Slow Burn – Page 2 – Marked for Plot

The Vessel’s Blood

I was asked to read this book by the author. I did not receive any payment for this review, and the book was purchased with my own money. My review is my honest opinion about the book.

Compared to many readers, my taste in books can verge on the unknown. For others, my reviews are remarkably mainstream. I can say with certainty though, that this is the least-reviewed book I’ve ever read (with the sole exception of a book of poetry retelling the story of Cronus written by a friend). It also happened to have a rather intriguing premise: what would the story of a man whose destiny is to turn into a god, their own soul consumed, when everything goes wrong? Throw in a pair of gay protagonists who don’t immediately fall in love, and it should be right up my alley. In general, I loved the ideas behind this book, but have some large reservations about the writing craft elements that didn’t work for me. Thankfully, craft can be workshopped.

Read if Looking For: non-romantic gay epic fantasy, spoiled brats acting like soiled brats, books that focus on scenework over narration, expansive worldbuilding

Avoid if Looking For: books tackling existential questions, romantasy, breakneck prose

Hungerstone

Queerness and vampirism go hand in hand throughout literature. While I’m not well versed in the classics, The Book Eaters and Heart of Stone both showcased how vampire stories can be gripping in both romantic and horror spheres. Hungerstone is essentially a take on Carmilla (which I haven’t read), with a special focus on the main character’s relationship with her own agency. I think fans of gothic horror will love it, and is a good option as a starter to the genre if you like stories with a more internal focus (whereas something like Mexican Gothic or A Botanical Daughter would be better starting points for more plot focused stories). However, its much less vampire-forward than I would have expected.

Read if You Like: melancholy, living in a character’s head, depictions of abusive relationships and the effects of patriarchal structures

Avoid if Looking For: plot focused stories, lead characters who drive the story, a heavy focus on classic elements of vampire stories

Perdido Street Station

This is a book that’s been sitting on my ‘priority read’ bookshelf for about three years now. New Weird is a genre I’d been interested in, and Miéville’s reputation as an author who is concerned with his books as political objects pushing against the autoritarian status quo of fantasy really appeals to me. However, I’m finding that extremely large books put me off more than they used to, and I kept pushing it off until I was in the right mood. I left the book with mixed feelings. In some parts I felt in awe of what Miéville was accomplishing, and elsewhere I was disappointed in the choices he made to the point where I considered stepping away for a week or two. I have the feeling that I’ll be thinking about this book for a while, as it seems the type of story to sit with you.

Read if You Like: unhinged worldbuilding, examinations of power and culture, eldritch horrors, characters without happy endings, books to chew on

Avoid if Looking For: fast paced stories, consistent female characterization, happy and mindless books

Luck in the Shadows

The Nightrunner series is probably the single most recommended gay epic fantasy book, and was absolutely the type of story I wish I’d been able to find as a teenager. I knew going in that I was probably going to have some issues wht the eventual romantic pairing between the two leads, and have been frequently assured that the mentor/student dynamic isn’t a problem since they don’t get romantically entangled until later. Unfortunately, even though nothing concrete has happened yet, there’s already issues. I’m only one book into the series, and can already tell you that this is going to be a fantastic epic fantasy with, like so many older fantasy works, problematic elements that should be acknowledged instead of brushed aside.

Read if you Like: 90s epic fantasy tropes, spy protagonists, down to earth wizards, a brewing war

Avoid if you Dislike: age gap or mentor/student romances, over-the-top evil villains, quick pacing

Greenwode

Robin Hood is not a story that I’m particularly fond of. I don’t dislike it, but the story doesn’t have a place in my heart – even as childhood nostalgia. Being a take on Robin Hood, I wasn’t sure if Greenwode was going to be a good fit for me, but thankfully it avoided being a campy retelling. Instead, this was a delightful story of romance, internalized homophobia, and the politics of rural England. It’s rare for me to want to pick up a sequel quickly, but I definitely want to tackle the next installment this year.

Read if Looking For: star crossed lovers, characters grappling with religion, beautiful forest scenes, romantic yearning, ancient gods

Avoid if Looking For: lots of dramatic archery sequences, books with few sex scenes, positive depictions of Christianity

The Black Hunger

As part of pride month, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and discussing about how avoiding problematic tropes can lead to more problematic tropes. Bury Your Gays (other than being a Chunk Tingle novel I very much want to read) is a classic example of authors, playwrights, and screenwriters killing off queer characters as a way of saying this person was bad and immoral sort of like how literally every Disney Villain dies due to their own character flaws. That trend is bad and problematic, but its backlash led to such predictable happy endings that I didn’t get the same beautiful tragedy and sadness in queer speculative fiction that I could find in cis/het works. Thankfully, I think this is being seen and rectified, mostly by queer authors themselves. I’m all for tragic gays making a comeback.

The Black Hunger is a great example of how bad endings for queer characters isn’t problematic on its own. It’s only bad when used as a way to demonize queer folks. And while I had some issues with the book, I had a great time with it as part of my continued exposure therapy to the horror genre after being traumatized by watching The Mummy when I was five (I still don’t like beetles to this day). Unfortunately, this book struggled in other areas, mostly related to depictions of Buddhism, which will rightly be a dealbreaker for many.

Read if Looking For: older gay male representation, evil cultists (and Russians), far too many teeth, slow burn gothic horror

Avoid if You Dislike: multiple narrators, Epistolary novels that don’t read like letters, authors taking liberties with real-world religions without getting it quite right

Heart of Stone

Vampire love stories are a dime a dozen. And while vampires can capture my attention, it’s pretty rare. I was part of the Twilight generation, and have gone full circle from ‘binge read all four’ to ‘these suck’ to ‘actually for YA they’re fine, and the first movie is delightful with a glass of wine’. Some other stories that lean more into the horror or gothic history of vampires, such as The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean, left me extremely impressed. Heart of Stone, however, is a pretty straightforward vampiric romance, and thus not something I was enthused to pick up. Enough people had praised it, however, that I decided to give it a shot. It was a pleasant surprise, and one of the better fantasy romances I’ve read, if nothing else than because it wasn’t trying to be like every other fantasy romance out there.

Read if you Like: contemplative and slow books, romances without hamfisted setups, extended conversations that exist without the need to push plot forwards

Avoid if you Dislike: characters who refuse to talk about their feelings, magic age gap romances, low spice books

Masks of the Miscam (Noss Saga #2)

I was so excited when I saw that Wolf of Withervale was a finalist for the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off! I left that book feeling a lot of joy at finding an old-school epic fantasy that leaned into queer identities and culture. It had its flaws (which largely continue in book 2) but I’m really enjoying this doorstopper series filled with ancient artifacts, massive armies, and a lot of gigantic animals. I was disappointed, but perhaps not surprised, at the lukewarm response it got compared to other finalists, and thrilled that this series is getting more eyes on it . This review won’t avoid spoilers for book 1, and you can see my review for that book here.

Read if Looking For: 90s style Epic Fantasy but Queer, Indulgent Worldbuilding, Tropes Played Straight

Avoid if You Don’t Like: Infodumps, Self-Insert Main Characters, Explicit Sex Scenes

Swordspoint (Riverside #1)

In terms of queer Fantasy, Swordspoint is one of those titles that gets thrown out a lot in terms of early representation. It’s also a seminal work in the Fantasy of Manners genre, and has a sequel following different characters decades later which I adored (you absolutely can read Privilege of the Sword first, though I anticipate most readers would prefer to start here). In the end I had more reservations about Swordspoint than Privilege, but I’m happy I read it and think there’s a lot to love here.

Read If Looking For: dining room intrigue scenes, strict codes of honor, queer rep from the 80s,

Avoid if Looking For: lead characters with agency, conversations where the subtext is explained, romance plot structures

The Tomb of Dragons (Cemetaries of Amalo #3)

The ghost of a dead dragon; a tragic backstabbing in an opera; a man finally beginning to summon the will to move past condemning his own love to death. The Tomb of Dragons finishes the trilogy that Witness for the Dead started. In the end, I thought this was the weakest entry of the series, but it was well worth the read, and Addison continues to stand out as an author who staunchly refuses to adhere to modern conventions of how fantasy books ‘should’ read.

Read If Looking For: slice of life following a death priest with depression, comically evil corporations, gay leads in non-romance books

Avoid if Looking For: books without cross-series references, mysteries, fast pacing