Ritual of Proof (G. K. Hall Romance) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Dara Joy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2002 | Series: G. K. Hall Romance

In a world where women are all-powerful, Marquelle Green Tamryn is one of the most influential of all. When the time comes to choose a husband, she decides on Jorlan Raynard, heir to a fortune. When her life is threatened, she learns to rely on Jorlan in ways she is not used to, and to love in a way she never thought possible.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"It was a woman's world," Joy (High Intensity, etc.) states in her debut hardcover, and she's not making a metaphor. On the Forus moon revolving around the planet Arkeus, women have it all, especially women of noble birth. They govern through the House of She-Lords, own the property and are the sexual aggressors dividing men into pleasurers and name-bearers. Joy has left no gender-based stereotype unturned, except that men don't get pregnant however, thanks to the invention of a natal accelerator, gestation only takes three months. Set in a Regency-style past-future, the story pits noblewoman Marquelle Green Tamryn against aqua-eyed Jorland Reynard, the conventions of their society, and her lifelong nemesis, the evil Claudine D'anbere. Marquelle Tamryn can buy Jorland from his grandmother, command erotic magic from his perfect body and "fasten" him in a public ceremony but can she win his love? And when things get out of control, can he save her life? Arriving at the foregone conclusion is both more fun and more work than it should be. The eponymous ritual, during which a man's virginity is tested in public, ranks as libidinous high camp. But the pace is slowed by Joy's invented language, a tiresome amalgamation that sounds like a cross between Dr. Seuss and Klingon, in which Klees and Kloos prance over the landscape and sassbits eat lumpies for breakfast. Agent, Richard Curtis. (June 12) Forecast: Joy's appeal is undeniable, as evidenced by her Web site receiving 45,000 hits during its first three weeks and all her previous titles having been USA Today bestsellers. Expect more of the same, bolstered by a national print ad campaign and New England author appearances.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Ever since a ship brought a select few from Originpoint hundreds of years ago, women have ruled on Forus. Men are valued only for their looks or their property, an idea against which handsome Jorlan Reynard has spent his life rebelling. Wealthy landowner Green Tamryn has no desire to take a name-bearer, but the more she sees of Jorlan, the more she wants him. Her decision to make an offer for him is hurried along by the fact that her archrival, Claudine, a brutal, ruthless woman, has also made an offer. Jorlan's grandmother, Anya, agrees to Green's suit, much to Jorlan's displeasure. He is attracted to Green but doesn't like being treated as property. Yet, against his will, he marries Green, who treats him well and gradually brings him around to being happy in the marriage. But Claudine continues to cause trouble, even bringing a challenge before the Septibunal that threatens Green's property and her marriage. Joy's first hardcover novel is a fun romp full of colorful characters. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 466 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 2nd edition (January 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783896441
• ISBN-13: 978-0783896441
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (212 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,941,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About Time!, July 15, 2004

By 

Mouser "The Chinchilla Guerilla" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ritual of Proof (Mass Market Paperback)

Welcome the typical romance world, only it's a mirror image. Women are in charge, men are virginal, and it's a futuristic regency place.

So original, great as a satire, steamy, erotic, interesting. I found myself in love with Jorlan and Green who are really well rounded.

It was interesting to read of a world where women are in charge and end up subjegating men just as men did us. Fascinating, but probably realistic. We would be just as petty as men.

A few things at the end don't make sense, but the entire novel is beautifully written. The scenery and imagination is lush, the characters fascinating, and the plot slow but you don't really notice.

Jorlan is about to be sold to Claudine, the mortal enemy of Green, the woman Jorlan secretly lusts after. To save him Green puts aside her kept pleasurer (um, Mister?) and marries him, introducing him to the world of sensual arts and land management.

Jorlan has surprises. He's a skilled intuitive lover because he's a sensitive- he's tied to the planet and has an affinity with all living things. He's aslo a deadly martial arts master posessing knowledge denied men on the planet.

Caludine tries to posion Green's people and destroy her, but only with Jorlan's help can Green win.

This introduced me to Dara Joy and most of her books have been worthy reads. This was the first I read and I'm still convinced the best.

I was sad to visit her site and see River (Green's pleasurer) was going to be the hero in the next novel. I guess we're going back to the viriginal woman, experienced man type romance.

Bummer.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thru a Mirror, June 13, 2001

By 

C. Anderson (Maine United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ritual of Proof (Hardcover)

This book is just amazing! I was initially sorry that this wasn't Traed's story in her other series,BUT, then I read it. It takes place on another planet (seem to be earth decendents tho) in a time not unlike Regency England. However the Women are in charge and it's the men who are sold off into marriage and must be virgins. The story is wonderful. The world it is set in amazingly complex and complete. The charachters are fun and new. Actually the whole book has you looking at so very much in a new way. I highly recommend it for its uniqueness, fun, style, but for those who have never read any Dara Joy before it is erotic as are her others but in a lovely way that is actually a part of the plot/story and not just plunked here and there just because it will help sell the book. Enjoy- a guilty pleasure

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A good concept doth not a good novel make., April 29, 2002

By 

Kelly (Fantasy Literature) (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ritual of Proof (Mass Market Paperback)

_Ritual of Proof_ intrigued me, based on the cover blurb and a brief thumbing-through in the store. "Ah," I thought, "here is a good concept; it's bound to be a good book."

The concept is this: women travelers from Earth settled, centuries ago, on the moon of Forus, where they set up a society where women ruled, and then used genetic engineering to create men for pleasure and reproduction. Set in this world, long after its founding, is the love story of Green Tamryn, a titled lady, and her chosen name-bearer (husband, except that in this world the man takes the woman's name), Jorlan. Jorlan is a rebel, convinced that males should be allowed an equal place in society. He marries Green, both because he has no real choice and because he secretly desires her. Yet he remains committed to changing the world. Sounds pretty good, huh?

Unfortunately, _Ritual of Proof_ falls down on two levels, and given its flaws I found it impossible to finish. First, the society the author sets up doesn't make much sense. Dara Joy seems to have set up a society that was the exact mirror image of Regency society, rather than pondering what a woman-ruled world really would be like. I'm not referring to any maudlin notions that women are the gentler sex, and wouldn't be so oppressive. I'm talking pragmatic stuff here. There is a reason why patriarchal culture became so obsessed with the chastity of brides. It wasn't because they consciously decided "Hey, let's oppress some women." It was because they wanted to make sure their heirs were really their children, that they weren't passing on their names and their fortunes to someone else's kids. When a child is born, it's pretty obvious who its mother is. Its father, in the days before genetic testing, would be less clear. Thus, women were expected to be virgins at their marriage and faithful ever after. But in Joy's world, males have been genetically engineered to grow a hymen over their genitalia, and must display it before witnesses to prove their virginity at the time of marriage. This is said to ensure the purity of the man's wife's bloodline. Huh? First of all, this society is more concerned with the maternity of a child than the paternity. The man just provides the sperm. Any child born of a certain woman's body is hers, by common sense. And if they're so concerned about paternity, they can do paternity testing. This is a world where everything is based on genetic engineering! Is it plausible that they don't know how to do a paternity test? The foundation of the plot, the "Ritual of Proof" of virginity, is utterly pointless. Joy was clearly more interested in turning sexism upside down than in designing a world that made sense.

Second, the prose is awkward. When the writing is a pain to read, it becomes hard to care about the characters. They can never seem more than words on a page, when the style is as messy as this. Ever heard of "As you already know" dialogue? That's where the characters sit around talking about stuff they all know already, just because the author can't think of any other way to impart that info to the reader. Heard of info-dumping? In historical fiction, it's what happens when the author decided to show off her research by launching into dry historical detail at the expense of plot; in this case, the author is launching into dry made-up detail about her invented world. The world of Forus is bigger than this book; if she wants to tell us all about it, she should have written more than one book about it rathet than trying to cram the history of a planet into a romance novel. And, of course, we have the tried-and-true telling-not-showing. Joy wants us to think of Green as a strong and intelligent woman. How does she indicate this? By saying that Green is a strong and intelligent woman. Ditto for the descriptions of Jorlan as rebellious, willful, and psychically gifted. Instead of showing us the characters through the story, we're just told what they're like and that's that.

Like I said, I couldn't finish this. The sex is pretty steamy; it might be worth reading for that. Don't approach it looking for insightful world-building, or much in the way of feminism.