J.S. Fields

Author & Scientist

Review: Thorn by Anna Burke

Genre: fantasy – fairy tell retelling

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: none

Review

Rowan, eldest of three daughters to a widower father, has not had a good few years. Her mother had died (fairy tale trope! Take a drink!), her father’s merchant ships have sunk to the bottom of the ocean, and now she and her sisters have been stripped of their affluent city life and are being forced to make do in a remote countryside filled with bears, wolves, and a crap ton of snow.

Trying to make ends meet and get enough, well, meat, for his family, Rowan’s father joins a hunting party heading far into the snowy woods. Rowan, recently betrothed to a bland guy she doesn’t really care for, asks her father for a single rose upon his return. He does so only by stealing it from a snow-covered castle the party finds while hunting giant wolves.

Of his hunting party, it is only Rowan’s father who returns alive.

The rose is not the only thing he brings back, however. Enraged by the death of her beloved wolves and seeking her rose, the Huntress leaves her winter castle and chases Rowan’s father. She takes back her rose, but not before it pricks Rowan, leaving an icy magic deep within her. As punishment for the father’s transgressions, the Huntress also takes Rowan back with her, to live an isolated life in a perpetual winter castle.

Rowan, having now lost her entire family, must find the will to live and perhaps even thrive in her new home. The Huntress has a fabulous temper but really, Rowan has nothing worth going home to. She decides to stay and make the best of things (maybe even make out, since those hot springs are the perfect place to catch someone bathing…), even as the situation complicates itself with magical roses, evil fairies, and an ex-fianćes out for blood vengeance.

THORN is so much more than I hoped for in a short novella fairy tale retelling. Burke, known best for her lesfic debut COMPASS ROSE, writes a beautiful, breathtaking version of Beauty and the Beast. It carries all the best fairy tale tropes, sometimes borrowing from old iterations, relying heavily on the Disney version, but giving us a ‘beast’ Ice Queen whom we cannot help but love.

Rowan is driven, idealistic, strong, and heartbreakingly naive. The cursing fairy is delightfully vindictive and morally grey. The sisters are predictably divided, the fiancé channels only the best in Disney Gaston comedic evil. The narrative takes the fairy tale moral a step further than usual, and actually hangs a hat on the most obvious lessons:

I thought of my sisters and my father and the little house, a warm light set deep in the mouth of a trap I would spring no matter where I stepped. I belonged to Avery now, and if not Avery, some other man. I looked down at my body, hidden beneath my furs, and hated it. My body was the real prison, something to be bartered or sold or carried away on the back of a great white bear. This was the truth that Sara had tried to tell me, the truth I had not wanted to see, the truth that now was as clear to me as the biting cold.

In addition, the writing is gorgeous. Let’s take a minute to admire this scene, in which the Huntress is in the process of kidnapping Rowan:

“Then it is done.”

My father picked up his discarded sword and charged. She knocked him to the ground with predatory ease, plucking the sword from his limp hands.

“Come with me,” she said, and her words slid into my bloodstream with the scent of roses.

“Rowan, no!” Aspen grabbed my arm, and Juniper clung to my other side, sobbing.

“I spared your father’s life once. I will not spare it a second time,” the woman said. She raised the sword, and I pushed past my sisters to stand before her, placing my hands on the sharp edge of the blade.

“Please,” I said.

Green eyes bored into mine. “From you,” she said, lowering the sword, “That word sounds much sweeter.”

YES! Give me chilly power femme ice queens ANY DAY. Also from there they ride into the forest on the back of a giant bear. Come on. This is lesbian fairy tale gold.

Get on the back of a gigantic white bear and hunt your own ice queen by buying the book here.

P.S. This book deserved a much better cover.

Review: The Fletcher by K. Aten

Genre: fantasy – sword and sorcery

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: implied rape threats

Review

Kyri is a journey(wo)man fletcher, trained by her master father in the ways of making and using archery equipment. Her skill is unmatched, not that anyone in the kingdom cares, since Kyri is just a woman. When her father falls ill, Kyri sets out to gain her own mastership, since she legally cannot inherit her father’s holdings.

The start of her journey ends badly. She stumbles upon a lone woman being attacked by the king’s men.

“I told you, my name is Shana. I’m a member of the Telequire Amazon tribe, and I’m traveling to visit another tribe in order to pass news of our new queen.”

The patrol leader laughed, joined by his comrades. “Amazon, huh? There are no such things as Amazons! All I see is a woman alone, carrying a sword. Women are not allowed to carry weapons of war in our kingdom.”

She is outmatched, so Kyri helps defend her. In doing so she marks herself as an outcast from her kingdom, but is welcomed with open arms to the Amazons. (trope! take a drink!)

The rest of the book follows Kyri as she learns about her uncanny skills and rises through the ranks of the Amazons, finding love, and a bit of magic, along the way.

If you’re in the mood for a straightforward trope fantasy ala Xena Warrior Princess, THE FLETCHER will satisfy your craving. The cover is gorgeous (thank god, as lesfic is known for its terrible covers), the prose straightforward, and the story, stock. Kyri is a likably naive protagonist, with the standard Chosen One trope and the ‘too good to be true’ skill set (archery). Her journey is worn but comforting, her love interest apparent, good-natured, and the romance pacing appropriate for the length of the book. The secondary characters are surprisingly round and engaging, and while Kyri’s journey felt a bit wandery to me, her time with the Amazons more than made up for it with the various hot tub scenes(!).

It’s a trope-filled, comfortable book. I had very few quibbles, the main one being the description of the bow with the multicolored wood grain, but I realize my background in woodworking makes me far more nitpicking about this than most.

“The only thing to it is patience. You have to paint each grain with a different dye and keep repeating until enough soaks in to make it bright. Then I have to go over the entire thing with olive oil, and lastly, a layer of wax.”

For the record, this would not make a colorfast bow. A bit later a bow is mentioned to be ‘springy’ and made from Madagascar rosewood, which a good wood choice and well explained, so I’m willing to let the wood dye thing go. Though I really hope the cedar chip joke was done deliberately, because it is ~chef’s kiss~

(in this scene, they’re talking about a small animal having fallen asleep on a bed of cedar shavings. The smell of cedar is a toxic aromatic extractive that causes sleepiness and, in some small mammals, death)

I smiled. “No, those are chips of cedars wood. My man always used it on our bedding to keep pests away. I sprinkle some all around my hut and on my bedding. It seems to be working so far.”

So, come for the cover and the tropes, stay for the hot tub romance and mostly accurate wood portrayals. THE FLETCHER is an easy, quick read that will give you that Xena flavor, without all the maddening subtext that never goes anywhere. Also, hot springs.

Grab your bow and arrow and try to beat Kyri in a duel by purchasing the book here.

 

Review: Branded Ann by Merry Shannon

Genre: fantasy – historical (lesbians on boats!)

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: Scary Black Man trope, discussion of child rape, some off-page adult rape (not voyeuristic), ethnic slur (Gy*sy)

Review

Violet, former prostitute now merchant-wife, is setting off on the vacation / move of a lifetime with her new husband. They’re headed to Jamaica, where her husband’s land holdings and wealth will make her a queen among the natives (don’t worry, it’s not a colonial narrative) and allow her to leave her past behind.

Barely into their voyage, Violet’s ship is taken by pirates, who are lead by Branded Ann, a “woman with eyes like ice and a face marred by a mysterious cross-shaped scar.” But Ann isn’t after Violet and her husbands possessions, nor is the ship carrying any worthwhile cargo. Ann is after a portion of a map that will help her translate the portion she carries, and allow her to find her father’s hidden treasure.

None of this is of much interest to Violet of course, who gets to watch her crew and husband murdered. Violet makes some key missteps and Ann, who will kill anyone who looks at her but who can’t stand rape, has to take Violet under her protection to save her from the crew (this is all very well done, I have no objections to this scene). Violet has no intention of serving Ann or the crew, except as a scullery maid. Hence she’s left to scrub decks and make friends with the cabin boy–and slowly earns the respect of part of the crew.

As Ann’s scheming takes the crew farther afield, into dangerous waters that could spell disaster for the ship and its crew, Violet and Ann must learn to trust each other as a mole on the ship, other treasure seekers, and Ann’s own crew plot to kill them both. Trust isn’t something that comes easily for the merchant’s wife or the pirate, and the reader gets treated to the very best of the enemies-to-lovers trope, while on the high seas, and surrounded by murderous pirates.

Much like SWORD OF THE GUARDIAN, BRANDED ANN combines the very best fantasy tropes (herein, pirates) with my favorite romance tropes in a skillful, suspenseful, and hot stand-alone book. There’s a real plot that I actually care about. Both Violet and Ann are three-dimensional and have their own motivations. They have unique voices. The crew of the pirate ship are complex and distinct, and act with the moral grayness of, well, real pirates. There’s a reasonable, on-page sex scene and plenty of sexual tension before it, swashbuckling, fun outfits, a misfit kid, and a pirate with a heart of gold. Seriously, what isn’t to love in this book??

Unfortunately, like SWORD OF THE GUARDIAN, this book does have some tired racist tropes, primarly in the form of Black descriptions:

Then there was Mason, a giant of a man with skin so black it shone like polished ebony when he sweat in the sun. Rumor had it that Mason had originally been captured from Africa by pirate slave ships, and the captain had been so impressed–or perhaps intimidated–by the enormous man that he’d recruited him.

For those playing their TV Tropes bingo card at home, Mason hits the Scary Black Man trope, specifically Token Minority, Proud Warrior Race, and Gentle Giant.

The book is surprisingly realistic in how it portrays the brutality of pirate lives, though it does so without glorifying violence or giving us voyeuristic rape scenes. It’s a fine line not many authors can walk, and Shannon does it with grace. Be warned, however, that there is rape of Violet, though it is off page and no actual portion of the rape is discussed other than Violet’s frustration over the encounter.

Somewhat more concerning is one of the pirate crew propositioning the ten-ish-year old girl who ends up stowing away on the pirate ship, who Violet takes under her wing. Again, it’s just a proposition and nothing happens, but it does serve to really enforce the real brutality pirate life, and the very complex morals of Branded Ann’s crew:

Saunders reached out and took hold of Charlie’s arm. “Aw now, Sister, that bunk of yours is awful tiny, ain’t it? Maybe this little one ought to share berth with me.” The lecherous gleam in his eyes made Violet sick to her stomach. “What do you say, moppet, you want to come sleep next to your Uncle Saunders?”

There’s also a concerning passage from Violet’s past about a Gy*sy woman who is paid to give her an abortion, and the effects of said potion. So, racial slur and problematic context, in a one-page backstory.

Racial and rape issues aside, BRANDED ANN is decidedly well-written and walks the perfect balance between romance and adventure. With a publication date of 2008, some of the issues are more forgivable (rape, in particular, seemed to be almost required in fantasy books from the 1980s-about 2010) than others (at no point has the slur Gy*py been okay unless you’re Roma). Readers will need to decide if they can put the racism aside for an otherwise delectable adventure.

Grab a cutlass and join Branded Ann’s pirate crew here.

Review: Heathen, Volume 3, by Alterici, Woods, and Martinez

This is a review for the third and final volume in a series. Read the review for volume one here and volume two here.

Genre: fantasy – sword and sorcery

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: none

Review

In the final installment of HEATHEN, Aydis takes on Odin in the Land of the Gods while her friends battle Odin’s army. It’s valkyrie against valkyrie, Aydis against the gods, in this rushed and disappointing end to the HEATHEN storyline.

I don’t have too much to say about this volume, as I found it a general disappointment all around. I know Alterici had a ton of issues with publication and rights being tied up with various companies, and I’m guessing by the time she wrote this, her head wasn’t in the game anymore. Still, the first two installments were just so good that to have it wrap with a mediocre ending left me grumpy. Even the cover art lacks the sheer joy we could see in the other two volumes. This reads more as a ‘I have to finish’ more than ‘look at my amazing world!’

We begin with a lackluster chase scene in which Aydis is captured by giants and taken to see Odin. During their journey we get a story about an old tree that the gods used to consult with the Norns about governing the human world. Aydis befriends the giants just as they leave her at the door to Odin’s castle, and she promises to free their mother.

She enters and is immediately captured by Odin and thrown into the dungeon.

Meanwhile, the valkyrie Aydis saved and did not marry whyyyyy finds the girl Aydis once (almost?) kissed. They begin traveling together. Various side character break Aydis out of her cell and she is lead to the mystic tree discussed earlier (that did not appear in earlier volumes that I recall, making it very Plot Convenient).

Not-wife and Almost-Kissed team up with the all-lady pirate crew and take on Odin’s army, which includes the valkyries. They…talk it out.

Aydis sees a naked woman in the tree, then a baby, which apparently represents her mother and her, and gives her the will to live?? She leaves the tree and goes to again confront Odin. Not-wife and the very scantily clad Aphrodite-like valkyrie go with her. Aphrodite takes pity on Odin who is cowering in a corner for a reason I’m not too sure of, and convinces Odin to undo his wrongs and free Brynhild (not-wife). Aydis tells him the story of her mother and he relents. Aphrodite gives Byrnhild the leader-helmet of the valkyries and everyone lives on.

With a degraded art style, what felt like a forced and often too-convenient plot (and plot devices), and no resolution on the ‘loves the ladies’ thing which started the whole series, this volume was definitely a letdown. I hold out hope that Alterici will revisit the series later and give it the ending it deserves.

You can check out volume three here.

Review: Skywhisperers by Natasja Hellenthal

Genre: fantasy – sword and sorcery

Pairings: f/f

Queer Representation: cis lesbian

Warnings: ableism, ‘almond eye’ and other food-based descriptions, consent issues

Review

Nemsa is born into a world with stagnating landscapes and dried husks of people – a land without wind (don’t think about pollination and other critical life elements too hard or the premise unravels). Her arrival at a small village and the death of the wind seem a coincidence, and Nemsa grows up in a small village surrounded by anger and suspicion.

Of course Nemsa is not to blame. How could she be, having only one eye and one good leg? Still, the weight of blame from the villagers is crushing, so she goes on a quest restore the winds once she comes of age. While wandering from her village, Nemsa meets Xenthia–a Sky Whisperer–who may be able to help her restore the wind. Their target – the old, vengeful Sun Whispered. Along the way Nemsa discovers her Chosen One heritage, enjoys some celestial sex, and interacts with a fairly generic fantasy world.

The cover of this book was gorgeous, which gave me higher expectations than I think I should have had going in. And I’m not sure if the writing is a problem because of translation issues or just authorial skill. Regardless, SKYWHISPERERS  reads more like a belabored fantasy coffeeshop AU than a book, with extended emotions that rehash scenes from multiple character POVs, dialogue that doesn’t advance the plot, and a plot that only occasionally shows it head. The book is much more romance than fantasy, more of a romance set in a fantasy setting where the plot is occasionally brought around to remind the reader there is a purpose other than having sex with a Sky Whisperer. There’s an engaging story buried within, which could have been told in half the number of pages, and without the tortured ableism.

Nemsa is introduced to the reader as having a bad leg that causes a limp, and only one functional eye. This is yet another avenue of scorn from the villagers, and early on in the book we see a lot of the expected bemoaning around these disabilities.

But, even with her true heritage revealed, how can crippled and one-eyed Nemsa’s destiny be linked with that of the much older, immortal Sky Whisperer she grows fonder of by the day?

 

I’d hoped Nemsa might come to acceptance or find creative workarounds, or found she had great power in some other aspect of herself. Alas, she is slowly healed throughout the book (healing sex! take a drink!), and by the end she is ‘whole’ (she was never not whole to begin with).

Then, I experienced the most enlightened moment I had ever felt in my life. Suddenly, I could see with both eyes it seemed.

 

The cloud grew in size almost straight away and became yellow and red for a moment. I experienced a bright jolt of pain in my bad leg. But then, as I looked down on my left leg, which had always been crooked with the knee slightly swollen, I immediately noticed the difference. It looked the same as my other leg now and…as straight.

 

I swallowed hard at her sudden poetic outburst. ‘Yet, I haven’t lost hope and I know you haven’t. So, we are going to save the world, together,’ she looked away at my abandoned stick, then at my leg and nodded.

‘At least you can walk properly now and I don’t have to carry you.’

 

I walked away, glad to finally be able to properly without seeming feeble.

 

I felt whole.

 

There’s some really pretty (if not sometimes confusing) imagery in this book

All of my life, there had been no wind until she came. I had known only stale and fetid air–the dust only moved by the shuffling of my feet–so that when it started to swirl, I grew frightened.

 

That’s when I see her. She comes down the path towards me; the stark blue of her robe standing out among the red rocks like a picture I had once seen. My mother called it a forget-me-not.

Which is unfortunately paired with the very problematic food-based racial descriptors and various ‘exotic beauty’ references:

Still, to me, she appeared very much like a frightened, fragile bird. A bird with her wings clipped even. How could this girl possess any powers? Pretty though, mind you, in an innocent and sweet way, even if she had no idea how attractive she actually was. Or could become with her skin like dark honey, her almond-shaped tawny eye, and the strange hairstyle of the village people; giving her a certain appeal.

And then to top it all off, there’s some problematic consent issues:

I tried to stop her several times, but she thought it was for her sake. That too. Of course. How could I let her do this after all? She would die before her time. Suffer, catch the Sickness like so many others…How could I be so selfish? But I wasn’t. Xenthia ensured me that I wasn’t. She did this to save Lorian.

I started to cry, but she kissed my eyes. She felt my guilt, my inner torment.

‘It’s the only way, Nemsa, and you know it. We need you. I need you. I want to help and gladly. Please, open yourself up to me and let me love you,’ Xenthia said, her voice husky with desire.

With the right editing, this book has a lot of potential. Unfortunately there are too many problematic elements and tropes to make it an engaging read, even if you are into coffeeshop AUs.

Seek your destiny with the wind by buying the book here.

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