it’s filtered through the main protag’s storyline. That’s an authorial choice in storytelling, but whether it’s the protagonist’s focus or the author’s disinterest is hard to pin down. A large swirling cast tends to get lost as individual voices and become more of a quasi-greek chorus.
Three novels in, and the truth is, not everyone is GRR Martin, and even he can really only pull that off because he’s juggling the twenty POV characters by allowing each their chance in the spotlight. Twenty or more characters through one character’s lens just seems to end up really blurry. (Doesn’t help that the majority are gay males; only passing ref here and there, that I recall, to any het, not counting the token female characters. Just FYI, if that’s a thing or non-thing for you.)
Plus that whole soap-opera-leaning feeling... the kind of thing where you’re enjoying it passably well until you realize that you’re now on the equivalent of page 782 and the story is nowhere near any sign of an end in sight. How much time is this gonna demand before I get the final payoff? That’s what I mean by soap-opera: not just the repetition of personal crisis pushes storyline conflict, but the endlessness. That said, if the next novel (or more) were to continue the story but expand to a wider range of POVs, then maybe the background characters would finally have a chance to pop.
LANGLEY JL - With Caution
‡ paranormal ‡ mm ‡ werewolves, abuse, light d/s themes
Hrm, I thought I had this in a separate list for stories twigging on a very specific issue, but eh, I’ll just re-ref it again when I get that post. This is actually a sequel and although it refers to events in the earlier book, it wasn’t entirely nonsensical without reading the previous one (which I didn’t read, and probably won’t). Mostly it’s rather stock, focusing on a disaffected prickly young man who’s actually a damaged victim (except that I not once in the course of the story really got to see him acting/talking prickly, although the author told me once or twice he was showing signs of putting on that attitude, so, uh, anyway). Plus there’s the younger brother who’s now at risk of the abuse his older brother tries to protect him from -- a younger brother who veers dangerously close to being way-too-liked-by-everyone (flaws, please?) -- and you know what they say about puppies and small children. Seems to me, though, what saves the character from becoming too perfect cardboard is the mild-combat-affection between the siblings.
Oh, and don’t forget the cop-parent (why the hell are cops always the abusive parents? could we have a non-abusive cop parent, please? just once?) with the not-really-that-unique twist of being a rez cop who’s also an abusive heavy-drinking asshole. While I’m on the wishlist, could we have some non-alcoholic abusive parents, because not everyone needs the liquor to do damage, people, and plenty of parents can have a beer or even four and still have no impulse to strike a child. (One thing the author did get right is the breadth of jurisdiction for cops on the rez up to but not including murder cases, which is Fed territory.)
And of course there’s the bikers with hearts of gold who also happen to be private detectives. Handy.
Otherwise... well, I think the author wanted a combination of “abused damaged child finds love” so we get the distrustful angst of a kid who’s been whacked too many times (plus, rescue scene! of course! must have the top rush in to save the day, or at least arrive in time to help clean up the bloody mess! and bestow some of that sexual healing!). However, when you add in the thread of d/s themes -- which aforementioned damaged kid takes to like a duck to water... did my alarm bells start ringing on that one. It was just too fast, too abrupt, especially for a character coming from a strongly physically-abusive background, but I’ll be revisiting some points about that, in a later post.
When I got to the explanation of how the “pack” is set up with an Alpha (head guy, I guess), and his Beta (his second, or lieutenant, I gather) and -- I am not making this up -- an Omega, who is a super-submissive who brings some kind of extra power to the pack just by being all submissive-y and whatnot. And that Omegas are all super-speshul and should be protected by their Alpha and, uh, protected and cherished and hidden. Uh. Way super, all-natural submissive, boy oh boy oh boy, someone’s really not giving a damn what wolves are like -- in which case, call the damn critters something else and stop carrying on with these ridiculous concepts that have absolutely no basis in reality, mmkay? I dunno, do like Virgin and call them Narvals (a strange dog-wolf-lion kind of mix) or suchlike, and make up your own rules. But quit it already with the bastardized urban legend bad-matinee-movie ideas about how wolf packs operate.
Not to mention the entire “all wolves in this pack are gay” bit. I’m trying to remember if there were any female characters in the story. Hm. Oh, the mother appears once. And the next-door neighbor gets like two lines. Hell, all these bikers/werewolves -- gay biker-werewolves -- running around, they’re thick as thieves in some of these stories. No wonder the drunk abusive cop-dad is petrified his kids might be gay: when he sees gays all over the place and fears they’re taking over, he’s not delusional. They’re 99% of the rest of the characters in the story, and he really is surrounded. Cripes, people.
ETA a note about wolves: the classic greek letters of alpha, beta, and omega have traditionally implied static roles in a linear fashion. While it is (somewhat) accurate for Langley to consider the omega-position to have a gentling-effect on a pack, this does not automatically mean the 'omega' (or the term I came across, of 'diffuser') is way down at the bottom and gonna get his/her ass beat by anyone and everyone. In fact, the long-standing flaws in wolf-studies are apparently related to a) studies done on captive wolves, which are creatures under stress and doubly so when you consider what constituted a "good zoo environment" 30-40 years ago and b) too often conflating dog psychology with wolf psychology, and the similarities exist but so do some great differences -- mostly due to the introduction of humans into the dog-mix whereas wolf packs do not have a holding spot for human/alpha.
To consider a wolf pack and the dynamics between the members, the current studies suggest thinking of a family rather than a hierarchial set up: as one researcher commented, we'd hardly call parents "alphas" or "breeders" and we certainly wouldn't expect (or consider positive) any totalitarian behavior from parent to children. Incidentally, there are recorded instances of a pack's top pair eating last; also, puppies always eat first, which is a lot like my friends with kids, now that I think of it. We'll be standing around chatting while dinner's cooking but the kids are already at the table getting their dinnertime.
The researcher Shaun Ellis suggests thinking of the roles not as alpha-beta-omega but as decision maker, enforcer and diffuser, but while recognizing that these roles can often be fluid. I can't help but think of the parents being decision makers while the elder siblings are enforcers and there's always someone in the family who has the knack of breaking up tense moments -- by demanding a hug, by clowning around, etc. Yet when the parents are off, the elder sibling(s) can be the decision maker for a time, after all. The formalized never-cross-me, I-am-top-always style in SFF/werewolf is, well, stylized, but not nearly as militaristically structured as the fictionalized version might like to imply.
Just an FYI, and now back to your irregularly scheduled reviews.
MANLY DJ - Melting Ice
‡ action ‡ m-m ‡ cop-biker drama
MYKLES Jet - Snagged
‡ action ‡ m-m ‡ thief-agent drama
I list these two together because the same complaint-or-maybe-observation applies to both: they’re both dancing by the same playbook. I’m sure you’ve seen it in plenty of other stories, with or without romance, but it amounts to this: the antagonist and/or object of interest is a bad-ass, who gets the focus and attention because he’s bad-ass bad-guy meanie who (therefore per the rules of bad guys) has no compunction about hurting our fair hero, or conscience about doing Bad Things including seducing the hero/ine. But so long as the author is avoiding (or just doesn’t want to invest the pixels/time to right by) the old schtick of “it takes the love of a good boy/girl to turn around the bad guy” -- that means we get the last-minute reveal. I suspect this isn’t really a reveal for any of you so I feel no shame in spoilers, that the bad guy -- gasp! -- wasn’t really a bad guy. No, he was just pretending. He’s really a good guy!
Because y’know, our hero could never ever fall in love with a genuine Bad Guy, because then that would be, uh, Bad. And stuff. And from what I understand of the rules of romance (not always applicable to non-romance plotlines), it’s Simply Not Done to have the hero, or the love interest, really break that guy’s wrist or steal that money or break that law. He can look like he is, but he can’t really do it, or if he does it, he must Feel Very Guilty If Privately (while later admitting how much it just tore him all up inside to lie to the hero).
Blah blah blah blah.
RAYNE Marty - Bonded Hearts; Reluctant Hearts (series)
‡ fantasy ‡ m-m-f; m-f ‡ dragons + dragon riders
Both stories imply background major story but both also feel so freaking short it’s like reading a side-story, with sex, of a longer story that’s actually a lot more interesting. Like, hrm, fanfic or doujin, where the author says, “these folks didn’t get their smexxing on in the actual story, so I’ll tell it here!” ...Not saying the stories themselves are necessarily written with the usual bad grace of such side-story fanfic, but the overall treatment, plot (or lack of it), foreshortened conflict, and pat wrap-ups sure give the impression. Passably entertaining, probably not going to be rereading, and a lot of potential that wasn’t really explored... and honestly, it’s the last part that left me most disappointed. I’ll take three pages of exploratory conflict tension crunchy goodness over ten pages of sex any day. Not counting that these stories riff on the same thread as so many other fantasy stories: omg, it’s a magical bond, I can has compulsion, I must do the sex with this person/people onlies!
If you listened to romance and/or romantic-plot writers, wow, imagine the crap you’d end up believing: like the idea that any person you find even remotely lust-worthy is automatically your soul mate.
Good thing that’s not true, or I’d be toast.
ROSSETTI Denise - Strongman; Tailspin
‡ sff ‡ m-m; m-m-f ‡ angel-hybrids, magical world + biotech gone wrong + d/s themes
I’ll admit that I wasn’t exactly way-way impressed with Rossetti’s Gift of the Goddess, which relied a bit too heavily on the “you’re turned on by us and even if you say no we know what you really want” trope, which annoys me enough but just pisses me off when it’s used in a threesome-setting. Tailspin is the sequel, and not only has a bit more to its plot than just a get-together (plus it lacks that really fucked-up over-sexed kitchen-sink-style sex-scene wrap-up of Gift, though it does have a gentler less kitchen-sink-ey version of its own). Overall though, the characterizations are a bit stronger, more fleshed out, and it has a larger cast which also takes some of the heat off the main POVs and defrays some of the risk of showing flat parts in character design when you don’t have distractions.
Basically, a circus-girl, nicknamed Fledge, rescues a near-dead angel-bird-hybrid critter, who turns out to be a scholar writing an encyclopedia. Okay, so he’s possibly the sexiest geek you could imagine, but as the story goes on, Mirry’s utter geekiness comes out more freely (like his obsession with learning as much as he can about every new and unfamiliar item he finds). Turns out geeky-bird guy Mirry was almost killed by someone who kidnapped an old friend in the same attack, and he’s desperate to find his friend and reconcile after several years of separation (although Mirry does have the decency to admit it was mostly his fault). Fledge -- a cross between tarot-reader and storyteller that was a nice change and reminiscent of Silverberg’s Majipoor Chronicles in delivery/presentation -- is starting the slow recovery after an abusive relationship. Rossetti doesn’t play the game of assuming that this means Fledge would just slide so happily into a d/s-tinged power dynamic even between lovers; the author has a fairly good (and sadly rare) knack, it seems, for balancing the negatives of someone struggling to recover self-confidence after an abusive love affair versus the playful and loving side that can exist when lovers trust each other enough to give up control to the other.
How to put that: Mirry, at first upon meeting Fledge, is attracted to her (it seems) at least in part due to Fledge’s unfamiliarity -- being small and human, versus his bird-thing-hybrid species. And he goes about trying to ay his debt of her saving his life by seducing her -- fun in bed for both, that’s debt payment, right? (Well, if you’re young and male, it probably is.) Unfortunately for Mirry, he keeps hitting buttons on Fledge that send her into retreat mode, to his complete bafflement. For a good part of the story’s first half, they genuinely don’t get the other’s signals: Mirry doesn’t get that Fledge’s insecurity and distrust comes from a deeper issue than just him being strange with wings & a tail; Fledge because she doesn’t get that Mirry’s cheerfully unthinking command in sexual matters is not meant as an attack on her hard-fought independence. It’s not until Mirry’s brain clicks onto the idea of trust being the problem that things start to gel, so he throws himself head-first into seducing her... by way of letting her tie him up and have her way. It’s his way of letting her experience his trust, sensing that’s what it’ll take before she’ll give it in return. The resulting scene may be extended foreplay/sex, but it’s also heavy on the characterization and in some ways both funny and touching.
The other way Rossetti scored points with me was that she doesn’t cure anyone overnight, especially Fledge, who has major abandonment issues along with the scars of a past relationship, despite wanting to trust and be secure. That combination alleviates what could become self-pity into a pragmatic, if pessimistic, view of the world as a lonely place. These characteristics come and go, flaring up at gestures or words that tap older memories, and Fledge reacts accordingly; that is, she reacts to what was even as she intellectually recognizes that it’s not necessarily still true, but it’s a struggle. That’s part of healing. Mirry being a geeky knowledge-sponge as well as incredibly self-confident means his missteps are most often due to just not getting what it’s like, fully, to lack confidence. Despite his best intentions, he does run roughshod over Fledge a few times, if unintentionally; these are accurate stumbling-blocks when one-half of the relationship has such scars (and it’s not as though Mirry doesn’t have some of his own, though they’re revealed more slowly as his own trust/investment in the relationship grows).
This is a long excerpt, but it’s the best one I could find in a quick scan (and this is a full length novel so there’s a lot I could’ve ended up scanning) -- maybe it’ll give you a better idea of the dynamic. After Mirry talks Fledge into leaving behind the circus temporarily -- ostensibly to act as his information-source on all things circusy for his encyclopedia -- like any intellectual whose true joy comes from knowledge, soon his brain is working overtime on how to introduce Fledge into that world as well.
A firm hand in the small of her back, Mirry ushered her over to his desk. “You have work to do, chick.”What saves Mirry's characterization from being insufferably arrogant is that -- as the story develops -- it becomes clear he's one of those egghead-types who understands (and fully enjoys exploring) his intellectual prowess but that he doesn't really have a malicious sense. He's not one who is smarter only when others are stupid; his innate enthusiasm for new situations and information -- which comes across as a type of arrogance at first -- is really just a goofy, somewhat geeky, excitement about learning, and it doubles when he starts to think he can drag Fledge along with him. (Okay, so I did eventually start to find him quite amusing.)
Fledge studied the neat piles of notes and folders, the brushes and ink block, biting her lip. [...] “What sort of work?”
“Sit down.” He pressed her down with a gentle hand on her shoulder. [...] “You’re illiterate, Fledge,” he said, “which is not a good thing.”
Her chin went up and after a moment, she said, “I can write my name. Da taught me.”
“Yes, but don’t you see?” He leaned forward, determined to convince her. “An education is a passport out of the Fair, a means to better yourself.”
“Better myself?”
Undeterred by the oddness of her tone, he wagged a long forefinger under her nose. “It’s a brilliant solution. I’ll pay my debt by teaching you to read and write.” He winked. “Among other things.”
She dropped her gaze, the rosy color fading from under her skin. “It’s fine, Mirry. You don’t have—”
“But I want to!” He pushed off the desk and took a couple of hasty steps, his tail lashing. Near the door, he whirled. “Fledge, I have scholars begging me to tutor them and by all the gods, they’re worlds ahead of you!”
“But I’m not begging, am I?” she said in very small voice, staring at her clasped hands.
“You don’t move in my circles,” he said. “If you did, you’d know my reputation. Gods, woman, studying with me is an unbelievable opportunity!”
Oh, and lest I forget, there’s also Jan, who is a character and a half in his own right, with his own issues, though those are only slightly explored (mostly because he opts for solitude as the first step in healing, over working it through like Fledge did with Mirry).
The third book set in the world, Strongman, revolves around the affair between a retired mercenary and a gymnast & knife thrower in the circus. It has its ups and its downs, complicated by Fort (the strongman) being raised in a highly patriarchial, woman-dominating, extreme-homophobic society. Thus his burgeoning attraction to the gymnast, Griff, is a huge source of internal strife for Fort. But again Rossetti doesn’t let things get cured or fixed right away -- there’s a lot of dancing around the attraction, then advance-retreat as Fort tries to grapple with, ignore, tackle, ignore, deflect, contemplate, address, the realization of his sexuality. He screws up a few times, unintentionally trompling all over Griff’s feelings, feeling like an ass for it and not sure how to fix it.
Griff (to Rossetti’s credit) isn’t some insecure needy whiner who forgives too fast or has a short-term memory problem; he holds his own and demands respect as well. So the story’s set in an fantastical world, sure, with a plotline loosely connected to the background political conflicts present in Gift and Tailspin, but the main storyline has a dignity and tension doing a fair amount to be equal to any contemporary romance about someone discovering the ability to love, later in life.
STRAUSS Katrina - Close to Me; Some Kind of Stranger; Chains of Love
‡ contemporary ‡ m-m ‡ s/m themes + elements of hurt-comfort
Total guilty pleasure. The first is mostly get-together plus s/m, with overtones of blanket-fic (in the sense of “we’re both stuck here”) -- major conflict? At story’s peak, Blue (the younger, learning-about-his-masochism sub) is kidnapped by bad guy, rescued at last minute. The second introduces a third person into the relationship, to whom Blue was once attracted, now it’s discovered to be mutual, tension with current top/lover, how to resolve... and story’s peak? Blue kidnapped by stalker, rescued, unh-hunh, comfort, everything ends happily. Third story? Is it a good change or more of the same if this time around Blue is kidnapped early on instead of at the very end? Heh. Like I said, guilty pleasure.
The third book gets hilarity points for the fact that when Blue is taken by a group of immigrant criminals (see also Melting Ice and Snagged for notes on that detail), he bestows the moniker upon the mobsters of “The Gay Balkan Mafia”. See, now, if I’m ever kidnapped, I say you can’t get better options than the Gay Balkan Mafia. Unless they’re into torture via Liza Minelli’s Greatest Hits round the clock. But anyway.
Note: the bdsm (and strongly s/m, more than d/s) is mostly bedroom-based; the relationship between Blue and Derek is very much a friendship-relationship with a lot of give and take, even if materially Blue is not Derek’s power equal -- this is not a highly formalized contractual relationship with a lot of flare and hype. Avoiding spoilers, I will say that I’m curious as to where Strauss intends to branch out in the next story or two. This one closes with the usual satisfactory happy ending but had the introduciton of at least three new characters... and the time spent on them makes me suspect they’ll play parts again in the next. One of which is only seen in passing and mentioned once more again in passing, but it was noticeable enough that I’m pretty sure he’ll be part of the next installment. (Personally, I liked the character described as having “the face of an angel and the personality of a pitbull”... see, now there’s a visual for ya.) While I like Blue’s and Derek’s characterizations -- I wouldn’t have read this far without that, since the generic elements in the plot/resolution otherwise would be boring -- I do think it’s time Strauss started expanding to include more characters, mix things up a little.
The one really really notable complaint (given that I’m willing to forgive a lot in this instance because I’m not expecting a lot) is the Japananimanga tendencies slipping into the story. Derek is supposedly part-Korean, so minor point for not making him part-Japanese and slipping in the anime-nods that way... but Blue’s best friend is obsessed with animanga, and tacks on the various Japanese honorifics all over the place. Yes, I know people who do this in person, and it bugs the shit out of me. It bugs the shit out of me to read that behavior too, I’ve found. The character is otherwise fun and a good foil to Blue’s personality, as a friend, but the honorifics, please, make it stop.
At the very least, if Derek knows the rudiments of Korean, I could at least deal with him using Korean nicknames or suffixes to counteract the creeping yaoi/japananimanga tendencies -- for each “Derek-sama” that the girl throws around, he could at least correct her and insist on orabuni or some other appropriate Korean nickname/term. Because fangirls? Annoying in person, annoying in print.
VEINGLORY Emily - Father of Dragons; Nameless God
‡ fantasy ‡ m-m ‡ dragons (duh); strange prophet-and-knight fable
Veinglory’s earlier works -- the Maedagawn-something-like-that series (incomplete, possibly dropped, from what I can tell) -- were much heavier on the sexing, although still light compared to her peers. Just FYI. She seems to be moving towards stories in which the sex scenes just aren’t as crucial to the plot and therefore aren’t included. Both of these stories (while creative on the world & plot & conflict, with strong characterizations) seem to be a kind of halfway point.
In Dragons, the one sex scene -- and to some degree the entire romantic subplot -- almost seems coincidental to the actual conflict; that is, the real crux is whether or not the protagonist will accept shelter, trust his benefactors, and the romantic overtones/subplot seems almost, hrm, how to put it. Well, an ‘in passing’ kind of scene, I suppose: not entirely necessary to the real emotional issue underneath. It doesn’t help that I don’t really get a sense of actual attraction on any kind of a romantic/sexual level, so much as an attraction to the security offered by the potential lover, if that makes sense. Despite that, the story is quite strong, and enjoyable, and has its moments of humor in the midst of catastrophe (always a good thing). Oh, and “father of dragons”... think, uh, “mother”. Yeah, okay, that sounds bizarre and if you’re thinking mpreg you wouldn’t be too far off the bat (though ‘implanted parasite’ might be more accurate). I don’t know what possessed me to ignore that and read it, but I’m glad I did, anyway. I mean, this is Veinglory we’re talking about. She could probably do up a well-characterized and enjoyable story about two concrete blocks going grocery shopping.
Nameless has a much more fairytale-mythic feeling to its pacing and storytelling, but it works well enough for the story. The romance here is a bit stronger, has a bit more of a role to play, but again it’s mostly incidental to the real conflict in the story -- the romantic ties just give even more reason for the character motivations, but aren’t the sole reason. Quick summary: illiterate swineherd has sudden vision of some knight-guy dying if he doesn’t change his travel path; swineherd manages to get message out, saves guy’s life, and ends up saddled (so to speak) with his own personal knight-protector... even though he isn’t entirely certain what his god’s name is. Things don’t go easy for the swineherd-turned-prophet, in that every communication with the god costs him to the point of almost crippling him, and the story does imply that it could become part of a larger tapestry (which Veinglory has already proven she’s quite good at), but as a stand-alone, it’s a sweet, if quieter, story. Almost reminiscent of her novella Journey’s End, actually, which I also enjoyed.
ZANNINI Maria - Touch of Fire
‡ fantasy ‡ m-f ‡ post-apocalyptic, elemental magic, lots of attitude
The story got major points for having some good twists and enough of a dangerous bad guy that bad-guy wrenches really did muck up the works and keep the two main characters apart -- when those two characters weren’t keeping themselves apart in the first place. Solid interaction with a lot of fierce attitude, but understandable attitude based on misunderstandings about each other’s culture. (He thinks she’s a soul-stealing witch; she thinks he’s... uh, murdering human if I recall correctly, but generally a barbarian.) The two knock heads but it’s not the usual “I hate you! I love you!” kind of crap so much as it is the knocking coming from each making assumptions based on little information about the other’s grounds for decisions... ergh, uh, cf Tailspin for a better, if alternate, example of misinterpretations causing additional conflict.
Although Touch is a far more argumentative version, granted, it’s still one in which the two characters slowly do develop a rapport and have every reason to genuinely like each other... if they could just get their biases out of the way long enough to let themselves do any liking, let alone any respecting. So in that end, I really enjoyed it -- a fair amount of tension, of fast back-and-forth, of confusion but not stupidly so, and next to no TSTL moments.
The one really notable complaint about the story: the end. Essentially Zannini built up her bad guy to be so powerful, so terrifying, that while she has the integrity to recognize that a full rebellion is unlikely -- the bad guy has cowed too many people, for too long, for that to happen -- there’s very little wiggle room for the good guys to achieve total victory. I won’t totally spoil it for you, since it’s certainly a fast-paced and enjoyable read up to the last page or two, but I will say that I found the ending satisfactory on an emotional level (in terms of resolution between the two main characters) but somewhat abrupt and unsatisfactory in terms of the overall conflict.
Eh, well, you can’t win ‘em all.
ebook sources are loose-ID, fictionwise (clearing house for ebooks); some are from Ellora's Cave and some from Samhain Publishing. If you can't find the title on Fictionwise, try googling the author's name and you'll either hit a page from the distributor for that author, or the author's own site. Also, if you can't read locked-type documents (mobireader, microsoft reader, etc) and want PDFs, there are several publishers who only sell the locked-type on Fictionwise but have the PDF-unlocked available on their own sites -- so be sure to check the publisher's home site. I don't have an ereader; I've only got Adobe, so if you see it here, then you know for certain it does come in a PDF format. You just might have to go looking a bit farther, is all.
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Date: 5 Sep 2008 05:31 am (UTC)Also, are these ebooks? I really liked the sound of these:
but I can't seem to find them...
Anyways, I do hope you have a great day! :-)
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Date: 5 Sep 2008 05:43 am (UTC)http://www.loose-id.com/searchresult.aspx?CategoryID=385
Her stories are definitely in the 'fun' category. Plus, Gay Balkan Mafia!
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Date: 5 Sep 2008 06:25 am (UTC)