Books 2012: The Pyramid Waltz
Nov. 23rd, 2012 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbBooks 2012: 231
231. Barbara Ann Wright, The Pyramid Waltz. Bold Strokes Books, 2012.
In my search for bad lesbian fantasy romance, I have discovered that rare treasure: good romantic fantasy (subtype, lesbian). Inevitable? Or unlikely? You decide!
This is Wright's debut novel, although Crossed Genres has published two of her short stories. It has some of the usual debut novel flaws: occasional worldbuilding oddness/lack of elucidating incluing, a couple of developments emerging without the expected amount of build-up (although this could as equally be a flaw of marrying a romantic storyline to an action plot), and a climax a little on the rushed side.
(Yes, Virginia. You are allowed to take more than three short chapters for the Big Demon Showdown. I encourage it, in fact!)
Those caveats aside, however: this is a reasonably solid fantasy novel* that shows definite promise. The young woman Starbride** has come to the royal court in the kingdom of Farraday because her mother expects her to snare a husband whose influence would be useful back home in Allusia. But Starbride doesn't want a husband: instead, she wants to learn Farradain law and use it to Allusia's advantage. A chance encounter with Princess Katya Nar Umbriel, the royal family's second child, leads to entanglement in affairs of the heart, of the state, and of magic.
In public, Katya plays the bored rakish princess. In private, she heads a secret society dedicated to defending the throne and protecting the royal family's secrets, including the most important one: the whole royal family is part "Fiend" (a kind of demon) and must participate in a ritual every few years to keep a far more terrible demon imprisoned. But there's treachery on the loose, and someone's determined to upset the royal family's image - and perhaps the ritual too.
It's in this context that Katya and Starbride's tentative friendship blossoms into romance, in one of the better romantic storylines I've read. (The misunderstanding here aren't stupid ones: for the most part they're justified.) Starbride's gradual education in the ways of court and in Katya's secret world is reasonably well done, and Katya's slow learning-to-trust is believable.
(Both of our protagonists seem just a little too competent for eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds, but damn do I love wish-fulfillment: this would go down quite well with teenagers, as well, I think.)
Wright's prose is competent at the sentence-level, showing flashes of more. (And that competent may seen like faint praise, but most books have merely competent prose - and Wright's is several giant steps above the tolerable-to-laughably-bad I've come to expect from BSB's SFF offerings (those where the prose is slightly better than slushpile quality, the worldbuilding is at best naive, at worst completely broken (and yes, I know I'm doing the nest digressions thing)) - and competent prose is what the genre's built on.) Wright has a good touch with dialogue, though: there're moments of sparkling banter here.
With a good editor, I expect Wright could improve immeasurably. As it stands? This is a good book, and although it ends with some matters unresolved, I'm given to understand that a sequel is anticipated next summer.
So I recommend it, particularly to anyone feeling a dearth of (queer) women in their fantasy.
*I find it hard to say better than this about any romance story. The romantic element remains stubbornly predictable.
**Let's say that I found the name a little ridiculous until the cultural worldbuilding behind it was revealed, at which point it became amusing.
231. Barbara Ann Wright, The Pyramid Waltz. Bold Strokes Books, 2012.
In my search for bad lesbian fantasy romance, I have discovered that rare treasure: good romantic fantasy (subtype, lesbian). Inevitable? Or unlikely? You decide!
This is Wright's debut novel, although Crossed Genres has published two of her short stories. It has some of the usual debut novel flaws: occasional worldbuilding oddness/lack of elucidating incluing, a couple of developments emerging without the expected amount of build-up (although this could as equally be a flaw of marrying a romantic storyline to an action plot), and a climax a little on the rushed side.
(Yes, Virginia. You are allowed to take more than three short chapters for the Big Demon Showdown. I encourage it, in fact!)
Those caveats aside, however: this is a reasonably solid fantasy novel* that shows definite promise. The young woman Starbride** has come to the royal court in the kingdom of Farraday because her mother expects her to snare a husband whose influence would be useful back home in Allusia. But Starbride doesn't want a husband: instead, she wants to learn Farradain law and use it to Allusia's advantage. A chance encounter with Princess Katya Nar Umbriel, the royal family's second child, leads to entanglement in affairs of the heart, of the state, and of magic.
In public, Katya plays the bored rakish princess. In private, she heads a secret society dedicated to defending the throne and protecting the royal family's secrets, including the most important one: the whole royal family is part "Fiend" (a kind of demon) and must participate in a ritual every few years to keep a far more terrible demon imprisoned. But there's treachery on the loose, and someone's determined to upset the royal family's image - and perhaps the ritual too.
It's in this context that Katya and Starbride's tentative friendship blossoms into romance, in one of the better romantic storylines I've read. (The misunderstanding here aren't stupid ones: for the most part they're justified.) Starbride's gradual education in the ways of court and in Katya's secret world is reasonably well done, and Katya's slow learning-to-trust is believable.
(Both of our protagonists seem just a little too competent for eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds, but damn do I love wish-fulfillment: this would go down quite well with teenagers, as well, I think.)
Wright's prose is competent at the sentence-level, showing flashes of more. (And that competent may seen like faint praise, but most books have merely competent prose - and Wright's is several giant steps above the tolerable-to-laughably-bad I've come to expect from BSB's SFF offerings (those where the prose is slightly better than slushpile quality, the worldbuilding is at best naive, at worst completely broken (and yes, I know I'm doing the nest digressions thing)) - and competent prose is what the genre's built on.) Wright has a good touch with dialogue, though: there're moments of sparkling banter here.
With a good editor, I expect Wright could improve immeasurably. As it stands? This is a good book, and although it ends with some matters unresolved, I'm given to understand that a sequel is anticipated next summer.
So I recommend it, particularly to anyone feeling a dearth of (queer) women in their fantasy.
*I find it hard to say better than this about any romance story. The romantic element remains stubbornly predictable.
**Let's say that I found the name a little ridiculous until the cultural worldbuilding behind it was revealed, at which point it became amusing.
