Comments on: REVIEW: Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead

By: Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary » Blog Archive » REVIEW: Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:00:42 +0000

[...] don’t share Jane’s reservations about the succubus story, even in novels billed as romances. These days I take the romance label on spines with a grain of [...]

By: DS

DS — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:00:52 +0000

Can’t remember where I read it, but the incubus/succubus in the wild as it were was said to be a female with a man and a male with a woman. The sucubus used the semen obtained from the man when having sex with the woman.

By: jmc

jmc — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:15:11 +0000

err, I suppose that should read “either” instead of “both” but . . .

*snickers* Now I’m imagining hermaphrodite demons a la Bell Thorn from the Vorkosigan books. :)

By: Charlene Teglia

Charlene Teglia — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:10:11 +0000

It’s been a very long time since I read it so I could be wrong, but I think Tanith Lee did that, wrote one character that “flipped” from succubus to incubus. Of course, I’ve forgotten the name of the book…I do remember it gave me the creeping horrors, though. She’s one to read with the lights on!

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:45:21 +0000

err, I suppose that should read “either” instead of “both” but . . .

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:44:52 +0000

I wonder why there are even gendered demons, i.e., if you can shapeshift, why not be both when the need arises?

By: jmc

jmc — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:42:04 +0000

I had assumed heterosexual based on the first book, because I don’t think that Georgie had sex (or mentioned having sex ever) with another woman. Which does beg the question, why would succubi/incubi limit their prey?

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:28:32 +0000

One thing that I really didn’t understand is whether succubi/incubi where strictly hetereosexual because that played a big role in this book and I wasn’t sure whether they were or were not. I.e., if they were not, why didn’t Georgina seduce more women? Why was it exclusively men?

By: jmc

jmc — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:24:31 +0000

Weirdly there are almost no other decent women in the book. There’s a minor role played by a subjugated female who seems normal and “nice” but everyone else is a minion of hell or “crazy-bitch-dyke”. So of course, Georgina’s entire circle is men.

I noticed this in Succubus Blues. I understood (sort of) why Georgie’s circle was mostly men — assuming there was a sexual undertone to all relationships for a succubus, and in Romancelandia that meant hetero only. But I was disappointed that all of the peripheral female characters were evil or caricatures.