annoyedWhat is it about fiction writers? Why must they jettison their best characters to bolster up badly-thought-out plot devices? Argh.
First there was Gor. Then there was Feminism. Then, there was Kushiel's Dart.
In some ways it's the book I'd have written a couple of years ago if I could have been bothered, when I'd read a lot about BDSM but hadn't done anything at all. Which isn't to say my book would have been as readable, but the basic idea - the massive, structured courtesan-based society and the clever heroine who saves the day n times, all whilst getting kicked around and beaten up by lords and more lords and even more lords and the occasional lady. That's the First BDSM Fantasy, in my head, and I'm sure it's not just me, either.
So, more power - or, under the circumstances, possibly less - to our lady author for managing to get it published and taken seriously as a fantasy novel - at least, taken seriously by such glistering stars as Robert Jordan and Storm Constantine.
The religious aspect was, in fact, truly, truly inspired, and really the only thing that surprised me. There were some wonderful bits of writing. I was going to talk about some of the things I really, really liked. But I can't, because I'm too bloody annoyed about the loss of the only character I actually wanted to spend any blasted time with.
Because of course, this is fiction, and Our Heroine can't possibly end up with the person she's meant to end up with because that just doesn't happen in fiction. Right? Like Labyrinth, and indeed Phantom Of The Opera, and all the other little places in fiction where we've felt that awful disappointment and the urge to shout at the heroine "You're making a really fucking huge mistake, you know." Except that this time, it was the author's fault, for not ironing out the non-kinky kinks in her plot.
I might say more about this when I've calmed down. Then again, I might not. It's only fiction, after all. ~sigh~
I tell you what, someone better set him free in one of the sequels.
E.
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