Grade: B

The romance in this anthology is very… um… clean. There are little or no sexual encounters and affection is expressed by chaste kisses and verbal declarations of love. There are, however, lots of longing glances, and one very heart-wrenching case of unrequited love. The hero in that one was a completely useless, whining fool, but the heroine was very assertive and kickass. The best stories in this anthology are the ones by Sharon Shinn and Lynn Kurland. I’m a huge fan of Sharon Shinn’s The Shape-changer’s Wife as well as her Samaria series, so I knew that I couldn’t expect anything less from her, but all I know of Lynn Kurland are her time-travel books and those have never impressed me, least of all the especially mawkish Stardust of Yesterday, so I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed her contribution to this anthology. The one by Sarah Monette wasn’t bad, but the hero was such a baby that I fervently wished as I was reading the book that the heroine would just take out her sword and cut off his head to put him out of his misery, but alas! she doesn’t. The one by Claire Delacroix was the only one that I had a hard time reading, but mostly because it seemed contrived and the writing was just awkward all around. It also featured a male Mary Sue that made me want to stab out my own eyes. Since I am a huge fan of Joss Whedon, one would think that I would be immune to Mary Sues, but you know what? I’m really not.

A Whisper of Spring by Lynn Kurland features no time-travel (whoo-hoo!), but an elf named Iolaire who is kidnapped by the evil brother of the mage king Symon, the dude she falls in love with. Lothar, the evil brother–with a name like that, could he even help not being evil?–imprisons Iolaire in a tower to scare her into marrying him. Iolaire’s brother approaches Symon for help and Symon, who has always been in love with Iolaire, helps out because… umm… he is in love with Iolaire, and it will give him a chance to kick his evil brother’s ass. This story almost plays like a videogame with the noble mage knight coming to the rescue of an elven princess and battling the forces of evil for her. Iolaire, as it turns out, once saw Symon at a party, and fell in love with him at first sight, so goody for her that it is Symon who rescues her. Elven rule forbids Iolaire from marrying Symon, but Symon is a clever one and finds a way around that. This story is very simple, very point A to point B, but it is also well-written and quite romantic. I found myself rooting for Symon and Iolaire eventhough a moron could have predicted that there was no way that they weren’t going to end up together. Nevertheless, Kurland made it fun to root for them. B+

When Winter Comes by Sharon Shinn isn’t really a romance, but a love story between two sisters (not like that, you pervs!). Sosie’s older sister Annie gets impregnated by a mystic and gives birth to a mystic baby that is considered an abomination in their village. Disowned and casted out by their parents, the two of them brave through a snowstorm together to find a place where they could settle and the baby wouldn’t be treated as a freak. Eventually, they find an old mystic woman who takes them in and looks after them for a while, but when a band of mystic hunters infringe on their sanctuary, Sosie, Annie, and the baby are forced to go back on the road to find a place to call home. At first, Sosie does most of the work taking care of Annie and the baby–as well as working odd jobs to feed the three of them–but eventually Annie finds her own strength, and Sosie realizes that she has been using Annie and the baby all along as a reason not to live for herself. Sosie finds love with a nobleman and learns to become a little more selfish (which, in her case, is a good thing), and Annie finds her own happy ending (or does she?). What I really enjoyed about this story is the friendship between Sosie and Annie and the hardships that they face that only strengthens the bond between them. I didn’t even mind that there wasn’t a strong romantic interest for Sosie, because this story wasn’t about that. The male love interest was really more of an afterthought instead of an actual presence, but it doesn’t detract from the storytelling. As per usual, Shinn demonstrates her brilliance as a storyteller and I thank her for it. A

As for the Kiss of the Snow Queen by Claire Delacroix, on the other hand, I’m still not quite sure as to what it is about. The heroine is a “seer” locked in a tower by her father to keep her chaste and maidenly and is about to marry a brute who is apparently also quite cruel. She uses a mirror to “see” the future and at first I thought that the story was going to be similar to the Lady of Shallot, but I was dead wrong (and disappointed). It would have been awesome if the heroine couldn’t go outside because of a curse and she and the hero would have had to find a way to be together when the heroine couldn’t go ever leave the room or look out the window, or she would die. Shit, son, I want to read something like that. Anyway, Greta, the heroine, inadvertently summons “the man she is meant to love” and sees him in the mirror fighting a monster that has killed hundreds of her people. To add some drama to the piece, the god of mischief, Loki, arrives and tells her that if she doesn’t help Cai, the man in the mirror, he will die fighting the monster. Loki volunteers to take her to him and to thank him, Greta makes out with him sporadically throughout the book. No, Loki is not the hero, but he’s in the story more than the hero is. In fact, we hardly see anything of the hero, since it is Greta who comes to his rescue, and we don’t really meet him till the end. I mean, why did the author even make Cai the hero? I guess I just didn’t understand why Greta falls in love with Cai, since she doesn’t even really know him, or why Loki is even in the story, except to point out obvious shit to Greta in a very modern vernacular. It was very distracting and I didn’t really care too much of it. It is obvious that Loki is just a stand-in for the author to point out to Greta when she’s being a brat or an idiot. It was also kind of creepy how Loki kept telling Greta that he was just “warming [her] up” for Cai. It’s like the author wrote this story with a certain idea in mind, but while writing it, it evolved without her knowledge, and she had no idea what was going on. It just made for a painful and uneven read. D-

A Gift of Wings by Sarah Monette is fascinating despite its handicap of uh… a bitter, whiny, handicapped hero. Agido, a bodyguard and a mercenary, is escorting her former lover, a once powerful wizard who was tortured and beaten until he’s practically useless, to a healer who could possibly help him. Maur, the big baby, dumped Agido because he is not the man he once was and doesn’t want to be a burden to her. Agido, who is madly in love with him, takes up a post as his bodyguard, anyway, because she would do anything to be near him, even be his servant. She also knows that she is the only one who can really look after him and make sure that he is safe. When a snowstorm strands them in a nearby inn, the two of them are forced to share a room together and Maur has to confront his true feelings for Agido. Before they can hash it all out, however, a doctor who calls Maur a fool and berates him for thinking that any healer at all can help him be normal again, is murdered, and Agido becomes a suspect. Together, Maur and Agido investigate the case and in the process, get the chance to get to know each other again. It became clear to me while reading this novel that Agido is a saint indeed for putting up with the bratty, self-pityin’ brat that is Maur. First of all, she is seven years older than him, is more sexually experienced than him (for once), and pretty much carries him around. Maur is totally right when he says that he is a burden to Agido because he is. He is useless, whines constantly about his plight, and throws pity parties for himself whenever he has a chance. Agido, who is wild and crazy about him, indulges him at every opportunity and I felt horrible for her because she deserves better. She is strong, intelligent, level-headed, and should have been paired up with a (forgive me for saying this) more alpha hero. I also got the feeling that if Maur weren’t handicapped, he would have dumped poor Agido at the first opportunity. Anyway, though this story is quite short, the world-building was still impressive and I wished that it would have been a longer piece. B-

I had a great time reading this anthology with the exception of the third one by Claire Delacroix. I think it would have been better if the editor had excised it entirely to make more room for the Shinn and the Monette stories. I was a little disappointed at first that there was very little sex in it, but the more I read of it, the more I realized that it was a welcome respite from all the yummy smut I’ve been reading. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Ellora’s Cave and Loose-id, but it was really kind of nice to read a courtship that didn’t involve some talk about the type of lubrication to use for some anal-lovin’. After a while, that stuff just kind of wears a body out and would push one to go back to the basics. It was nice to read some stories that had some old-fashioned yearning and longing… I can dig that sometimes. Excuse me while dash off to Amazon and check out what else Sarah Monette has written. Till next time, dear readers!

Buy The Queen in Winter! Or not!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Books, Grade: B, Romance: Paranormal, Romance: Sci-fi/Fan, Sci-Fi/Fantasy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.