Review: Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
While the Iskat Empire has long dominated the system through treaties and political alliances, several planets, including Thea, have begun to chafe under Iskat’s rule. When tragedy befalls Imperial Prince Taam, his Thean widower, Jainan, is rushed into an arranged marriage with Taam’s cousin, the disreputable Kiem, in a bid to keep the rising hostilities between the two worlds under control.
But when it comes to light that Prince Taam’s death may not have been an accident, and that Jainan himself may be a suspect, the unlikely pair must overcome their misgivings and learn to trust one another as they navigate the perils of the Iskat court, try to solve a murder, and prevent an interplanetary war… all while dealing with their growing feelings for each other.
Review:
Dear Everina Maxwell,
A good friend recommended your book and I am always happy to try the book she recommends because our tastes usually align so closely. I was so eager that I did not even hesitate to pay 12.99 for the author I never tried before .
Warnings: abuse, mental torture (I really cannot go in more details as to what mental torture is in context of this book without going into serious spoilers territory, but you may want to heed the warning anyway)
This was a book which had all the ingredients that I normally love: Gay romance in the SF setting, with a lot of politics and intrigue in the background, or not really in the background – basically when the romance develops in the context of the main characters having a lot to do besides developing their relationship. It has lovely writing, very appealing main characters and still I spent the first 18 chapters out of 32 chapters of the story mostly wanting to throw this book against the wall. Multiple times. Why you ask? Because it was so agonizingly slow, but not just because it was slow, because I felt that it was slow in the wrong way.
I cannot even adequately explain why it felt slow in the wrong way, but I will try. I think I understand the idea that the author may have wanted the couple that just got thrown in the arranged political marriage to get to know each other and develop feelings for each other before ramping up the action/suspense/adventure – whatever you want to call it storyline. But the execution just felt wrong to me. I guess because the murder of Jainan’s previous spouse was the elephant in the room, such slow development just did not work for me.
Also, there is slow development of a romantic relationship and there is SLOW, marred by constant misreading of the situation between them. I of course saw the tiny sparks couple of time (and I am NOT talking about sexual relationship – I always feel that when I complain about a romance being too slow, I need to clarify that the absence of sex is not what I am complaining about. I’m happy to read the sex scenes when it completes the romance, but it’s certainly not my first interest in romance), but most of the time I felt frustration between the guys because they were reading the situation incorrectly and saying the wrong things. It was understandable giving their past, especially Jainan’s past, but it was not *fun* to read if that makes sense.
Having said that, writing really appealed to me and thus I kept reading and somewhere around the fifty five- sixty percent the book certainly picks up if you can hang in until then, or if slow pace of the first half appealed to you. Somehow the author made me like both guys separately even if I mostly did not care about them being together initially, but when the book ended I was happy for both of them.
Here is Kiem trying to learn something about his new betrothed from his personal assistant Bel, who is indeed just as amazing as she seems and more:
““He has a doctorate in deep-space engineering!” Kiem called to Bel in the study. “At twenty-seven! How the hell am I going to talk to someone with brains like that?” “You have practice with me.” Bel’s voice came floating back, amused. “You don’t count! You get paid to dumb things down for me!” Kiem scrolled farther down the page. “This says he got a planetary award for a new fuel-injection method when he was eighteen. Do you think he could marry you instead?” “Depends. Are you going to be able to stop talking long enough to sign the contract?” Bel said, with a trace of exasperation that meant she was trying to get work done. Kiem took the hint and flopped back to lie on the couch and read. The light-screen floated over his head.”
I will probably never feel completely comfortable explaining why the writing struck a note with me or not, but at the very least here I know I appreciated that the author somehow injected humor in the story which did not have many possibilities for it, so she somehow got it within the writing if that makes sense.
The book is mostly SF romance, but setting was interesting nevertheless and politics and intrigue played huge role.
There were two chapters I skimmed, fair warning, I do not think I missed anything of significance, but as I said, want to make sure I let you know everything about the reading experience.
Grade: B
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I’ve been waffling on whether I should give and buy the book at that price-point because I’ve seen so many positive reviews of this book but I think I’ll just continue to patiently wait for my library copy (I have an estimated 3-4 month wait, haha). It sounds like it could go either way for me, based on your review, because constant miscommunication (or poor communication + frequent misreading of situations) is something that I often find frustrating. Thanks for your review!
I just started this book last night, so I’ll return later to read this so as not to spoil the experience!
I finished the book this evening so came back to read your review, Sirius. I cannot argue with your complaint of the slow first half as I too was ready for more (action?, communication?) for quite some time. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the book and wonder if it is the first in a series. I know this is based on fan fiction and wonder fan fiction of what.
@Kareni: Glad it worked! To be clear, I still enjoyed the book overall, I think my grade reflects that :). No it is not based on fan fiction, I mean I know the author mentions that it was published on AO, but I went reading and found an article that explains that AO also hosts original fiction and thats what it was at its first reincarnation – original fiction hosted on AO.@JPeK: I hear you especially at this price, if it was not recommended by a friend whose tastes and mine align very closely. I would not even call out a miscommunication exactly, but definitely reading each other wrong. Is it same as miscommunication I wonder :).
Thank you, @Sirius. After posting yesterday, I also searched and found the same information.
So, it turns out that my Reddit Secret Santa (I signed up for the book exchange that they did about a month ago) bought me this book along with a few others … but this one was mailed from the UK so it arrived weeks after the other packages. It was a complete surprise and I had to laugh that I received it just after (finally!) deciding not to buy it for myself and instead wait patiently for the library copy. Haha
…. Tonight I opened it up to begin reading and instantly experienced deja vu: Turns out that I read the AO serial version when it was available online. So I’m familiar with the basic plot points already but it was long enough ago that I don’t recall all of the smaller details. I look forward to reading the fleshed out, more polished version now that I have it. :)
What a fun and timely gift, @JPeK! I have owned the AO3 version for years but never read it. I’m half tempted to read it now to see where it differs from this version.
@JPeK: If you have any desire to do so, let us know what you thought of new version when you are finished with it @Kareni: I wondered about old version whether I would have wanted to compare and I think probably not. I am sure it is not available on AO3 anymore, just speaking hypothetically.
@JPeK: I did not know it was an AO serial originally!
@Sirius: I listened to the audiobook and liked it very much. It did have a slow start and the romance was very much a slow burn but when I started to feel impatient I realised that not much actual time had passed within the story. So when I looked at it in that light, it seemed reasonable that the characters would take some time to trust one another – and, on one view, they didn’t take very long considering the circumstances they found themselves in and Jainan’s history (in particular). Normally I’m not a fan of “big misunderstandings” and obviously as a romance reader/listener I could tell straight away that they were each misinterpreting the other. I even guess what Jainan was hiding (it wasn’t hard – no brownie points for me here!). But like you Sirius, I did have moments of impatience too.
The audiobook narrated did a really good job though and that helped to hold my interest. I can’t skim on audio otherwise I’m sure I would have skimmed some chapters too. I think the book could have been trimmed down some at the beginning (in the first half?) perhaps. I would rate the audio at a B+ but some of that grade is the narration so I’m fairly aligned with your grade too.
I’m really loving fantasy romance and space opera romance at present so having something new to try (and which was also recommended to me by a trusted friend) was a treat.