Archive for 'Tenea D. Johnson'



REVIEW: Tangle (Anthology edited by Nicole Kimberling)

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 …