A.R. Jarvis's Blog, page 6

Love’s Landscapes #16

Today is like this outside.

Hey, sorry this is late (assuming anyone noticed). I …have no excuses.

There are 14 stories left for me to read, which doesn’t sound like many, but I will again remind you that I’m reading short to long. And I’m out of ones that I can read all in one evening.

~~

Undiluted by Dayton Idoni: A parnormal fantasy novel, wherein the one guy is a cop, and the other has some magic, and together (with some other friends) they have to save the world. It had a good plot, acceptable characters (though I had a hard time buying the cop’s professional demeanor), and a unique sort of paranormal setting. But, dear god, someone needs to steal this author’s thesaurus and ignite the treacherous tome.

He’d use words that didn’t quite fit, he gave every character seven different epithets (and switched between them without cause); if something was ‘skin’ one sentence, it was ‘flesh’ the next, but it was never just ‘flesh’ either, it was ‘taught flesh’ followed by ‘firm skin’ followed by ‘pale epidermis’ (I should note that the book was not entirely full of fleshly references). Not only that, but once or twice I even caught an antonym instead of a synonym. All of it made the reading slow and tedious. I even deliberated abandoning the baroque narrative upon repeated occasions, and only completed it by engaging Skim Mode.

The Case of the Insufferable Slave by Gillian St. Kevern: I wanted to hate this one. It’s a slavery fic, set up as alternative history, with bondage stuff, plus mentions of past abuse… I wanted it to be horrible and horribly written, so I’d only have to read the first few pages before casting it aside in disgust.

So you can imagine my disappointment and disgust when it turned out that this book was actually pretty good. The bondage was very little of anything, and the slavery was there, but it did have a slightly modern take to it (pretty much everyone had been or was a slave), or at least not a …reactionary one.

The plot got a bit confusing at times, I’m not sure I could explain the final stuff. I mean, I did get that there was a twist, and I was impressed with the way that it had apparently been woven through the whole story, just, upon careful scrutiny, I realized I had no idea why who did what they did. In fact, I’m not even entirely sure who did what they did. But maybe I was just off this week, since it’s not the only story I have to say that about.

Checking Him Out by Debbie McGowan: This was a fairly basic romance tale, where one guy is already married. They presumably had an open marriage, but then when it became convenient to the story, the wife turned into a crazy jealous bitch. Which, to be completely honest, I hate. But once they cleared her off, there was a fun homophobia plot we pretended was the Main Plot all along. There was also something occasionally very discomforting about the dynamic between the two guys. Like the one was all “We’ve known each other for a week! Move in with me!” And the other was all “Uh…we’ve known each other for a week” and then they’d both get mad at each other. I’m not sure that’s healthy. But all in all it was a decent story (crazy ex-wife excepted), jerked a few strings, and created a few warmfuzzies.

Consorting With Dragons by Sera Trevor: Basic fantasy, with dragons. A decent secondary female character. Some gender-roll redefining stuff (men in the bridal-training program was totally okay). Dragons. The Plot Thickens point was rather thin, but otherwise I really enjoyed it. Which is why I have so little to say.

Silver Embers by Becca Finn: Some sort of weird sci-fi-fantasy-hybrid, of the type that seems to have been written by someone who’s never written fantasy before, and makes rookie mistakes like not batting an eye at genocide. I also did not completely follow the plot twists in this one. I guess I liked the setting, some. And the environmental themes, although I’m not entirely certain they were there (some of the mages used technology magic, some used nature magic; I think we were supposed to think the nature-mages were better). Otherwise I’m not entirely sure why I read the whole thing.

Agile Moves by JC Shelby: I highly recommend this dog-training procedural to anyone looking to train their dog, especially if they don’t think they have the time. Agile Moves goes into great detail about how to balance your life between a job, a needy family, and a seat deep in the closet, but mainly it focuses on detailed descriptions of dog-training for agility and showmanship. And there might have been a gay romance in there, too, but I couldn’t be sure, since I gave up at that 30% mark, not having any desire to train a dog.

Human Choices by Jaye McKenna: This one started out really not-good, but then it turned out that was intentional, and it started to grow on me. It’s a fairly typical fantasy, with some consent issues mixed in, and the Love Interest kept …being inconsistent. I know the author tried to explain that as being torn between an old love and a new one, but it was not really well done. But look, overall I enjoyed this, and if you’re not squicked by consent issues, you should give it a try. I just feel that it could have been a bit better.

Under Pretenses by Jessa Ryan: A simple college romance tale with a Secret Admirer. It was good, so I don’t have much to say about it (funny how that works).

Love’s Landscapes #15?

I’m getting sick of that lighthouse.

 

So, I started reading the longer stories, though I was still cherry-picking the shorter ones…it’s…you don’t want the long explanation about story-lengths, so just whatever. Right. I started reading the longer stories, and the first few I tried were mediocre, or else downright awful, and I began to despair, thinking that all the poor stories this year were longer ones. But then. Oh, then. Then I found the better ones, and they are so much better, which means I have the opposite problem of worrying they will all be good, and I’ll never ever get around to reading something else.

Longer stories deserve longer blog-consideration, so I’m not sure how this will all fit into one post, but I’ll give it a go, and adjust my posting as necessary henceforth.

I have a mere 23 LL stories left, and here’s a to all the stories, if you have far too much free time on your hands, and would like to take the challenge of reading all the stories before the next set comes out.

~~

Guarded by Kim Fielding: A fantasy setting–without magic, so maybe just medieval?– where the one guard has a crush on the prince, who hates him, and then gets sent on a mission which …goes poorly. This story had some rape in it–not detailed, but the MC had some in his past, and the Love Interest had some happen through the course of the story. It was dealt with appropriately, I thought, and the overall story was good (+/- the rape). The ending is happy, and there’s some ‘people aren’t all bad’ themes that go through it, so if you can stomach it, I’d recommend giving this one a read.

The Bigger They Are by Kim Alan: This is a sequel of sorts? I did not know that. Doesn’t make it better. Well, anyway. This is a BDSM novel, which isn’t generally my cup of tea, but sometimes (especially if they are longer stories), they can reach that electric tension/intensity that I love and will forgive almost anything for, so I thought I’d give it a try.

It wasn’t that intense. I enjoyed the start of the story, the set-up for how they got together, and the first ‘scene’ had some of that zzzzt I love, but that scene was barely half-way through the story, and the rest was…fairly mediocre. It wasn’t the dreaded BDSM-instruction-manual style, so I think if you’re into D/s stuff, it might still be pretty good, but it was mostly just sex, snuggles, and oh god your cock is too big to fit in my ass, which…does little to nothing for me on any level.

The Last Cannoli by Tali Spencer: Anyone know where I can get a cannoli? I really want one, now that I’ve read this… It’s about a graphic designer/marketer, who is at loose ends and gets a job at a bakery for a change of pace. He slowly falls in love while he works there, and now I really want a cannoli, but the bakery near my work sells donuts instead.

I also really enjoyed the fact that the character was supposed to be from Wisconsin, and…it was funny. I get a kick out of it when a character is realistically from my homestate/town (although hardly ever are they from my town, let alone ‘realistically’ so). Which, of course, is why some authors do things like make their characters from real places.

Mr. Jaguar by K.A. Merikan: This one was a ‘reunited’ plot, with a high school bully and his victim, but now the power’s in the other guy’s hands. Except that it went a mildly absurd and hilarious route with that. There were parts that I thought had maybe gone a bit too far (in terms of social embarrassment, which I dislike), but in general it was a crazy and fun read. And hot, which I almost exclusively add as an afterthought, now that I think about it.

The Blood Legion: Oracle by Ashlyn Daube: So with a name like that, I figured vampires, maybe some sorry werewolves, maybe some pretentious sparkles, whatever. Um. No. Well, there was a vampire, but it wasn’t …a main part of anything. More a side-note.

It was a young-adult book (with all the good that might entail, and little of the bad) about a thief who gets caught on a job, and then through a series of unfortunate events ends up having to kidnap a mage, sort-of. The magic and world were under-explained, but in such a way that the rest could still be extrapolated. The characters were young, and they sounded like it, and made decisions like it, and I totally bought that. The plot wasn’t terribly deep, but it was heart-wrenching at points, and yeah. I really loved this, and strongly recommend reading it.

Love’s Landscapes #14

Hello, and welcome to the 14th installment of “Qui Overwhelms Herself By Trying to Read ALL THE THINGS,” Also known as Love’s Landscapes.

You may recall from our last installment that I had only 5 short stories left. Well, it turned out that I’d already read one of them, and that of the remaining four only one was almost-maybe worth reading. Those two reviews are below.

But then I was in a bit of a bind because I’m not really sure how to do the reviews for the longer stories. I think I thought I’d have more time to figure it out, or that I’d just write individual reviews for each of them. But now I’ve thought better of that. Basically the weekly-summation post will remain the same, but will include fewer stories, and I think I’ll generally try to do more than one paragraph for each story (or at least longer paragraphs), and maybe I’ll link all of them, too. Unless they merit their own entry, in which case, I will give them their own entry, as per usual.

I have 30 left to read (some of the longer ones also sucked), and here’s a I’ve finally switched my link to Stories by Author’s Name, so that should be much easier for people looking for things.

~~

Busted by Sofia Grey: A gay-for-you tale where the one guy does a modeling favor for his friend, and…okay, I admit I read this one a long time ago. I really enjoyed it, and considered rereading it (still might), but then again I wanted to finish with all of these, you know? so I remember that it was clever, and very hot, with a few unexpected twists.

Man of the Match by Lane Swift: This one. I don’t know. It was dry and boring, and there seemed to be something off about the relationship (like maybe it was one of those accidentally-abusive ones I’ve pointed out sometimes, but not quite). And the descriptions of rugby were dull– actually, pretty much the whole thing was dull. I’m not even entirely sure why I read it.

~~Longer stories below~~

Bright Water, Dark Sky by Augusta Li: A sci-fi tale with a pretty unique new planet to play on. I liked the start of the story, but lost interest about half-way, mostly due to overwhelming and dull introspection of characters, as well as contrived plot-devices that I really wasn’t buying. It feels weird to say this, but I would actually recommend reading the start of the story, and then going as far as you can tolerate (maybe you’ll make it to the end).

Measuring the Rein by Jae Moran: Cowboys and rodeos, and probably the most realistic-feeling rodeo-related cowboys I’ve ever read. I’ve read a few ranches that seemed pretty realistic, but usually the rodeos seem a bit far-fetched, you know? Anyway, this one talked about looking for sponsors, and winning monetary awards, and …basically being sports-stars. Plus there was no mysterious kidnapping like the last rodeo-related story I read from LL. There were some moments in the story that dragged on and on and on (mostly introspection ones again), and you have to accept that the tale is about how two gay cowboys get on with life, rather than it being the story of a romance (i.e. the plot is thin and tenuous), but once you’ve jumped those two hurdles, it’s a pretty good story.

Love’s Landscapes #13

Hello Again, we’re back for more Love’s Landscape stories. I have only 5 shorty stories left, and 41 total LL stories, so…I can maybe finish them before the next Don’t Read in the Closet event. *laughs weakly*

There’s a lot this week because I published last week’s too soon. Also, I’ve basically given up pretending to write until all the LL stories are done, so I don’t have to pretend that I’m going to do that, and then find things to waste my time with instead.

Here’s a link so you can overwhelm yourself if you’re so inclined: Stories by Date, which is really almost useless, I know, but I’m way too lazy to fix my link to the Stories by Author Name link.

~~

The Dreams You Made in the Dirt by Lisa Henry: One of those tales that starts normal, then turns out desolate, then becomes a little bit creepy, and then when the twist hits, you realize it’s actually been horrifying all along. In the Literary Fiction sense, not the Horror Genre sense. So, you know, contemporary Australia setting, nothing unrealistic.

Past the Horizon by D.C. Williams: This one started in WWII, where two soldiers connected. They lost each other, then found each other, and then it’s about how their lives went on. It’s quite heart-warming, though it’s written in a very list-like style, especially towards the end. It worked for the story, but probably only because it was so very short.

Cruel to be Kind by Kim Dare: A vampire one where the one guy wants to submit to his favorite vampire, and the vampire doesn’t want him to, and how that all shakes down. I mostly skimmed it.

Lost and Found by Eileen Griffin: This one could have been better. It was about a cat-shifter threesome, where one of them had just escaped from a war-torn country. It seemed to want to be contemporary, but failed, somehow. It also felt like it dragged on, and…parts were unrealistic (and I don’t mean the cat-shifter part).

Inhaling Smoke by Tia Fielding: Impossibly, improbably sweet, like sugar spun from sunlight and rainbows. There were a lot of narrative inconsistencies, and it was desperately in need of a proof-read (or three), but it was short, and about as warm-fuzzy as a story can be, so the flaws can be overlooked.

Knickers in a Twist by Ofelia Grand: A rather adorable tale of a guy who wears fancy panties, and the man who works at the local lingerie shop. I’m gonna be honest here; it was really hot.

Get Off My Case by Lisa Oliver: A gay wolf shifter seeks to make his own life away from the pack, but his past comes back to haunt him in the form of the straight man who is his Mate. An overall good read, though there were some character inconsistencies. Also, while the romance tied up comfortably, we were left with a “to be continued” for the murder case they were working on.

Bound by Amelia Bishop: A man with a spinal injury, and how he learns to live, and learns to love. Mild BDSM– really, it was more like heavy kink. It dragged on a bit in the second half, but generally handled itself very well, and was overall a good read.

Punch-Drunk Love by Nico Jaye: An awesome story about a guy on a kickboxing team with a crush. The team goes to Vegas, and, well. Vegas. Hot and intense, and highly recommended.

Hinori’s Journey by Victoria Zagar: I read this one a while back, and it was…worth finishing, but not worth reading again. It’s a very strange sci-fi setting where they play with gender and consent ideas, but mostly it ends up just being an awkward read, from what I recall, anyway.

Somebody Nice! by Raine O’Tierney: I made the mistake of reading the letter request with this one, but for what might be the first time ever a request that made me say “this is gonna be great,” actually turned out to be great. A fun and rather silly story about an adopted daughter who sets out to find a match for her father.

What Remains of Us by J.H. Knight: A period piece. Mainly about an earthquake in California in 1906, but with a period-appropriate romance in it, too. Overall it’s a heartwarming tale, and I really enjoyed reading it.

Better Than New by Charley Descoteaux: Another one that I read ‘while back. This one is sweet and cute. The main thing keeping the two guys apart is…not a great plot-twist, but it also wasn’t really the main focus of the story, which dealt with a man missing a foot, and he learns to love and to live again.

Metronomy by Suki Fleet: A man is about to be hung for one thing, but swears he’ll tell his crush he loves him if he survives. It was a decent fantasy tale if you didn’t try to understand any of the political situation, which was poorly explained.

All I Ever Wanted by Lauren Lewis: Another long-while-ago one that I reread. This is a guy who returns to his hometown for his brother’s wedding, and there finally deals with the crush he’s had for most of his life. Super cute and sweet and warmfuzzy, and with strong characters.

The Lonely Drop by Vanessa North: Another one that I read twice, which is actually a really high complement for me. I hardly ever re-read things. This one was about two guys who were friends in college, and then through one thing and another they grow apart, but then they are reunited! and …grow back together. But it’s also much deeper than that, and I highly recommend it.

Carte Blanche by Nash Summers: There’s a niche of cute OCD guys hooking up with…other guys, and this story is one of those. It was a good read, although I couldn’t tell how true-to-OCD it was. Parts seemed spot-on (from my patchy and unresearched knowledge of the topic), and other parts seemed…spot-off?

Wand-Losing & Other Things You Shouldn’t Be Doing by Gabbo de la Parra: This is a slightly longer story (30k), but I’m not sure it deserves its own entry. Basically if I were rating out of 10 stars, this would get a solid 7. It’s a decent sort of sci-fi/fantasy/steampunky tale, with a moderately interesting world, but it fell short of true greatness. Also, there were too many secondary characters (each with a first name, last name, nickname, title, and epithet) to keep track of– perhaps indicative of other stories set in the same universe, but I don’t know if I’d bother with them.

 

500 Kisses to Steal a Heart

My summer camp’s dining hall

500 Kisses to Steal a Heart by Anyta Sunday is actually one of the Love’s Landscapes stories this year, and it’s not even an especially long one, but I love the author, and I really enjoyed the story, so I thought it merited it’s own entry.

Anyta Sunday is fantastic. She does a remarkable friends-to-enemies-to-lovers or enemies-to-lovers-to-friends or lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers or whatever type of story, and this one was no exception. There’s a camp director, and his camp kitchen is destroyed, so he has to turn to his neighbor/nemesis for help. They hear something about it taking five hundred kisses to make someone love you, and…compete themselves into betting on if it’ll work or not.

It was an absolutely ridiculous premise, and yet it was fantastically executed, and worked out just wonderfully.

But I’d like to say that, if a camp’s kitchen was damaged beyond use, appealing to the neighbors wouldn’t be the top option on the list. It was fine for this story, but I’ve worked at a lot of camps, so while my first thought was “oooohhhh, shit,” my second was to come up with at least one entirely reasonable option.

You buy a grill, lots of coolers, lots of ice, and rent/buy a carnival tent. Not a circus tent, but the smaller, rectangular ones that you might see at a carnival, or other outdoor events. It’s summer, for cryin’ out loud, all you need is shelter from the rain, and not even. A grill isn’t the best thing to cook on, but it would work for dinners, while lunches can be sandwiches– especially if those are often PB&J.

If that won’t work, have the kids cook out over campfires. It’s summer camp, ain’t it? It’ll be a bonding thing, and a life-skill. Or something like that.

Like I said, though, the solution was fine for the story. It wasn’t impossible, just…probably not the first place a camp director’s mind would go.

Unless, perhaps your neighbomsis was your childhood friend, and you had unfinished emotional business with them. Which might have been the premise of the story, though to admit that would probably be a spoiler, so I can neither confirm nor deny that that was what was going on.

Love’s Landscapes #12

Now I’ve found the clumps of less-than-great stories! But that’s fine, because it means I can read more of them! Here’s the link.

I had a great year this year, I think, overall. There were some downsides, but plenty of upsides to cover for it. Plus I’m starting the new year with only a few books on my to-read list (aside from the Love’s Landscapes, of which I still have about 70), so that’s great! And I have Plans for the year, which may actually get followed through on. I don’t know, I’m really positive about what’s coming next! It should be great!

~~

Torn by Angela Maye: Guy, makes a new friend, dates new friend, but doesn’t feel he can squirm out from under his father’s thumb and his family’s expectations, even though he really really wants to.

From the Ashes by Leah Miranda: Two friends live together, one with severe agoraphobia, and how they get on with their lives.

eXtreme Homecoming by Jenna Scott: Motocross racers being gay.

Un/Common Ground by Arielle Pierce: A really interesting story about a guy from another (homophobic) country, and how he’s doing at college. And I guess you’d say the culture-shock stuff that comes with it.

Only You by Shayla Mist: A friends-to-lovers where the guy with the crush almost gives up on the other guy. It was really nice, and sappy, and I don’t feel let-down by the ending at all. But sometimes I wish that there were more friends-to-friends story where the crusher gives up on the crushee and moves on, you know?

Coming Out of the Storm by Laura Matthews: One soldier with a disability, and another soldier with a crush. It was both a heavy story, dealing with veterans, and a …I don’t want to call it a ‘light’ story, and certainly not as an opposite of a ‘heavy’ one, but it lacked (favorably) some of the weight post-war stories carry, while dealing with the same issues in a way that felt relatively realistic.

The Layover by Megan Erickson: A fun, crazy, and hot Vegas romp story. Two guys wake up in a mysterious hotel room with none of their stuff and none of their memories. The third guy doesn’t wake up.

Shousetsu Bang*Bang #52

No snow here, though, we’ve skipped right to March, and what little we had melted away.

 

The theme of this “unthemed” issue was Living After the Fact. No, seriously. There’s only one story where there’s a stretch to reach that theme. And even that story makes it, sorta.

Hey, let’s pretend that the coincidental theme of the theme-free issue is the one that sums up the past year; the one that catches the true spirit of the times. That would mean that this year was all about living on after, moving beyond our past. Which makes sense on a small scale (my pet died, my relationship died), and on a Grand Scale, since I think we’ve finally moved past the Recession, and …uh…we all lived beyond 2013. Shit. I thought something Big had happened this year, but now my whole point has turned into a hole point.

Luckily, I have some gay pr0n to distract you with!

Bear-y Christmas, Here’s to Many More, by Kimy�� Tabibito: A triad celebrates their own special Christmas

The King of Eternal Flame, by kiyala: The Pheonix King returns after a year of burning, but parts of his memories are missing. Important parts.

Strange Lexicons, by Ogiwara Saki: In four (4!) parts. This is a really interesting contemporary fantasy novella, with a spoken magic system to rival any other such I’ve ever heard of.

My Life in a Blueberry Pie, by Dr. Noh: A short and sweet tale of reunions and dealing with life after war.

Throw Away These Numbers, by Himawari: A very science-fiction (with very realistic science!) 2-parter. I liked the setting and the characters, but found the romance to be a bit on the tepid side, and the plot to be slow.

The Last Battlefield, by Kagaku no osomatsu: Another tale dealing with living on after war. This one a medieval Commander who had never let himself play with his ‘favorites’ before.

Terra Incognita, by Iron Eater: In FIVE parts. We revisit the land of Naar Rhoan, and Riaag Bough-Breaker and Sarouth White-Hair who live there. The land where orcs are trying to civilize themselves, learning to eat bread, and in this tale, fighting the ghosts of both the past and the present.

Everyone goes through the door, by Hyakunichisou 13: A relatively standard ghost-hunter-style story. Has it’s own nice little spin, and it was good.

Our Lives in These Empty Spaces Aside, by shukyou: In three parts. A dark tale of a guy, or his childhood bully, and their reunion. Fairly well-written and intense, and hot, but a little…I don’t know. Worth reading.

Holding Out, by Kougyoku: Some friends with benefits work on relationship issues while edging.

Diamonds in His Pockets, by Renaissance Makoto J.: In four parts. The best of the lot. There’s a Prince, and another Prince, and a Quest to save a princess, but nothing is quite what it seems, and…actually, maybe everything is exactly what it seems, once you figure out what that is. Whatever. Hilarious. And hot. And wonderful.

Mine Now Goes to Eleven Love’s Landscapes Entries

This is several week’s reading, and it feels way more worth posting than the weekly variety, so I think I will do this instead. I’ve gotten down to less than 100 stories, too…but it looks like finishing these will be on my list of New Year’s Resolutions. Plus all the remaining stories are the longer ones–well, there are still short ones, but I haven’t read ANY of the longer ones yet, not really. And if they all turn out to be good…

Anyway, here’s this chunk (and the link to read them):

Wet Dreams and Adult Revelations: good. Read it a while ago at a time which was definitely not during work hours. Don’t remember much, but it was good.

Trunk’s by Tam Ames: clever and funny, but also a but thin on plot. It was a murder mystery, so there was plot, it just…was thin. Rather liked the MCs, though. They were funny.

by R.D. Hero: Story so nice I read it twice.

For Want of a Nail: Cute, slightly electric story of a guy discovering he’s gay through taking a modeling job.

Until Next Time by Xara X Xanakas: A governmental type chasing an outgoing thief. Nothing new, but some BDSM stuff.

The Assassin of Laurentium by Clodia Metelli: The tags said “slow burn” but …if it were my electric blanket, it would be at setting three. Out of six. Which is to say that there was no burning. However, despite my attempts at wit, it’s a pretty good story. Mellow, but good.

I Spy Pecan Pie by Anna Birmingham: Now this one had the slow burn! Hot new cowboy, and the guy on the ranch who makes the pies. Kind of short, hits or aims at most of the cliches of cowboy stories, but lovely nonetheless.

He Didn’t Have to Be by Tracey Michael: Another college gay-for-you romance. Short and sweet.

His Heart Belongs to Daddy by Harry K. Malone: One of those that contains everything I don’t usually go for (bdsm stuff, age gaps), yet manages to charm me anyway.

Villains by Andrea Speed: Here’s a life-lesson. If you’ve gone too many words, say…200. If you’ve 200 words without an action, dialogue, or current description, then you need to stop, go back to the last one of those things, copy all the text since then into a file labeled “Story X Notes,” and then delete them from the original story. You may now attempt to summarize whatever you had written in no more than three non-run-on sentences.

A Pale Shadow by Eon de Beaumont: While a good fantasy tale with a pretty interesting setting, this one failed to be as intense as it thought it was, which made for occasionally uncomfortable moments. It wasn’t terrible given the length, though.

Pink Lace and Stolen Hearts by JC Wallace: See life lesson, above.

More Than He Can See by Nicole Forcine: This is one that I read awhile ago. It is occasionally awkward in prose, but since it’s pretty much about two guys with uh…special needs?…can I say disabilities? and those are hard to come by–or just awful when you do come by them–it is also definitely worth a look.

The Indian Fairy Book

I AM A WOMAN AND I HAVE COME TO MARRY YOUR EVIL MAGICIAN THE RED-HEAD.

The Indian Fairy Book From the Original Legends by Cornelius Mathews (on Amazon) was overall an interesting read. It had at least one gender-bending tale (where the guy dresses as a woman), which is always fantastic. A few of the other tales were absolute gems, too, though a few were also horribly boring and dull. There were lots of cannibals, a few weendigos, enough evil magicians to sink a boat, and very little apparent Western influence (perhaps there was more than I could see, but it all seemed pretty genuine).

The gender-bending tale was The Red-Head, and the guy (who I believe was the wimpiest ever) went to an evil witch for help (I guess she was like Baba Yaga, since she was totally nice and friendly to him). And she was all it’s fine, now wear this dress. And then he went to near where the Red-Head lived, and everyone came and coo’d over him and wanted to marry him, but s/he said s/he was only going to marry the Red-Head, who was amenable once located. The Red-Head’s mother was the only one to realize what was up, but her complaints came to naught against the “tell me how many hundreds of people you’ve killed” flirting of our hero. That same flirting lured the Red-Head to fall asleep so he could be killed with a magic thread the Evil Woman had given the Hero.

So that was interesting to read.

The other story most worth commenting on was one that I’m not sure about. The basic summary goes like this:

Some parents have two sons and a daughter, and then they die. The elder son and the daughter promise to look after their brother, and they do, until the brothers are playing ball on a lake, and an evil magician spots them and likes how pretty they are. He ends up with the ball in his boat, and uses that to capture the elder brother, who asks him to bring the younger as well. The magician refuses, then takes the elder brother and marries him to one of his two daughters, and they have a son. He then decides to kill off the brother, and tries several times, but each one is foiled, and the son/daughter given a treat by the not-killed brother. Then the brother hears his younger brother singing mourning songs for him across the water, the brother and his wife try to escape, fail, and are stuck.

Meanwhile the sister and younger brother ran out of food, and then the sister goes to the nearest village where she accepts marriage proposals (plural, yeah), and forgets about her sibling. The younger brother mourns his older brother. Finally the elder brother kills the magician and escapes. Yay!

Something about that story, though. Now, most of my deep thoughts can be brushed off by the fact that it’s a fairy tale, and by it’s nature they are …inconsistent and weird. But there are just a few too many things that don’t add up in this one. Like how mourning songs are (I’m pretty sure) generally the province of women. And the son, who is occasionally interchangeable with his mother, and at other times (the near-escape) entirely forgotten. And even the fact that the Magician is offered the second brother but refuses (yet has two daughters)– why did the story take the time to mention that if it came to nothing? And why did the sister suddenly become a …bitch in what’s set up as a story about familial duty?

So this is how I think the story goes:

There were parents, who had two sons and a daughter, and at their death they asked the elder brother and the sister to watch their younger sibling. One day the two brothers were at a lake playing, and a creepy perverted old magician saw them and wanted them. The ball fell in his canoe, and thus he captured the elder brother, who asked if he wouldn’t also bring the younger. Finding the younger brother yet more handsome, the creepy pervert agreed.

But, when they got back to his magical home, the elder brother conspired to keep the pervert away from the younger, so the Magician realized he needed to get rid of the elder, which he tried to do in a variety of magical ways. Each time he was foiled, and the younger brother received a gift (and continued protection of his brother). One day the elder brother heard their sister singing them a mourning song across the lake, told his younger brother, and they tried to escape. That failed, but knowing that their sister was still waiting for them, they were able to kill the magician and escape.

No extraneous daughters, betraying sister, unexplained dislike of the son-in-law, or narratively forgotten son.

I could be wrong, of course, I’d need to read at least one other version of the story to really even argue this fully, but it seems to fix all the errors of the tale– and there really was a lot of errors, even given the medium, and especially since there were not so many as that in ANY of the other stories. So I could be right, too.

Love’s Landscapes #10

Love’s Landscapes Website

Things I read this week:

Prancer and Gruff by Jade Crystal: Cute, sweet, and silly. Probably too silly, but it was enjoyable. A cowboy and his flaming new housekeeper.

In a Whole New Light by Marie L Nickett: Another friends-to-lovers story. No new twists, but it was sweet.

Watching Elijah Fall by Amy Spector: despite feeling like half Queer as Folk fabric, and a tendency to tell, this was a fairly heartwarming story of moving on and finding love of not just others, but yourself. Also, there are too many Amys in this world.

Strange Charm by A. Phallus Si: all the irreverent and crazy sci-fi fun you could want, plus a bit more besides.

Making It Work by Cari Z.: I don’t usually go for the agree gap stories, but this one was really awesome, and witty, and while the age gap was there, it wasn’t obsessed over. It was good someone chastise me if I forget to link it.

After the Ride: a rodeo guy gets kidnapped, then rescued by his BFF. Sweet, but not terribly memorable.

Knight Owl by C. Dallas Floyd: decent, but too…uh…pretentious? Seems to think it’s a better story than it is, though it’s …decent.