Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Dear Ms. Amara,

There’s a continuing discussion among fantasy circles about non-Western settings and non-Caucasian characters in fantasy. Or more to the point, the lack thereof. I confess I count myself among their number. I realize many people take it as a given that a fantasy setting should be faux medieval Europe but these days, the settings of different novels have gotten so generic as to be interchangeable. I know I often find myself sighing over the pseudo medieval setting in many a fantasy novel and then hoping something else in the book — the prose, the plot, characters, other aspects of the worldbuilding, anything — will make up for it. And then I read a book like this and I ask myself why I should even settle in the first place.

I think many people will pass this novel by because they’ll label it as “just” a gay fantasy published by a smaller, independent publisher. That’s a great disservice and those readers honestly have no idea what they’re missing. Because there’s another ongoing discussion in SF/F circles about the lack of non-white and/or queer characters, and if this book doesn’t fit the bill, I don’t know …

Dear Readers,

Since this review covers my responses to nine short stories and two novellas, I’ve decided that for the sake of clarity, it would be simper to address this letter to you rather than to eleven authors.

Tangle is an anthology featuring a variety of same-sex love stories. All the romances here have two heroes, most contain fantastical elements, and happily, I enjoyed the majority of them. Here are my impressions of each one:

“Moons of Blood and Amber” by Gene Mederos

This high fantasy novelette, the first story in the anthology, centers on Prince Ballantyr’s attempt to ascend to the throne and acquire the title of Pentarch, or high king of five realms. Ballantyr’s lover and high councilor, Dallan Haleson, is actually the POV character of the novelette, which alternates between the storyline of Ballantyr’s attempt to gain the pentarchy, and that of how Ballantyr and Dallan first met.

In the former storyline, Ballantyr’s ascension is contested by his older half-brother Taranthel, against whom Ballantyr has to prove himself in contests of fighting prowess and knowledge of the law. He and Dallan must also solve the problem …