Reviews – Page 4 – Marked for Plot

The Open Era – An Earnest Romantic Drama

I am a shallow man. I see a pretty Sports Romance cover, and that’s enough for me to dive in headfirst. This is Edward Schmit’s debut novel, and he’s an author I’ll be eagerly awaiting more from! This wasn’t a perfect book, but it was such a contrast to Cut & Run that it made me feel optimistic about the state of m/m Romance. This is a much more raw book than Romances usually go for: id doesn’t lay the drama on too thick and hits strong emotional beats. It’s a balance can be hard to strike, but this one really worked for me.

The Premise:
Austin is the first openly gay male tennis player to compete in a Grand Slam. He’s excited to compete, but the media around his ‘historic accomplishments’ are making his anxiety attacks worse, and he’s also caught the eye of world #2 Diego. They’re set for a collision course in the tournament, but that doesn’t stop either of them from catching feelings.

Read if You Like: realistic characters, third act breakups that make sense, mental health as a focal point

Avoid if You Dislike: ghosting, protagonists who sometimes act like jerks, rushed timelines

Cut & Run – Look How Far We’ve Come

Cut & Run is a cult classic amongst the Queer Thriller crowd. It’s coming up on being two-decades old and recently got reprinted, so I knew I was going to pick it up. It has a reputation for being on the ‘mindless fun’ side of books, and it fit that brief delightfully. I’d been feeling a bit of burnout on reading, and this required so little brainpower that it started to fill my cup again. However, I also think it’s a good benchmark of what ‘well written’ gay love used to look like. It feels dated and a prime example of what happens when queer men are written with a straight female audience in mind.

This review will (in part) explore how this book gets writing queer men wrong. Many of these elements are frustrating patterns that still pop up in new releases. However, I want to anchor all of this with the idea that Roux & Urban were writing queer men long before it was seen as profitable, though they definitely profited. I wish we’d moved past the types of writing I found here, and I’m also thankful that they paved the way for better representation to follow.

I bear no ill will towards these authors and books, but this read was enough to convince me that I didn’t want to continue following these characters.

The Premise:
When a serial killer goes after the FBI agents investigating him, the Bureau takes an unusual step of assigning a new partnership to catch him. Ty is a loose cannon who recently fucked up a deep-cover case. Zane is a buttoned up agent from Cybercrimes who is trying to climb the ladder. They immediately decide they can’t stand each other.

Read if you Like: coworkers who hate and lust for each other, sexy fistfights, melodramatic serial killers, pulpy thrillers

Avoid if you Dislike: quality queer rep, there’s literally only one possible suspect, claustrophobia

10 Cover Artists I Can’t Get Enough Of

I know that a lot of fantasy readers have a fondness for the 90s era covers, which are largely out of style nowadays other than the Stormlight Archive books. Personally, I’m more of a fan of the illustrative style that kids books have been championing for years, and I cannot stand photographs of real humans on my books. The romance genre is guilty of this, and nothing could interest me less than a generic model torso. I wish I could say that covers didn’t matter for the books I pick out, especially since self-published authors are much less likely to have the budget to throw at a professional cover artist. However, I know I’ve avoided books for years that ended up being favorites because of bad covers (shout out to Red Dot by Mike Karpa!)

Because I’m not talking books, I’ll talk about artist names and link book covers to their websites instead of the Goodreads pages. Similarly, I’m limiting myself to novels only. Comic covers are a whole different beast, with traditions completely seperate from the prose books.

The Odyssey – Musings on the Movie

I saw The Odyssey with friends this weekend, and figured I’d throw my thoughts out there. As context, I haven’t read the original myth in a few years, so my memories of it are hazy. I was neither stunned at the movie’s magnificence nor appalled at how it butchered the original myth. With how many reviews are going around for this one, including many by those who are more intimately familiar with the myth than me, this likely won’t be super profound or original. I thought Nolan made some really smart choices, and some odd ones.

However, my main takeaway is that this should have been a single season TV show, and that the Movie format hindered Nolan more than anything else. Also, if we could get Connor Storie in an adaptation of Song of Achilles, that would be great.

If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light

Short Fiction anthologies generally don’t get much mainstream traction. Most genre fiction readers, myself included, tend to not pick them up. I never read them until I started participating in r/Fantasy’s bingo challenge and discovered that they can be really incredible. If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light had been getting mentions in both genre fiction and short form circles. It’s a translated work from Korean, and I’m trying to read more work not published in English, admittedly in a very unfocused way. This collection won’t rank in my favorites, but I think people who are more ardent science fiction fans will enjoy it, while people who primarily see themselves as fantasy people – like me – may resonate less with it.

Broad Overview:
This anthology of science fiction is thematically focused on belonging and personal connections in a world that is set up to push people apart. Oddly, it has an emotionally distant style. The closest analogues in English are some of the older science fiction writing that cared more about exploring an interesting premise than the modern conception of stories and characters. This didn’t necessarily work the best for me, despite plenty of interesting ideas that Cho-yeop dove into. Unlike the older US sci fi, there isn’t a consistent desire for the technology or aliens to be realistic and intricately detailed. Instead, Cho-yeop seems more interested in presenting ideas and their ripple effects rather than exploring the underlying logic supporting the technology and biology that each story focuses on.

Novella Readathon #s 31-32: The Curse Bearer Duology

As a middle school English teacher, I get swamped with essays and book reports about Percy Jackson and comparable titles. This means I sometimes grow weary of gods and monsters in the modern world, especially if they lend themselves to a more lighthearted or comedic romp of a story. I avoided When Among Crows mostly because I found Roth’s Divergent books to be fine, but relatively unremarkable in the crowded YA dystopia landscape. However, this book hit generally settled in a much better spot for a more mature look at a similar idea. If you’re looking for a story based on Slavic folklore with a bit of action, a bit of character development, and a bit of spookiness, this will be a satisfying read. I thought it was a hair predictable and lacked a wow factor, but I immediately put the sequel on hold with my local library. A much shorter summary of my thoughts about the sequel are at the end of this review.

Read If Looking For: Baba Jaga, monsters that typically don’t get much screen time, secrets in every backstory

Avoid If Looking For: plot twists you don’t see coming, deep internal monologues, realistic portraits of queer men

Novella Readathon #30: We Burned so Bright

I have been super hit or miss with Klune. He’s definitely the biggest gay author in fantasy right now, but I don’t find myself terribly interested in pursuing his backlog. However, since We Burned so Bright is a novella, featured elderly gay protagonists, and got a reputation for being a tonal shift from his normal writing, I figured it would be worth trying out. I still don’t think Klune is going to be a must read author for me, but this settled some hesitations I had about his older work.

The Premise:
The world is ending. A black hole is slowly consuming our solar system, and everyone’s lives are measured in weeks. Don and Rodney are an elderly couple. As the world ends, they buy an RV and set to travel from Maine to Washington. Along the way, they meet all sorts of folks who are facing the end of the world in their own way. At the end of their journey is a piece of their own past that they never completely came to terms with.

Read If You: want to watch the world crumble, enjoy episodic stories, crave elderly protagonists who don’t descend into stereotypes

Avoid If You: are looking for cozy fantasy, salacious gay romance, or saving the world

Novella Readathon #29: Riot Baby

Platonic love is a topic that I’ve been craving more and more of in my reading, especially this month. Riot Baby has been languishing on my shelf for three years, and my craving for sibling bonds explored better than in my previous few reads finally got me to pick it up. I left the story conflicted. What Onyebuchi does well, he does phenomenally. However, I almost liked this story more as vignettes rather than as a cohesive novella.

The Premise:
This book follows siblings Ella and Kev throughout their childhood and early adulthood. Ella has powers akin to Jean Gray (a wide swath of extremely powerful abilities including precognition, destructive telekinesis, astral projection, etc), and Kev is a techie. The book’s main plot comes when Kev goes to jail, warping both his and Ella’s conception of what living in such a world looks like. However, the book doesn’t follow a traditional plot structure (you won’t find overarching antagonists here other than society itself), instead keeping Ella and Kev’s emotional journey as the focal point of the story.

Read If: you want a story about familial – not romantic – love, character centered stories are enjoyable to you

Avoid If: clear plot structures or well-executed speculative elements are important to you

Novella Readathon #28: Nine Goblins

Nine Goblins has been bouncing around my noggin for a while. I have a soft spot for the green little buggers, and thought it would be nice for them to finally get the spotlight. This novella went the way most of Kingfisher’s stories have gone for me: I liked the story well enough but kept wanting it to be something a bit different than it actually was. I don’t think I’ll ever regret reading one of her stories, but I’m never chasing down her newest releases either. This was a fun backlog read that I’m glad I got the excuse to finally get around to!

The Premise:
Despite its title, this book actually follows two separate storylines (which of course intersect). The first involves the titular Nine Goblins, soldiers in the war against human expansion. Interwoven into their tale is of a veterinarian elf who treats a variety of magical critters and has a particular fondness for trolls. When the goblins’ mission goes awry, they must find their way home from enemy territory.

Read If: you’re hankering for a story about goblins (duh), always wanted your teddy bear to come to life as a kid, want to see what a countercultural elf looks like

Avoid If: you don’t want your silly story to get gruesome, you refuse to read comedic fantasy inferior to Discworld

Novella Readathon #27: The River Has Roots

I adored This is How You Lose the Time War, and I’d been meaning to get around to more work by Amal El-Mohtar. After reading three other Hugo nominees, this seemed like a logical next step. It is the third fairy tale novella nominated for the Hugos this year. I didn’t dislike this book, but I also didn’t fall in love with it like so many others have. Certainly I’d put it lowest in my Hugo rankings.

The Premise:
Esther and Ysabel are sisters who grow magical willow trees on the banks of a river flowing from the fae realms. Their devotion to each other and the songs of their work keep them as close as sisters can get. However, Esther has suitors; a neighbor looking to expand his financial empire, and a fae whose customs are alluring and frustrating. The story’s focus places relatively equal weight on the sibling and romantic relationships, with Esther getting a heavier focus than Ysabel.

Read If Looking For: the power of sisterhood, conjugation-as-magic, unknowable fae, lush prose, high quality audiobook production

Avoid If Looking For: tense plotting, twists and surprises, rigorous thematic work