[Review by Annie Dean]

Grade: B

First, let me just say, when I saw the cover, I was like, are they kidding? In a book with manlove, they put a giant towering phallus on it? Also I think it doesn’t evoke the setting very well. When I saw the cover, I thought My Sun and Stars would be about two knights getting it on in medieval times. It’s definitely not. But on to the meat of the story.

Sephil is a special kind of prince, and by which I mean, he likes to invite a bunch of catamites back to his palacial pad and have wild monkey sex from dusk til dawn. His family has washed their hands of him, so he has this “woe is me, poor little rich boy” thing down pat. Well, he’s bored and lonely with his life so he decides to replace his personal guard. He likes his men big, rough and mean, you see, plus the guards always put up such an interesting fight before succumbing to his boy-whore wiles.

That’s how Adeja gets his new job. Mind you, he’s told it’s a promotion, but he’s wondering why all his guard-buddies are snickering behind their hands. They know he’s off to serve the cake-boy prince and the last sad bastard who had this job got shipped off to the frontier, guarding a dangerous border. Being Prince Sephil’s bodyguard sucks. Often literally.

At first, Sephil doesn’t make any headway with Adeja, who really is a rough tough bastard. He’ll fuck anything with a hole and isn’t too nice with his manners either. He tells Sephil exactly what he thinks of him for trying to jerk him around (and off) like that. As it turns out, this is just what Sephil needs because in the beginning of the book, he’s such a spoiled little bitch that they would’ve pulled out his hair on Queer Eye. Somehow, he also manages to be pathetic at the same time. I spent the first part of the book wishing Sephil would man up (even if he likes other men, or maybe because he does) and wondering how Adeja could keep from killing him. But Adeja possesses one personal trait that just won’t do; even if he thinks Sephil a rotten little prick, Adeja is loyal to the prince.

So of course, an evil scheming eunuch (is there any other kind?) gets poor Adeja sent off to the frontier like his predecessor, just when Sephil is starting to show signs that he might not be a complete waste of space. Life gets pretty tough for soldier boy from that point, and it’s no walk in the park for Sephil either. Of course, he brought a lot of that on himself because he cut his wrists when his beloved guard was torn from him. He didn’t want to marry the princess! Boohoo. The Turyans (who I imagine being like the Mongol horde) sack the frontier outpost where Adeja was sent, and being no fool, our guard heads for the hills. The Turyans sweep all the way to the city, which I take to be the capital. Sephil’s stupidly heroic brother marches out to meet them and gets carried back to the city beheaded and tied to a pole, which just goes to prove it’s better to be the gay younger brother, because he’s recuperating at a monastery (where better for lots of manlove, huh?)

Events became a little confusing at this point, and the names are a bit similar sometimes (Meden and Bedren). I didn’t quite understand why they were sticking their neck out to help Adeja, but nonetheless he winds up directed to the monastery, where he hooks up with Sephil once more. By this point, Sephil starts to show some interesting character growth, and the novel really came to life for me.

Where L.E. Bryce excels is the atmosphere and worldbuilding. I came into this expecting a m/m romance, but this book was far more than that. It just took the author a little while to work up to it. Yes, this is a fantasy novel that contains m/m sexual interaction, but more importantly, it’s beautifully written and evokes the quasi-middle eastern setting with surety and grace. The last half of the book influenced my grade substantially because the story comes into its own and the character growth is fabulous.

Sephil finally does man up, you’ll be glad to know. I’m not going to spoil the ending, which struck me as fitting and bittersweet, so if you like well-written fantasy with rich sense of intrigue and political skullduggery, you’ll want to check out My Sun and Stars.

If you’re interested in purchasing this title, it is available at Phaze (probably soon).

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 8:01 am and is filed under Books, Grade: B, Romance: Sci-fi/Fan, Reviews by Annie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.