Read Paladin's Hope
Oct. 19th, 2021 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyFirst I accidentally read this incredibly stupid review: I returned this book as soon as I discovered that the featured romance was gay. That should have been made clear in the advert. I have read and enjoyed many stories by Kingfisher. If I wanted to read about gay romance, I would re-read Mary Renault’s Last of the Wine or The Charioteer, which are lyric and moving. The gay sex angle is out of place in an oeuvre containing children’s stories like Defensive Baking. Greater clarity about content (and possibly controversial subject matter) would make informed purchasing easier.
Asshole.
Anyway, read it.
I had braced myself for the self-loathing, but at one third of the way through I began to think there might not be any.
At 47% of the way through, all of a sudden we have:
Galen: Oh no! I nearly killed you with my nightmare! I am the worst, and worthless, and if I had any decency at all I would have offed myself ages ago!
Me: Wait, what.
Piper: Oh no! I cannot believe I just thought about the fact that the penis and the nose are made of the same sort of tissue! I am the worst! There is a reason I am only a doctor to the dead!
Me: These two things are not comparable, also, what.
Galen and Piper: Our mutual self-loathing is extremely hot, let's make out!
Me: Seriously? Can you just not help yourself, Ursula?
Galen and Piper: Also, near death experiences turn me on!
Me: Sigh.
Galen: Now, I must break up with you... for your own good.
Piper: He broke up with me and I was pathetic for thinking he wanted me.
Galen: No, I am the worst, I should've given him time to break up with me first, I wasn't being noble and self-sacrificing, I was being an asshole and I hate myself.
Ursula: Oh, by the way, have I reminded you yet that cops are assholes?
Me: Accurate.
Galen and Piper: We're going to save our friend! And then hook up after, but you know, that's not at all why we're earnestly going to rescue our friend. Wow, cops really are bigoted assholes, aren't they?
I just... I don't even know.
Asshole.
Anyway, read it.
I had braced myself for the self-loathing, but at one third of the way through I began to think there might not be any.
At 47% of the way through, all of a sudden we have:
Galen: Oh no! I nearly killed you with my nightmare! I am the worst, and worthless, and if I had any decency at all I would have offed myself ages ago!
Me: Wait, what.
Piper: Oh no! I cannot believe I just thought about the fact that the penis and the nose are made of the same sort of tissue! I am the worst! There is a reason I am only a doctor to the dead!
Me: These two things are not comparable, also, what.
Galen and Piper: Our mutual self-loathing is extremely hot, let's make out!
Me: Seriously? Can you just not help yourself, Ursula?
Galen and Piper: Also, near death experiences turn me on!
Me: Sigh.
Galen: Now, I must break up with you... for your own good.
Piper: He broke up with me and I was pathetic for thinking he wanted me.
Galen: No, I am the worst, I should've given him time to break up with me first, I wasn't being noble and self-sacrificing, I was being an asshole and I hate myself.
Ursula: Oh, by the way, have I reminded you yet that cops are assholes?
Me: Accurate.
Galen and Piper: We're going to save our friend! And then hook up after, but you know, that's not at all why we're earnestly going to rescue our friend. Wow, cops really are bigoted assholes, aren't they?
I just... I don't even know.
