[ SECRET POST #3833 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3833 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 35 secrets from Secret Submission Post #549.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Book club - Joust discussion

[(Anonymous)]

Starting with my first impression.

Pros -
I liked that Fantasy Egypt still described the characters as looking Egyptian (Looking at you, Dreamwork's White British Samurai)

I liked the worldbuilding a lot, like answering how you can keep a large number of huge predators that need to eat a lot of meat, depictions of the casual religion.

I liked the variety of character personalities. I liked the animal care details, it's always pretty obvious that ML both likes animals and has experience caring for them.

It's a fun read, it's one I've read before and goes on my 'comfort' shelf for rereading roughly once a year or so?

Cons -
I had forgotten there was not a single named human female character in the entire book. (unless you count Vetch's family who are only mentioned when he's thinking of the past)

The repeated no-homo got a little annoying. Maybe ML's trying to distance herself from her earlier work? But yes, thanks, I get it, Ari fucks women. Lots of women. He has no interest in guys. He certainly has no interest in Vetch. Vetch would be horrified if he did. Their bond is entirely platonic no-homo. Makes me halfway tempted to write something where Vetch has a childhood crush on him and then in (spoilers) later books when he's grown and they're on more equal footing they fall in love.

The book's pretty obviously the first in a series and does a lot of setup, worldbuilding, and character development, but the plot's fairly weak.

Re: Book club - Joust discussion

[diet_poison]

Too true about the female characters thing. :/ Maybe that would get resolved in a sequel? Though hopefully not just with a LI.

The "no homo" thing read more to me like "Ari's relationship with Vetch is paternal rather than creepy", not because both are male but because Vetch is literally a child. It felt like a piece of worldbuilding, that it wasn't unusual for some men to have a sexual interest in boys under their command, which would pretty clearly be a violation due to age and power imbalance. Vetch was relieved that Ari wasn't acting predatory to him.

tl;dr it was more "no pedo" than "no homo" to me

Also, I didn't mention this but I really agree about the religion - that was a really interesting and well-done part of the worldbuilding. And I thought Vetch's shrine to his father was really touching.

Re: Book club - Joust discussion

[(Anonymous)]

I would have read it as no-pedo if it happened once. But I think something like four times? It got a little annoying. She could have said it once and then just used familial terms to describe their interactions instead of flat out having character state over and over that Ari liked whores and was like a bull with them, and never even looked at pretty boys.

(Also sadly, if I remember right, every single female character in the other books are LIs)

Re: Book club - Joust discussion

[diet_poison]

I thought they only talked about the whore thing once? :/ idk.

Also dang, that really sucks. Female authors in particular I want to hold to a higher standard wrt writing actual female characters...granted, I understand wanting to be accurate to the time period and avoid certain tropes, but it doesn't have to be a warrior...why not write someone who's just a friend, or a lady, or a merchant, or hell even a prostitute who plays a part in the story somehow.