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now that's more like it
Sep. 29th, 2022 11:48 amI just finished A Taste of Gold and Iron and of all the m/m fantasy novels published by fannish people I've read over the last few years since that became the genre du jour, I think it's my favorite.
Mostly this is because I like the two main characters so very much. I just like them! So much! Characterization is usually my number one priority in a story, and it was so solid in this story. Their relationship is also really lovely and didn't feel too rushed to me--and you know how rare that is. I am also a big fan of one of the supporting characters who I started off not liking but ended up being ridiculously fond of.
Some other good things about this book:
+ This is a world where gender and sexual orientations of any kind are accepted, and that felt natural and not too heavy-handed. We've got a female sultan and a female military commander and a non-binary supporting character and there's just not any fuss over any of this, but it also didn't feel like the writer was going, "Look how progressive I am!" It's just the way the world works. And I also didn't get that feeling that I do in m/m books that the author is just totally uninterested in writing about women and the ones who are there are only tokens. The worldbuilding is perfectly fine--not dazzling but also not lackluster.
+ The plot is a typical danger-and-plotting-among-royalty type, but the specific mechanism of that is one I've not seen before, which was a nice surprise.
+ The prose quality was good. Again, not dazzling, but also not frustrating. It doesn't call attention to itself and does what it needed to do. Easy to read but not too pedestrian.
+ It's a stand-alone. There absolutely could be more in this world and I would read it, but the story stands entirely by itself and I always appreciate when I find a good fantasy novel that does that. (But honestly I hope Rowland writes a semi-sequel about the sultan.)
All in all, a solid 4-star book.
Now I am off to read Alexandra Rowland's fic of their own book.
Mostly this is because I like the two main characters so very much. I just like them! So much! Characterization is usually my number one priority in a story, and it was so solid in this story. Their relationship is also really lovely and didn't feel too rushed to me--and you know how rare that is. I am also a big fan of one of the supporting characters who I started off not liking but ended up being ridiculously fond of.
Some other good things about this book:
+ This is a world where gender and sexual orientations of any kind are accepted, and that felt natural and not too heavy-handed. We've got a female sultan and a female military commander and a non-binary supporting character and there's just not any fuss over any of this, but it also didn't feel like the writer was going, "Look how progressive I am!" It's just the way the world works. And I also didn't get that feeling that I do in m/m books that the author is just totally uninterested in writing about women and the ones who are there are only tokens. The worldbuilding is perfectly fine--not dazzling but also not lackluster.
+ The plot is a typical danger-and-plotting-among-royalty type, but the specific mechanism of that is one I've not seen before, which was a nice surprise.
+ The prose quality was good. Again, not dazzling, but also not frustrating. It doesn't call attention to itself and does what it needed to do. Easy to read but not too pedestrian.
+ It's a stand-alone. There absolutely could be more in this world and I would read it, but the story stands entirely by itself and I always appreciate when I find a good fantasy novel that does that. (But honestly I hope Rowland writes a semi-sequel about the sultan.)
All in all, a solid 4-star book.
Now I am off to read Alexandra Rowland's fic of their own book.
