Bisexual Book Review (Spoilers in following post. Not this one)

[Rhuth]

The Nightrunner Series
by Lynn Flewelling (http://www.sff.net/people/Lynn.Flewelling/)

Luck In The Shadows (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553575422/104-8755690-8688737?v=glance&n=283155)
Stalking Darkness (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553575430/ref=pd_bxgy_text_b/104-8755690-8688737?ie=UTF8)
Traitor's Moon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553577255/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_2_txt/104-8755690-8688737?ie=UTF8)
More to come… *tapping fingers*

So…

I was off to go on lengthy vacations with plane flights and lots of sitting around. I needed reading material. I wandered over to the SciFi/Fantacy section… because I’m a geek and proud of it, thank you! But I had no idea what to get. I randomly picked up a book that had a female on the cover… because I was in the mood for a heroine. But it was a second book in a series. The first one was missing. But there was another series by the same author that was written before this series. Ick. A male hero… and he’s sporting a mullet! Now I’m thinking I really want that unavailable warrior chick! I always want what I can’t have! Oh well. Mullet boy will tell me if it’s a good author and worth special ordering my warrior chick.

I am happy to inform you that Seregil is much better looking in writing than he is in the cover art of Luck In The Shadows. Imagine my surprise that I randomly picked up this book to discover that he is bisexual as well! I started out thinking “Well someone rolled up a stereotypical rogue”. From there Lynn Flewelling proceeded to slowly chip away at the conventional forms of fantasy writing until I was completely unable to predict the storyline. I was on the edge of my seat, unable to put down the book and swooning over unconventional love scenes.

Seriously! It is swoon worthy! This isn’t porn material. I’d feel perfectly comfortable reading these books to my grade school children. Okay, the macabre might be a bit much for my daughter, but I bet she would swoon over the love scenes! It is just not a prince finding a princess and living happily ever after. In fact, every essence of that last sentence gets smashed to smithereens and not in any way that you will guess.

So go read it! Start with Luck In The Shadows to get the fullest introduction to the Skalan world. You could skip to Stalking Darkness for the best swooning material. Traitor’s Moon is the latest in the series. It can certainly stand on its own as an almost draining tribute to the long and painful process of healing. She has promised to write more, and I can hardly wait to get my hands on them. In the meantime, I’ve started in on my warrior chick in The Bone Doll’s Twin. After that, I will finally get to the original book I picked up, Hidden Warrior. There is another in this Tamir series called The Oracle's Queen, so I have enough reading now to go on another vacation! I won't though. I have found that vacationing gets in the way of my fantasy reading.

The Tamir series is set in the same world as the Nightrunner series but much much earlier in history. I haven’t finished it yet, but it seems to be showing how the world in the Nightrunner series became what it is. Oh… and the heroine… she’s transsexual.

[Rhuth]

I found it interesting that in the two interviews I have found of Lynn Flewelling discussing the sexuality of the characters in the Nightrunner series, (Strange Horizons (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2001/20010409/flewelling.shtml), and GLBT Fantasy Fiction Resources (http://www.glbtfantasy.com/index.html?section=interviews&sub=flewelling)) she says that she is a straight woman writing about gay heroes in her stories. One interviewer even referrers to Alec and Serigel being bisexual in the question, and she answers the question using the term “gay” for them. Her point was not to say that they weren’t bisexual, but that such characters need to be in more fiction “[whom aren’t] tragic, evil, victimized, or bit players thrown in for color.”

I think my getting picky over her choice of words for an interview reflects more on her creation of characters than her political standing on bisexual issues. I feel like I know her characters better than she does! She created them, but now they are mine. I know them, I understand them and I relate to them. When she starts to talk about the characters she created, I suddenly feel I have the right to argue with her about who and what they are!

The words “gay” and “bisexual” don’t exist in the Skalan world, so I can’t get upset at her choice of words within the stories. Only the smallest backwoods reaches of Skala have people who suggest the creation of babies is the only purpose of sex. And even there, Alec’s father had to fend off a dirty old man trying to buy his son. When Alec moves to the city, he undergoes a little culture shock.




He paused, and Seregil saw that he was staring toward the Street of Lights. Across the circle, the dark outline of the archway and the colorful twinkle of lights beyond shone invitingly.

“I meant to ask you about something the other day,” Alec said. “I’d forgotten about it until just now.”

Seregil grinned at him in the darkness. “Regarding what lies beyond that arch, I presume? The street of Lights, it’s called. I guess you can see why.”

Alec nodded. “A man told me the name the other day. Then he made some joke when I asked what the different colors mean.”

“Said if you had to ask you were too young to know?”

“Something like that. What did he mean?”

“Beyond those walls, Alec, lie the finest brothels and gambling establishments in Skala.”

“Oh.” There was enough light for him to see the boy’s eyes widen a little as he noted the number of riders and carriages passing under the arch.

“Oh, indeed.”

“But why are the lights different colors? I can’t make out any pattern.”

“They aren’t meant for decoration. The color of the lanterns at each gate indicates the sort of pleasures the house purveys. A man wanting a woman would look for a house with a rose-colored light. If it’s male company he craves, then he’d choose one showing the green lamp. It’s the same for women: amber for male companionship, white for female.”

“Really?” Alec stood up and walked to the far side of the fountain for a better view. When he turned back to Seregil he looked rather perplexed. “There are almost as many of the green and white ones as there are the others.”

“Yes?”

“Well, it’s just that—“ Alec faltered. “I mean, I’ve heard of such things, but I didn’t think they could be so—so common. Things are a lot different here than in the north.”

“Not so much as you might think,” Seregil replied, heading off again in the direction of the Street of the Sheaf. “Your Dalnan priests frown on such couplings, I understand, claiming they’re unproductive—“

Alec shrugged uncomfortably, falling into step beside him. “They would be that.”

“That depends on what one intends to produce,” Seregil remarked with a cryptic smile. “Illior instructs us to take advantage of any situation; I’ve always found that to be a most productive philosophy.”

When Alec still looked dubious, Seregil clapped him on the shoulder in mock exasperation. “By the four, haven’t you heard the saying, ‘Never spurn the dish untasted’? And here you haven’t even had a smell of the kitchen yet! We’ve got to get you back there, and soon.”

Alec didn’t reply, but Seregil noticed him glance back over his shoulder several times before they were out of sight of the lights.