I was getting ready to start this post when I saw today’s prompt. “What objects could you not live without?” I feel like that is so very obviously books that it’s too amusing not to mention. Especially because so many of these prompts are much more esoteric or uninteresting to me.
Anyway, today I was in a mood for some porn. Which means, in this case, the second of Aria Skylar’s Modern Mythica series, Seducing Dionysus. I had mixed feelings about the first book. I’m not hugely into BDSM, though I respect all of the consent that is discussed and utilized. And the whole aspect of the female lead being used by the male lead’s mother really left a bad taste in my mouth.
That’s why it took me a while to return to the series, even though these books are not especially long. Pure romance is not necessarily my interest, and I wanted to give these books as fair a chance as possible, given that a friend wrote them. So we’ve got Seducing Dionysus.
We open on Arynne in a hotel room with her lover Thomas. They’ve successfully eluded her father, a powerful and influential man, to escape to this island paradise. And when she wakes up, she finds she’s been abandoned. Entirely. Instead of them going off to elope or whatever as he’d led her to believe. She proceeds to use the money he left her to hole up in the hotel room, grieving the loss of her trust and innocence. Until she finds herself nauseous.
Yep, she’s pregnant. And the man who drove her to get the test turns out to not be a hotel employee but just some guy who wants to help her. Give her a place to stay, an income, a job to do if she wants. Which turns out to be “caretaker of an overgrown island estate he just happens to be the owner of”. Yep, mysterious cute benefactor is definitely loaded.
But Arynne is utterly enchanted by the mansion and is perfectly willing to clear out vines, wildlife, and anything else she encounters throughout the main and outbuildings.
This book is definitely more of a slow burn than the first, and the themes this time are about healthy views on pregnancy. Including that yes, sex is perfectly fine for a pregnant woman. Good for her, even.
In fact, there’s really only a couple of sex scenes in the entire book, with the bulk focused on the relationship between the leads. So calling Seducing Dionysus “porn” is almost a misnomer. It’s a romance, a love story, and sex is simply an expression of that.
True, things do get messy near the end as “the real world” intrudes on Arynne and Dion’s island paradise and yes, we will actually get to see Arynne’s father. But overall I found this book much more enjoyable than the first. Dion isn’t using Arynne for someone else’s gain and then having second thoughts like Eros. He’s just gotten in over his head in the real world and didn’t really realize it until he decided to help Arynne in her time of need.
One thing I appreciate about the Modern Mythica series is that while there are commonalities and cameos between the two books, it’s not built around the same premise. Or rather, the premise is truly just “we’re using names from Greek mythology”. The blind kidnap date from the first book is not the mechanism that propels every single subsequent volume and I greatly appreciate that. It was one of the least interesting aspects of Eros’ book. I can only hope that the third volume, when it’s released, is more akin to Seducing Dionysus than Twisted Eros.
I can admit it now. I really didn’t care for Twisted Eros. I’ve been hanging onto the book, not putting it in my library or sell pile, because I didn’t want to hurt my friend’s feelings and also because I felt I’d reserve judgement until I read Seducing Dionysus. Finishing the second book has made things clear. I’m not keeping Twisted Eros. But…I’ll keep Seducing Dionysus. I could see myself revisiting this story and enjoying it again.
Of course, looking at side and recurring characters, I’m now making some guesses as to who might be a lead in the next book. But that’s how a series should be, right?
After that I felt it was time and past for a fantasy anthology. I thought about returning to Sword and Sorceress, but that’s always an easy out and I wasn’t quite in the mood for those. The style of stories has gotten much closer to modern by this point, and I wanted something a little older. So I shrugged and pulled out Once Upon a Time.
This is one my book friend mailed to me a year or three ago. I’ve been avoiding it for two reasons. Firstly, it’s quite large, about eight inches by eleven and an inch thick. And of course it’s hardcover. Basically, it’s the sort of book I don’t like to read when I’d have to take it out of the house because it’s big, heavy, and unwieldly.
The other reason to avoid the book is because it’s called Once Upon a Time. I’ve read a huge number of fairy tale anthologies and I didn’t really want something like classic Brothers Grimm. Still, today I felt the time was right.
And boy did I feel like an idiot. See, the full title of the book is Once Upon a Time: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales. And it’s edited by Risa Kessler and Lester del Rey. So when they say modern fairy tales, they mean that they approached a bunch of genre authors, including some very big names, and asked them to write fairy tales. So I really shouldn’t have been so afraid of reading this book.
When I say there are some big names, I mean that the first story, “Prince Delightful and the Flameless Dragon”, is by Isaac Asimov. And according to del Rey, Asimov was very excited to contribute to the book. The story itself had me laughing within the first minute and that silliness persisted through the tale. It was still a bit too absurd for my taste, but I did enjoy reading it.
I had many more doubts about Terry Brooks’ contribution, as he’s not an author that impresses me to start with. “Imaginary Friends” is about a boy who overhears the doctor telling his parents he might have leukemia. And when he’s outside by himself he finds an elf in the grass who becomes his friend. The overall concept of the story is sound, but it’s not that interesting a read. But that’s par for the course on Terry Brooks.
I also had doubts about “Gwydion and the Dragon” because in my experience, C.J. Cherryh is not great with short fiction. I mean yes, Sunfall is a collection of short stories, but within a greater whole. This story is…fine. It’s a fairy tale, it’s got some Welsh flavoring, it works. But as you can tell, I’m pretty neutral about it.
Lester del Rey must’ve put together this anthology as an excuse for himself, given that he wrote “The Fairy Godmother”. It’s about a spoiled young princess who wishes her fairy godmother would fix the perceived failings in her life. She’s to be sent off to her aunt while her parents go to a kings’ conference. But on the road, her carriage is attacked, leaving her alone and defenseless, without an easy way to get anywhere or contact anyone. This is probably one of the strongest stories in the book.
Next comes “Thistledown” by Susan Dexter. The titular character is the young unicorn who is born at the beginning of the story and quickly orphaned when his mother is killed for sport. He’s taken in and named by a silent young man outcast by the nearest village. There’s a lot going on in this one and I have some mixed feelings about the early parts of the story. But it definitely gets better the deeper in you go. I feel like it would’ve worked better with fewer named characters.
I swear, when I started Wayland Drew’s story “The Old Soul” I thought I was in for something distinctly Christian. After all, I was presented with three men traveling on foot, guided by a mysterious Sound. The story isn’t actually Christian, it’s more about returning to nature and the wild things of the world, but there definitely is something preachy about its feel.
Reading “Changeling” by Barbara Hambly gave me flashbacks to her Winterlands series. Dragonsbane is a Del Rey publication, although it was released six years after this anthology. Still, it wouldn’t surprise me if writing one led to the other in some fashion. After all, the current series she seems most excited about is a mystery one set in roaring twenties Hollywood, the same setting as Bride of the Rat God, and even having some character archetypes in common. This story is about the strange young girl the lord finds in the dragon’s hoard, and her two pet companions. It’s suspected she’s a changeling, obviously. This might be my favorite story of the book, which is a little surprising given what other authors I like that contributed.
It’s Katherine Kurtz who provides the actual Christian story with “The Tinkling of Fairybells”. A fairy, who has no physical form but light, finds herself drawn to a boy in a church. She’s avoided churches until now because their magic is unfriendly, lethal even, to fairies and the old magic. But the boy is willing to believe and so she finds herself intrigued by him, watching throughout his life.
“The Quest of a Sensible Man” comes from Anne McCaffrey. Our Prince protagonist is looking for a suitable mare for his Pegasan mount. A freak storm drives him into a clearly magical forest. In the heart of the forest lies an old castle, home to legendary horse breeders. But the castle is fallen into disrepair and all that remains are the last three members of the family, with even their servants all gone to grave. Sometimes all you need is a bit of logic, a bit of luck, and the magic that draws mare to stallion.
The book ends with Lawrence Watt-Evans and “Portrait of a Hero”. This is, not entirely surprisingly, an Ethshar story. Although that city is mentioned once in the entire tale and never visited. A dragon lays claim to a remote village and demands either a sheep or a person to eat each day. They have a relic oracle, and ask it who can get rid of the dragon. It shows the image of a woman, which is promptly rendered as the titular portrait. Then the protagonist sets off to find her and bring her back. Pretty simple and straightforward stuff, all things considered.
I knew pretty early on that I wasn’t going to keep Once Upon a Time. The stories are okay, but nothing truly spectacular. The book is awkwardly large, although pretty. Especially because it’s illustrated by Michael Pangrazio. He created one gorgeously detailed painting for each story. They’re full page prints in full color and each seeks to represent a key moment from each tale. It’s not quite a style I prefer, and some of the people look a little awkward to me, but it is a nice addition to the book.
But these illustrations don’t really do much for my interest in keeping the book. They’re just a nice and notable inclusion.
I would definitely say that Hambly’s is my favorite story of the lot. Most of them are fairly good, but simply fail to hold my interest. I’ve read a lot of stories and most of these just don’t add much as far as I’m concerned. Or they add too much and things get awkward.
I’m glad I finally sat down and read the book. And I think my dad will enjoy stories by authors he’s been following for years. I mean, yes, several of these people are dead now. But I doubt he’s read any of these stories before. Except maybe the McCaffrey one. I’d have to check to see if it was in any of her collections that he bought.
Of course, now I have to figure out what I’m reading tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll worry about that in the morning.