![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Review: Blue Magic by Connie Bailey
When the Puritan village of Perseverance was troubled by a lascivious warlock, they sent for the Witch-hunter known as the Sword of the Lord. What should have been a classic conflict of good and evil did not turn out as anyone expected.
I'm reviewing it here as I'm not doing fantasy/AU on Speak Its Name at the mo.
It's a short story - but I'm not quite sure of the time period it's supposed to be in - I'm assuming too that the story is set in Pioneer America as there is mention of an Earl who has left to "return to England" and there are Puritans, but not being anchored in a time frame was a little off putting - all the more so when the Witch Hunter we are introduced to in the first paragraph is wearing wolf skins.
It's basically a PWP, with an historical set-up
To me, this story suffered from a problem I saw a lot of in fanfic - that is the overuse of the EPIPHET. I think writers fall into this trap because they think it must be boring for people to read a character's name over and over again, but it ain't so, and often it seems like there are six people in a scene where there are only two. In this one I was introduced in the first few pages to: The Witch-hunter, Sword of the Lord, Gabriel and Cormac. All the same person. The author switched mostly between the Sword of the Lord (blasphemous teenage giggle) and the Witch-finder instead of using his name and it was very confusing to read.
When Gabriel confronts Alistair - the depraved warlock that he has been sent to sort out - Alistair says that he's not broken any laws. Well, I think that sodomising young men might be one, Alistair. Sex ensues. Or rather rape ensues, but as Gabriel finds he likes it, and falls in love during the fuck - that seems to be acceptable. Not to me, though. As long as Gabriel gets hard, he must be enjoying it - right? Alistair has I should add, been raping young kids and some of the adults too.
The sex, too, I'm afraid is annoying, and not well researched. First off, Alistair removes "snug fitting knickers of black silk" - WTF? These are obviously Ye Olde Calvine Kleines! He must shop at the same shoppe as BBC's Sherryf of Nottynham.
Then he inserts his own fingers into "his lower opening" - as opposed to what? He's not a girl! Where's the higher opening? (This was the second clue that this might actually be converted het fanfic.) then he impales himself upon the seated Gabriel (this is a tricky stunt without actually wrapping your legs around the other person and that other person needs to lean back). And Gabriel watches his cock go in. Impossible without mirrors. Try it, that's all I'm saying - just try it. I'm all for women writing this stuff, but gay men will Make with the Mock if we get it wrong.
Then we revert to epiphet-land and I admit to snorting tea through my nose when Gabriel is again referred to as The Sword of the Lord when he's buried to the balls in Alistair.
The ending is confusing and I don't understand it, which again leads me to believe this is either a snippet of something bigger, or fanfic that still has references in it to something else.
So sadly, I can't recommend it at all. Underwhelmed. Buy at the Website
no subject
no subject
no subject
What's AU?
no subject
no subject
And oh, dear, rape that turns into love :(. Hatehatehate.
no subject
Blech.
no subject
1) That one half hour of deviant sex could make a man throw aside all of his ideas and beliefs, because, apparently, he had never been laid so good in his life.
It's Captain Kirk Syndrome. All Kirk has to do is screw the Green Goddess of the Cosmic Computer and she instantly betrays all of her family, friends, traditions and most deeply held convictions to free the men from the Enterprise.
PH34R THE POWAH OF THE MAGIC COCK.
2) That nothing quite says true love like forcing someone to have sex with you. Especially when the person you're forcing to have sex with you is manacled. There is a word for this. It's "rape."
3) That if the other person has an orgasm during a rape, this necessarily means that he or she emotionally enjoyed being forced to have sex. Because, y'know, bodies never respond involuntarily. In fact, if a person has an orgasm, not only did that person like the rape emotionally, but he/she ALWAYS WANTED THIS. He/she just never admitted it.
Why, yes, this DOES sound like the rationale of a rapist, doesn't it?
4) That it is perfectly all right for Alistair to be forcing young YOUNG teens to have sex with him--and this in an era where young, unmarried women of seventeen, eighteen or nineteen were considered children.
Of course, this makes one of the gay/bisexual men in the story a pedophile. But then, aren't all gay men pedophiles? [/sarcasm]
I don't think that the author thought any of this out consciously. But I do think that some ill-considered ideas and some unpleasant stereotypes, and she didn't really think about how these things affected the characters, or the story.
no subject
no subject
They don't even have to specify which lord. :-D
no subject
You ARE the Sword of the Lord.
::grins::
no subject
no subject
Haha, this sounds worth the read just for giggles.
no subject
Executions for witchcraft had actually declined a lot in Britain & Europe by this time, but old habits died hard in the colonies. (Plus the Puritans were an intolerant lot.)
An earlier historical novel about persecuted sex in that culture is "The Scarlet Letter," written by Nathaniel Hawthorne (descended from the Puritans) in the 1840s, but set in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1640s.
The movie version starring Demi Moore as the Adulteress, Hester Prynne, is actually quite good, IMO, even though it departs from the novel in interesting ways.
no subject
Yup yup, we do!