The boundary between SF and romance gets shattered, badly
Written: Mar 21 '06 (Updated Apr 03 '06)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: the Bujold story, of course!
Cons: Most of the rest.
The Bottom Line: Perhaps SF and Romance can mix, but this certainly isn't the way to do it. Bujold shows the perfect balance.
|
|
|
| hist's Full Review: |
Sometimes I wonder about the lengths that I will go to read a Lois McMaster Bujold story. In concept, Irresistible Forces, an anthology edited by Catherine Asaro, sounds like something I would avoid like the plague. The book contains six SF romances by three leading romance authors and three SF authors, all of the stories dealing heavily with emotions and various other romance genre tropes. As a reader who actively avoids the romance genre, I approached this book with caution. Sadly, the caution was justified, though the Bujold story almost makes up for it. At least half of the stories contain most of the romance stereotypes that I despise, such as the constant "one touch by him set her aflame" prose, or the overly emotional language. One of the romance authors surprised me while one of the SF authors disappointed me, making for a collection of stories that was obviously not meant for me. If you're a fan of romance novels, however, the writing was generally strong enough in that aspect that I'm sure there's plenty in here for you if you like a little bit of the fantastic with your romance.
"Winterfair Gifts," by Lois McMaster Bujold, is the Miles Vorkosigan story that I requested this book for, and it was well worth it (I probably should have read it last). This is the story of Miles' wedding to Ekaterin, after the almost disastrous courtship in A Civil Campaign, and it continues the wonderful humour of the series by giving us the whole story in the view of one of Miles' armsmen, Roic. It's Roic's job to guard the Vorkosigan estate at night, as well as to ferry Miles (or one of his designates) around when needed, and it's interesting to see the world of the Vor elite from the point of view of a commoner. And when the guests start showing up, it gets even worse, with the feral (but gentle when she wants to be) Sergeant Taura striking Roic's interest despite his shyness and the chaos going on around them. Of course, somebody's out to kill Miles and/or his bride to be, so everybody must still be on their toes, even as love blossoms all around. I love Bujold's prose, romantic and light, yet not overwhelmingly so. This is a story of emotions, both the happy couple's as well as Roic's, but Bujold doesn't slather it on, and she always keeps the humour front and center. Miles is the embodiment of chaos, so of course, things will be blowing up soon, and I loved every minute of it. It's also a tremendously sweet story, and if this is the last Miles story, I will be sad, but glad that I read it.
Then we come to "An Alchemal Marriage," by Mary Jo Putney, which tells the "true" story of what happened with the Spanish Armada. Scottish wizard Sir Adam MacRae is in the Tower of London, awaiting execution for insulting Queen Elizabeth. But John Dee, alchemist extraordinaire, brings him a proposition. Help the British fleet defeat the Spanish armada, sailing to invade England, and his life will be spared. A young wizard named Isabel will be his assistant, helping him channel enough power to generate a storm that will devastate the fleet. The magic may end up bringing them even closer than they want to be, and who knows where it will lead? Is love, along with thunder and lightning, in the air? Putney is a romance novelist, and the style couldn't be more different than Bujold's. However, what surprised me is that she didn't use the stereotypical language that I was expecting. It wasn't all flowery and emotional (though that aspect was certainly there too) and I actually found myself intrigued by the story. The characterization was pretty good, with John Dee remaining as enigmatic as I believe he was in real life. The relationship that develops between Adam and Isabel is well-drawn during their time at her estate, when they are attempting to deal with the Armada. Unfortunately, the ending descends into what I expected, with Adam storming in to her family home and doing his best to demand his bride. Putney had me until the end, but the rest of the story was enjoyable enough to forgive her.
Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to Catherine Asaro's "Stained Glass Heart," which completely turned me off. On a terraformed planet a long way from Earth, young Veryl finds himself entangled in familial obligations, a young man from a well-to-do family who is betrothed without his knowledge to an older woman, the heir to a prominent family. Yes, it's the typical "forced to marry against his will for the sake of politics" story, and it's pretty predictable. He's already in love with a young woman (both of them are only fourteen, but that doesn't always mean anything in these societies) before he finds out about his obligation, and he is determined to undermine the marriage any way he can to be with his love. They run off and get married, almost causing an interstellar incident. But perhaps Veryl's passion could make things turn out all right by demonstrating what true love really is to his prospective spouse? I found both of the main characters in this story incredibly annoying, with Veryl being especially whiny. Yes, teenagers can be whiny, but that doesn't mean I want to read about them like that. There is an interesting side story, about Veryl's love of dance (which men on this planet just do not do) that forces him to make an interesting decision, but again, the outcome is thoroughly predictable and I didn't really care for the journey there.
"Skin Deep," by Deb Stover, is another story by a romance writer, and it has an interesting premise. Nick is an ex-lawyer, "ex" because he's now dead and waiting to get into heaven. However, it seems he was a bit of a jerk when he was alive, setting up his childhood rival so that his girlfriend would leave him and marry Nick instead. He also has some other unfinished business regarding his father, but that's not very important. So he's sent back to Earth, in the body of a stunning female lawyer, to set things right between his wife, Margo, and his enemy, Jared. They were destined to marry, but Nick got in the way. Meanwhile, Margo is a reporter who is assigned to do a story about male strippers, and guess who happens to be dancing at the club the night she's there? Yep, Jared. He has the physique of a dancer, and she starts feeling very warm, but it turns out that he's a DEA agent undercover. Just seeing each other again makes sparks fly, and when Nick (or Raquel, as she's known now) is supposed to get them together, he has more trouble keeping his jealousy at bay than he does actually facilitating the relationship. Stover's story actually isn't that bad, even if it is overly convenient. However, she completely overdoes the language. It seems like every other sentence is about how meeting Jared's eyes cause shivers to go through Margo's body, or how just the touch of his finger sends blood to interesting parts of her body. The same goes for Jared, of course, with Margo causing all sorts of reactions. We constantly hear about Jared's good looks, and it just got out of hand. It fit every stereotype I had of the genre, and it really annoyed me. What's worse is that it ruined a decent story. Nick's dealing with being a woman was hilarious, especially when his former secretary (now "Raquel's" secretary) gets her tampons because she must be suffering from PMS. The good and the bad of this story even out to rank it just average.
"The Trouble With Heroes," by Jo Beverley, is actually quite intriguing. Refugees from the "Blighters", ethereal beings that can burn up anything (or anybody) they touch, are streaming to the city of Anglia, causing overcrowding and other problems as well. Only relatives of Anglian citizens are allowed in because they don't have room for anybody else. Fixers, people who have some sort of magical or psionic power to fix things (and people too) are the only line of defense against the infestation. Dan Rutherford is one of those Fixers, and Jenny Hart has known him a long time. But strange things are happening to her as well. While she doesn't have the Fixer power, she can feel the energy emanating from Dan and other Fixers. When the war against the Blighters begins going really badly, Dan comes up with a last ditch plan that may save the planet. After spending one night together, Dan goes off to war and Jenny waits for him, even as many of the townspeople are fleeing. She follows the newscasts and sees as things start to go better. But will Dan come back to her? And if so, will he be changed so much as to be unrecognizable? Beverley tells an interesting story about how war changes the people who are directly involved, and sometimes not for the better. The only problem is that she takes a long time to get there, building up the budding relationship between Dan and Jenny and sowing the seeds for what happens afterward. Even this isn't too bad, but it moves incredibly slowly. Thankfully, she disguises her romance author roots and doesn't fall into the same trap that Stover did. All in all, it's a successful story that just takes too long to get started. Once it does, it's some powerful stuff.
Finally, we have Jennifer Roberson's "Shadows in the Wood," a tale from her Robin Hood series of stories. Of course, she concentrates on Marian in this story, to the detriment of Robin. Robin and his band are moving to another base within Sherwood Forest when they stumble upon the King's men chasing some other outlaws. Unfortunately, they literally stumble over them, and soon the King's men are hunting Robin's troop. Robin and Marian are wounded, and are forced to flee as the rest of the men cover for them. When they stop, they're not sure where they are, but they seem to have stumbled upon a Druid's grove, with an ancient secret, the prison for a mage long thought dead, if he wasn't a myth to begin with. The mage enlists them on a quest to return a special sword to its rightful place. This is a very simple (and much shorter than the rest) story, but it's not too bad. It's a romantic story about Marian and Robin, but it's not over the top, showcasing Roberson's fantasy roots. The only problem is that there isn't a lot of tension in the story. Other than the accidental ambush that starts everything off, I never felt like there was any danger. However, it does tie together two of England's greatest myths, and it was a pleasant enough read. A nice way to end the book.
All in all, the Bujold story made it all worthwhile, and I trudged through the rest of the stories. Irresistible Forces reinforced my antipathy to the romance genre, despite one of the authors surprising me a little. If you're a Bujold completist, go ahead and get the book. If you're a romance fan, you will probably like it, unless you just can't have anything out of the ordinary in your romance novels. For the rest of us, however, stay far away.
Originally published on Curled Up With a Good Book at www.curledup.com. © David Roy, 2006
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
hist
|
 in Books |
|
Member: David Roy
Location: Vancouver, BC
Reviews written: 725
Trusted by: 218 members
About Me:Thinking of taking Greyhound? Be careful:
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.