Book Review: An East Wind Blowing by Mel Keegan

[erastes]

I don't know much about post Roman "England" (as it wasn't yet called England) at all, but this book certainly did enough to convince me that the author knew what they were doing.

Ronan is a son of an artisan in a village in what is now Yorkshire and he goes to the cheif's town (Deventio) to help train a horse. There he persuades the chief to train him as a warrior and falls into a brief relationship with a beautiful cripple boy, whilst at the same time having a UST relationship with the chief's son, Bryn.

Then the Angles come, warlike and ravaging, from the East and Deventio is destroyed.   This is where the story begins, really.

It's a good adventure story, with action, romance and some nice sexy scenes. there are a few negative reviews on Amazon but I didn't really find the problems they talked about. The characters did seem to get together a little too easily but they were both sexually active and there weren't any taboos about m/m sex in their world. (How accurate that is, I couldn't tell, and I doubt that there's any historical evidence to say one way or the other, but the main characters are pre-christian and I would imagine that the Christian prudity only came in later)

There are rather a lot of m/m relationships actually, and it does lean towards OKHomo - "Everyone's Gay and Everyone's Fine About It" but I let that slide and concentrated on the story. After all, how do I know what the attitude to homosexuality was in the Dark Ages? Keegan bases it on a warrior culture, along the lines of the Sacred Band, and it's believable enough.

All in all, pretty enjoyable. Not an earth shattering read, it won't grab your heart and break it, there's no real conflict and conflict resolution (relating the characters, at least) but it's a decent enough page turner.  It almost struck me as a prequel and I would have liked to have seen what happened next.

The editing, though, was appalling, far too many mistakes in the text to forgive and not the quality I would have expected from a professional publisher (the now defunct Gay Mens Press) and the cover is just giggleworthy. There is also a lot of repetition which seemed to be there just for filling and some of it is contradictory to earlier canon.

The other snag is that Mel Keegan's books are being withdrawn and will soon only be available on his website. You can pick up this book on Amazon at the moment, but you can't get all of them there, and some of them are outrageous prices.

I don't know if I'd be tempted to read another MK book, though, it was good but not good enough to tempt me to rush out and buy all the others.

Comments

[wildestranger.livejournal.com]

You know, the only thing I know about Mel Keegan is that she (yes, she *g*) used to write fanfiction and that many of her novels are fanfic novels translated into historical romance. From the Professionals, I believe?

I once heard a conference paper on this topic, you see, with specific examples from both the fics and the novels. It was most interesting. ;)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

The Professionals!!!

Falls over laughing!

Not Keegan's best

[leebenoit.livejournal.com]

I'd say give another Mel Keegan novel a chance; I thought East Wind was pretty thin, and far from Keegan's best. The sci-fi series are not my favorites, but the historicals are pretty darn good: Nocturne (turn of 20th C., vamps - but NOT the sequel, Twilight - I found it pale by comparison); White Rose of Night (Crusades); The Deceivers (seafaring 1860s, transition from sail to steam); and Fortunes of War (Golden Age of Piracy - not as good as Hoffman's Raised by Wolves series, but fun). In her better novels, Keegan writes sympathetic characters and interesting plots, and one cannot fault the historical accuracy (unless that particular period happens to be your dissertation topic, I suppose).

Re: Not Keegan's best

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I might try the Deceivers. I'm not really into the Crusades, and I'll leave the vamps...

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

Historically speaking, the early middle ages appear to have been, on the whole and generally speaking, more tolerant than the High Middle Ages (which is what people usually think of when they think about the middle ages). The High Middle Ages saw greater political centralization and autocracy, and consequently a greater need to define oneself, nationally, religiously, sexually, etc. Deviance on the basis of nation, religion, and sexuality were all bound up, so that buggers and lepers and Jews and heretics and Muslims got associated in interesting ways (frex, Muslims were supposed to go around raping boys and bishops, lepers and Jews got accused of poisoning wells, heresy and buggery were closely associated and so on).

On the whole and generally speaking, of course. Persecution usually occurred during times of stress, like during wartime, epidemics, bad weather, during the Depression after losing WWI (people are people everywhere). Communities of Jews flourished for generations at a time, many lepers probably led entirely uneventful lives (their disease aside), and I'm sure that communities of people who preferred their own sex flourished, too, though more quietly and with much less impact on the written record. Being wealthy always helped ...

In the pre-Christian Mediterranean, no one cared about what sex you preferred to have sex with, but they did care who was on top. This carried over into the early Middle Ages, but got complicated by something called 'buggery' which started out by meaning deviant/non-procreative and not-within-marriage sexual activity, and eventually after a long time came to the specific act of anal sex (usually between men? if only bc people lack imagination).

So, in conclusion, it's not utterly unrealistic to imagine a bunch of gay proto-English non-Christian warriors during that funny period between the ancient world and the medieval world, aside from the simple statistical fact that men who prefer their own sex are never the majority, and that heirs were often considered desirable.

Oookay, that was longer than I thought it would be. But look how much I learned in my "Early Middle Ages" and "The 'Other' Side of the Middle Ages"* classes!


*That was the class in which I said 'fist fuck' while giving a presentation; everyone laughed; the professor went red-faced and suggested that maybe I might have used some other term; and I ... wondered what the big deal was, heh.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Nod nod. I have done a lot of research in some eras and found that it was acceptable but the "whos on top" thing lingered on from the Greek and Roman ideal. In this book the boys switch, so it struck me as more modern in feel, and a more "equal" relationship.

Thanks! I love my flist!!

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

Were the guys of similar social class and age?

You've even got pedantic undergrads; what else could you possibly want?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Pedantic undergrads are the best sort for an historical writer, that's for sure!

No, Ronan was a peasant, son of an artisan and Bryn was the son of the local chieftan, and heir. But both of their villages were wiped out so he had nothing to inherit.

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

Just wait till I'm a pedantic grad student. Probably in a GenSex program ,too.

And they SWITCHED?! zomg the deviancy. There should be laws against that sort of thing. Seme/uke purity, *please*.

[rwday.livejournal.com]

I don't know about Anglo-Saxon and Roman Britain, but for the Vikings (who are cultural kin to the A/S), there were derogatory terms for the one who played the receptive role in a homosexual relationship - it was considered 'female' and that sort of mixing of sex roles wasn't well thought of. The idea was that a man who would subjugate himself sexually would do so in other areas of life. I don't know of any similar attitudes about the man who topped.

Interestingly, men who practiced sorcery may have been linked with homosexuality, at least in terms of attitude. Most 'practicing' sorcerers were female, so any man who went in for that sort of thing opened himself up to accusations of homosexuality.

(source is Neil Price's "The Viking Way," btw)

Bad editing can really ruin a book, I think.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Noddity nod - it was the same in Greece, the eronemos was not supposed to enjoy the love making, apparently, THAT was considered to be feminine. Later on he would become an Erastes himself and has his own eromenos.

Got to love my flist though.

*G*

[zehavit-lamasu.livejournal.com]

Can't really come in defence of East Wind... because the typos alone drove me to near suicide. Thankfully it was one of the later books of MK I picked up because it really isn't his/her best. (the problem claiming she is a SHE is that there is a rumour that HE pretended to be a SHE during his/her fanfic days).

MK is my favourite author but I started with Fortunes of War and I am a HUGE action adventure fiend and that is really what MK does. Good old swashbuckling adventures in the past present or future with sizzling gay men thrown in for the ride.

I personally love The Decivers and Dangerous Moonlight best, I also adore Fortunes of War (which so far was my favourite pirate romp until raised By Wolves showed up) and White rose of Night which echoed alot of my sentiments about the Caracen (I grew up seeing the Crusaders as EVIL and Saladin as an inspired hero... I wanted to marry him!) In these days seeing something that shows the beauty of Islam - especially at that time is quite refreshing.

I adore MK sci fi but that is really for people who love nuts and bolts and have a hardware fetish (guilty as charged) if you don't like people discussing riot armour and inter-planetary engins of big hulking ship then... maybe avoid XD

As for the claim some of the novels started as fanfic... I heard that too... from the horse's mouth... so what? (the Sci Fi Narc series was originally set in some DC comics universe and I am soooo glad it was plucked out of it and put into print ^_^) THat could probably explain why some of them are so earnest and gripping. I know MK is far from being the only one to modify fanfic - it is a GOOD way to do so... don't listen to robbin Hob when she so publically make a fool out of herself and claim it is wrong XD.

My only annoyance is this silly insistance that POD cannot be sold on Amazon which the author keeps insisting on his/her site... nonsense... so many are and I would like them to be highly accesible... although I like all my books signed to me personally - shiny :D:D:D

[erastes.livejournal.com]

The gender thing doesn't bother me, really, for obvious reasons! And I agree with you, the fanfic thing is fine by me, I've converted several of my short stories into original - and I plan to do the same with "Shoulders of Giants" but that's the only long piece that's really suitable for conversion.

If you are an action/armour fiend - have you read George R R Martin? He blows Keegan out of the water.

Oh - and yes, that's nonsense about POD - Standish is POD and is selling very well, thank you very much!!!!