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Aaron J. Smith

Niche and specialized, but very good within that niche.

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

I have recently come off a string of reading truly terribly excribly bad fanfictions, light novels, and first novel attempts. By those standards, this novel (even a first work!) is a shining beacon of amazing talent, grace, skill, and glorious coherent sentences which aim for a tone and style of writing (the classic sword & sorcery tales) and hits the mark with absolute accuracy. The writing is clear, readable, the actions flow from intentions and events are both foreshadowed and provided with context and world explanations. Now I will attempt to write a review that moves past the "it's not bad, so it's marvelous!"

Other reviews have commented on the sword and sorcery tone of the book. I found these reviews to be very accurate, the writing overall clearly aims to duplicate/callback to the old sword & sorcery tales such as Conan and Thongor. It succeeds with perfect accuracy. For some, this will be a real selling point, for others the writing will feel stilted and out of date.

The other reviews also mention the main hero is transformed into a sex crazed gorgeous woman. This is also accurate for the early part of the novel. It is honestly the weakest part of the story. It holds up very well for a fetish work, but asking more of it makes the weak parts of the plot show up in glaring fashion. The line to get from "male knight" to "female maiden" is very roughly drawn.

This seems to a first work, and there are several typos throughout the book, tense disagreements, poor word choices, or what look like rewrites of scenes that were not properly smoothed together.

For all that, the plot is solid, the action smooth, the character's motivations and goals coherent, and the story both frankly erotic and a little funny. There are several darker toned moments in the novel, but the author navigates them surprisingly well.

For the price, I am not at all disappointing with my purchase. Cheap, readable, fetish flavored, strong world building, with a surprisingly upbeat ending and narrative point. It knows the genre it wants to be, and nails that mark perfectly. (Sword & Sorcery with genderbending erotic fantasy) If these tags are not what you're looking for, do not buy this book. If you're interested in these tags, you should not be disappointed in the slightest. Just be willing to forgive the occasional oddly formed sentence, word choice, or occasional fragmentary scene.

Bending the Bookshelf

Classic, pulp, gender-swapped fantasy

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is the kind of book that takes me back to the classic, pulp fantasy novels that I so fondly remember from my high school years. From the plot, to the characters, to the narrative voice, it reminds me at times of authors like Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Michael Moorcock. Whereas the trend over the past decade has been towards sad and painful works of grimdark fantasy, this is a return to old-fashioned sword & sorcery fun.

As you might expect from a book about a legendary warrior cursed to live out his life as a beautiful woman, this is also a story with a fair bit of sex (and sexual innuendo), but it is done in a very clever and amusing way. Yes, Ka-Ron awakes from her transformation as an incredibly beautiful, sexually insatiable woman, but there are magical reasons for it . . . and very real consequences because of it. Aside from the sex, there are also some interesting explorations of gender here. Alternately comic and tragic, Ka-Ron’s efforts to adapt to her new situation reveal a hidden depth of maturity and sophistication that you rarely find in erotica.

Readers who find the initial sexual explorations to be a bit too much are strongly advised to stick with it, as there is a wonderfully exciting fantasy tale to follow. As they battle their way through pirates, hungry sea-dragons, a coven of vampires, an undersea realm, and an insane elven king, our heroes find new companions in the form of a wizard, a dwarf, an elf, a vampire, and a man-child upon whom both the curse and the story eventually turn. Ka-Ron and Jatel are the primary POV characters here, but Keeth, Molly, Rohan, and Dorian (especially Dorian!) round out the story perfectly.

The story does turn from comic to dark in the latter chapters, especially with the threat of an elven civil war, but Donald paces it well, knowing just when a bit of humour or sexual adventure is needed. At the same time, he resists the temptation to spice things up just for the sake of spicing things up, allowing the story to carry us along. By the end, we have formed strong bonds with all the characters, and their parting from us is indeed sweet sorrow . . . although we will see them again.

Six years after its original release, the story still stands up, and it is just as much of a delight as I remember. In the end, Ka-Ron is far more than just a gender-swapped heroine, and her story works on all levels.

Kindle Customer

One Star

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

Don't bother

Samuel Rafael

"A Knight is nothing, if not for a quest"

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2017

A brilliant 'Dungeons and Dragonesque" tale of grief, loss, retribution and true love, set against a mythical background of Elfs, Dwarfs, Wizards and others too strange to describe. As the story goes, although only indirectly involved in a tragic incident and not the direct cause, Ka-Ron, the Knight errant has drawn the ire of a powerful enchantress who delivers a curse so diabolical it will make your head spin. And if that's not bad enough, the sorceress ratchets up the spell to such a level that poor Ka-Ron becomes a virtual puppet on a string, a hapless victim for which one can only feel the deepest pity. But, what is this, Ka-Ron actually begins to loves this predicament? However, Ka-Ron later is shocked to learn that this is a "blood curse" and affects children in generation to come. But, as Ka-Ron comes to understand, in the final analysis, "We have the power within us to forgive." This writer wonders if this fine novel is a parable for gender dysphoria?

G C

I ENJOYED IT!

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2018

I enjoyed it. This book is full of so many mythical creatures with constant twists and turns, you can't help but be invested in the story. The narration was good and kept you entertained. This author did a great job with the characters. This was my first book by this author but definitely will not be my last. I look forward to reading the next book in this series. I was given a free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.