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devohoneybee at 01:33pm on 26/05/2014
devohoneybee at 01:33pm on 26/05/2014
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For those of you that know and love Barb G's fanfic, you'll understand when I tell you, this is a real treat. All the snark, all the eroticism and power dynamics, but this time, with SELKIES! *g* Here's a review I'm putting up on Amazon and elsewhere:
Barbara Geiger's stunning and beautiful new book, Coral Were His Bones, is a male/male erotic fantasy with selkies. For readers of modern fantasy, as well as of slash, this is familiar and engaging territory, and certainly delivers along those expectations. What sets Coral Were His Bones apart from, say, 50 Shades of Grey and other commercially popular products, is the quality of writing, from characterization, to snappy wit, to mythic imagination. The gay sex is the least of it (though make no mistake, it's enjoyable, relationally relevant, context-specific, and rich -- no generic erotic scripts in sight). This tale, which I won't spoil, is heart-felt, nuanced, and emotionally realistic about the way people emerge from abusive situations to recover their sense of autonomy and freedom. It also has a very real, and grown-up sense of how sex works in loving relationships -- sometimes amazing, sometimes awkward and frustrating, but always part and parcel of real human feeling and communication. Or as the case may be, the human-selkie version. Here Finn, the selkie main character, is both magical and mysteriously other (even, in some ways, to himself), and at the same time achingly familiar in his hurts and struggles to reclaim his sense of self and ability to live his life by his own choices to be with the one he loves. The love interest, Devon, is steadfast, imperfect, and absolutely believable in his own struggles to make things right for the two of them in an increasingly outlandish and at times sinister magical world.
Best of all, Coral Were His Bones is part of a larger cycle of stories about the Fae, the world of Middlehill. Though it stands alone, for those like myself who are captured by its magic, there is much more to come. Highly recommended.
Go, buy, read. :)
http://www.loose-id.com/coral-were-his-bones.html
Barbara Geiger's stunning and beautiful new book, Coral Were His Bones, is a male/male erotic fantasy with selkies. For readers of modern fantasy, as well as of slash, this is familiar and engaging territory, and certainly delivers along those expectations. What sets Coral Were His Bones apart from, say, 50 Shades of Grey and other commercially popular products, is the quality of writing, from characterization, to snappy wit, to mythic imagination. The gay sex is the least of it (though make no mistake, it's enjoyable, relationally relevant, context-specific, and rich -- no generic erotic scripts in sight). This tale, which I won't spoil, is heart-felt, nuanced, and emotionally realistic about the way people emerge from abusive situations to recover their sense of autonomy and freedom. It also has a very real, and grown-up sense of how sex works in loving relationships -- sometimes amazing, sometimes awkward and frustrating, but always part and parcel of real human feeling and communication. Or as the case may be, the human-selkie version. Here Finn, the selkie main character, is both magical and mysteriously other (even, in some ways, to himself), and at the same time achingly familiar in his hurts and struggles to reclaim his sense of self and ability to live his life by his own choices to be with the one he loves. The love interest, Devon, is steadfast, imperfect, and absolutely believable in his own struggles to make things right for the two of them in an increasingly outlandish and at times sinister magical world.
Best of all, Coral Were His Bones is part of a larger cycle of stories about the Fae, the world of Middlehill. Though it stands alone, for those like myself who are captured by its magic, there is much more to come. Highly recommended.
Go, buy, read. :)
http://www.loose-id.com/coral-were-his-bones.html