Slow Burn – Page 3 – Marked for Plot

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.

The Premise
Alec is a 16 year old orphan, sitting in a dungeon of a particularly sadistic lord when a new prisoner is brought in. Seregil is a spy and a noble, and takes Alec with him when breaking out. He then takes Alec under his wing as they travel back towards his homeland, bringing back dark tidings of the coming war and dark magic. But the land of Rhiminee has its own challenges, and the duo gets dragged into internal politics of the nation as soon as they arrive in Seregil’s homeland.

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.

The Premise: Rob and his sister Marion are destined to take the mantle of Hunter and Maiden in the Old Religion, holding great power and sway over the traditional practices in a country rapidly being consumed by Christianity. Gamelyn is the son of the local lord and is fairly sure he wants to join a local monastery. After a chance meeting brings Rob and Gamelyn into contact and an easy friendship, both of their faiths will be tested by their growing attraction and duties. Their romance sits underneath the growing tension between the old and new religions, and it seems like war is close to breaking out.

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.

The Premise:
John Sackeville is dying from a mysterious curse eating away at him. His partner is dead, and something horrible has happened to the world. He’s being interrogated for key information about a strange cult (partially of a dark sect of cannibalistic Buddhists, mostly Russian), but he starts at the beginning and takes his time getting to the juicy bits, spending a good among of time on his childhood, his years at Oxford, and his time in the British service in India. Part of his story also involves diary entries of a Jewish psychologist visiting the home of his ex-love to diagnose her with madness, and a letter said ex-love’s dead husband wrote to her about his experiences as a prisoner in Russia to a particularly Spooky count and his family.

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.

The Premise
Henry is a vampire. Every few decades he moves, starting a new life, a new set of hobbies, and bringing some household staff who are ‘in the know’ with him. Theophilus is his new secretary, terse and introverted, frighteningly competent, unwilling to give any indication of his personal ideas and ideals. Both are gay, yearning for connection, and generally unwilling to speak about that part of their lives because London in the mid 1700s isn’t a great place for gay men. The book chronicles the growth of relationship into friends, and then into something more.

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.

The Premise:
This book starts with Withervale burning. Lago & Company need to escape with two armies hunting them and start finding other mask users to help them chart their course. This book takes them to a few domes, but the majority of the time is spent in the dome of felines, which gets the most cultural worldbuilding of anywhere so far. This book will also asnwer some key questions about the history of Noss, trace progress of the Red Stag (and several other characters who aren’t present with Lago on his journey) and generally speaking expand the scope of the worldbuilding. This book sees another romantic subplot, but unlike in book 1, it doesn’t overwhelm the story in such an abrupt tonal shift, and instead fits more neatly into the epic fantasy structure the rest of the book follows.

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.

The Premise
Richard and Alex live in Riverside, a den of thieves and vice. Alex’s past is a mystery, but the former university student has a particular talent for cutting comments. Richard is a duelist, the best in town at the moment, hired by nobles to settle disputes and defend honor. They end up dragged into the plots of nobility, each of whom has an agenda of their own to try and gather as much possible without caring much who gets hurt.

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.

The Premise:
Book 2 of this series ended with Thara’s magic destroyed after a traumatic incident. It picks up with a death in an opera house, the disappearance of a noble in danger of fomenting rebellion, and a completely dysfunctional cemetery that Thara has been set by the Archprelate to get back on track. As with the other books in this series, it floats between plotlines smoothly, but the central one concerns a graveyard of dragons, and a ghost that seeks justice for its death hundreds of years ago.

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

Sorcery and Small Magics

In my constant hunt for the perfect romance and the perfect Gay Fantasy book, I’ve read a lot of good books and a small mountain of bad ones. I’d initially brushed off Sorcery and Small magics based on the pitch, but after a series of glowing reviews, I decided to give it a try. And what I found was an enjoyable (if not revolutionary) story that was a great book to listen to while packing up boxes for my upcoming move.

The Premise
Leo is in school to develop his skills as a Scriver, someone who writes magic for Sorcerers to cast. Only he doesn’t want to be a magician, or at school, or paired up with his arch-nemiss Grimm, a prodigal talent who matches Leo’s personality about as well as personal responsibility does. When a magical control spell gets cast accidentally on Leo, however, he finds himself unable tied to Grimm far more tightly than he ever wanted to be.

Read if Looking For: wholesome and casual writing, casual bickering, violins

Avoid if Looking For: traditional Romantasy, books that develop theme rigorously

Wolf of Withervale

I was drawn to Wolf of Withervale because I’ve been looking for good Epic Fantasy with Gay leads for a while. I’ve found bundles of romantasy, some more experimental stuff, but precious little in the classic older style … but gay. And Wolf of Withervale was exactly that. Massive world about to be thrust into turmoil, magical relics of ancient civilizations, young kid finding himself in the limelight through merest chance. It’s got a lot of what epic fantasy looks for, and it filled the itch I’d been looking for.

The Premise:
Lago’s life changes forever when he is entrusted with a wolf mask. He forgets about it for years only for the wider world to come knocking. He and his closest friend seek shelter in one of the massive, ancient, and mysterious domes that dot the world. And across the continent, the drums of war are pounding. Magical connections with animals, shapeshifting, and romance (including while shifted) are all major parts of this story.

Read If Looking For: grand stakes, imposing villains, ancient magical artifacts, queer cultural references

Avoid if Looking For: books that start in the middle of the action, deep nuanced characterization

The Bullet Swallower

The intersection between Speculative Fiction and Westerns is something I’ve been interested in exploring for a while now. I’ve got both American Hippo and Make Me No Grave on my bookshelf right now, waiting for me to find the time to get around to them. This was my first foray into the genre, primarily because the Magical Realism elements were intriguing, as was the parallel storyline in the pitch.

The Premise:
The Bullet Swallower primarily follows the bandit Antonio Sonoro, the descendent of a long line of tyrants and despots. He’s chasing after the score to end all scores, but quickly ends up trapped in a cycle of survival, hunting, and being hunted. Seventy years later, Jaime Sonoro, a movie star, is gifted a book chronicling his family’s cruel history. And lingering above it all is Remedio, a being who knows the men are damned, and can do nothing to escape the twisted fate of the Sonoro family.

Read If Looking For: frank depictions of characters, family sagas, heaps of bravado

Avoid if Looking For: fast paced stories, lots of action scenes