Customer Reviews

Tangle

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this anthology for Ginn Hale's novella, Feral Machines-- and it was a great sci-fi read-- but it wasn't the only outstanding story.

Erin MacKay's novella ,Crossing the Distance, was smart, and heart-wrenching in a very good way. She took the whole concept of Soul Mates and built an amazing world around it.

Astrid Amara's two stories were both wonderful; Lord Ronan's Shoes had me grinning like an idiot as the young hero battled to save his lord and lover from a wicked pair of boots and Remember was simply beautiful with all it's Victorian poise and subtle magic.

Los Conversos, by Jesse Sandoval, was one of the best pieces of magical realism that I've read in years, featuring a character who is the descendant of a scarab, panes of glass that turn tears to rubies and a very charming thief.

Monument, by Steven Adamson, was sweet and simple, while Release In A Minor, by Tenea D. Johnson, was HOT!

Moons of Blood and Amber, by Gene Mederos, and The Coming of the Fourth Dawn, by Jeremiah Job Levine, were both high fantasy, adventure stories with heroic gay couples at the centers of the turmoil, duels and daring. I enjoyed them despite the fact that I often find high fantasy a little dull.

All in all, I found the majority of stories in this collection romantic, very imaginative and fun. I definitely recommend it.

It's some time I picked up an anthology, and picking up this one reminded me how much fun it is reading one, surfacing from one story and diving into the next one, curious as to what surprises it may hold. They are very different from each other, but none of the eleven stories on 363 pages really disappoints. Three, "Moons of Blood and Amber", "The Coming of the Fourth Dawn" and "Crossing the Distance", are genre-type fantasy, where the last one, a novella of 74 pages, is particularly gripping: please, Erin MacKay, give the world a novel! Ginn Hale's 78 pages "Feral Machines" is a SF story I did not expect in this volume, it has an interesting, preservationist setting, though its love story is perhaps a bit cheesy, and the idea to turn cyborgs into, well, pets, would have profited from a little more drama (what use is freedom if everybody remains well-behaved? shouldn't we expect a bad conscience or similar reaction when the freed machines realize to what awful uses they were put before?). Astrid Amara's two short stories are little masterpieces, and I am looking forward to her novel "The Archer's Heart" scheduled to appear in August. All in all, I enjoyed this anthology probably more than any novel I recently read, so I just want to say thank you for it.

I've never written a review before, but for this book I had to do it. Like another reviewer I bought this book because of Ginn Hale's Feral Machines, but now I've found I want more. Several of the writers were so skilled I had to come and search for more what they had written. To my sadness, I found they hadn't written anything.

Astrid Amara, I wish you would write more. Your two novellas made me smile in amusement and almost cry in the other. If you ever write a book, I promise I'll be the first ones to buy them. Lord Ronan's shoes was a sweet story of enchantment and love that wasn't only magic. Remember made me ache for the main character to remember the love he didn't knew he had in front of him.

Gene Mederos and Jeremiah Job Levine, your fantasy stories made me wish more. The way you've portrait the characters gave only a glimpse of their past. It would have been nice to see more. Maybe some time?

The others were also good and enjoyable reading. This book isn't just sex between two men, but simply relationship, learning and falling in love. I thank you for these stories.

Honesty from the outset (and what will become my standard line for anthologies)~

I have a love/hate relationship with anthologies. Love because I really enjoy the diversity of voices and styles contained within a single volume and hate because inevitably with so many stories there will be a couple I'm unable to connect with. It is always disappointing when that happens because it can colour your view of the work as a whole and perhaps even the stories which come after.

First things first~

This is not a review of all eleven stories (nine novellettes and two novellas) included in Tangle. Instead, I have selected several which resonated with me as well as a couple that didn't hit as many of my reader's buttons. I hope this approach will give you a 'real' taste of the anthology without boring you to death with my crap. (You better like it cos I doing the same for the next one too! :) )

Lord Ronan's Shoes by Astrid Amara
Rating 4.5 out of 5 Stars

This is a terrific story about a young servant, who starts to work for a cruel and critical Lord with something of a foot fetish. *g* Magical boots sweeten the Lord up to kindness and love, but at what cost?! This has all the entertaining earmarks of fairy tales of old complete with gloomy, bramble covered mansions in the middle of a forest, magical garments, servants and masters, a beauty and the beast-type moral, an old crone, and an HEA; albeit a little rushed. I think this author shows what a very fine storyteller she is in Lord Ronan's Shoes.

Feral Machines by Ginn Hale
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

In Feral Machines, Ginn Hale offers up more flawed characters to much enjoyment. This futuristic story features Andrew; one of the two last remaining inhabitants of a wildlife sanctuary, and his desperate attempts to save this habitat from the greedy powers that be. What I liked the most about this novella is the way the characters grow as the plot - paced beautifully - progresses, especially how Andrew comes to understand his actions are not as benevolent as he thinks.

Monument by Steven Adamson
Rating 3.75 out of 5 Stars

This ghost story with a message won't be to everyone's taste (and I've read a couple of reviews along this vein), however I thought Monument was a good story about a horny teenager dealing with issues associated with his sexuality and his first relationship. I loved the irony in this; the contrast between the main character's criticism of his boyfriend's effeminate mannerisms and behaviour and his own desire for a 'candlelight and music' romance. God love teenage angst. :)

A couple of issues/warnings~

A few of the stories were very short (only a few pages long) to varying degrees of success. Tenea D. Johnson's Release in A Minor warrants particular mention because of the sensuality of her writing. The imagery conjured up by Clyde's, the main character's, trumpet playing is very lush. However, I was left feeling vaguely unsatisfied because I didn't really learn anything substantial about Clyde. I would have liked to get to know him more in a longer story.

In The Lost Gentleman by Mark Allan Gunnells, a stranded traveller becomes infatuated with a man he discovers in a nearby home. Whilst an okay read, this is a familiar ghost story, which did not offer anything really new to me as a reader and I found the ending a little contrived.

My recommendation~

Although a couple of the stories in Tangle didn't work for me as much as others, the majority of them did and I would suggest this anthology to those readers looking for a variety of unusual m/m fantasy tales.

BTW, I also recommend you go check out the Blind Eye Books website for some great original art associated with Tangle. I particularly like the work for Lord Ronan's Shoes. *g*

This is a solid collection with only three stories I would consider less than wonderful. The anthology is well worth buying just for the exquisite story, "Los Conversos" by Jesse Sandoval, the cleverness of the two by Astrid Amara, and the all round wonderfulness of the two novellas in the anthology by Erin MacKay and Ginn Hale, but there are other stories here too which will entertain and delight.

This isn't just an excellent selection of gay stories - these represent damn good speculative fiction, and will appeal both to those who love good writing in that genre as well as to those who are looking for gay heroes outside the traditional 'gay fiction' genre. It's been a long time since I picked up a collection of writing that appealed to me on so many fronts. Highly recommended, and when you've read this and loved it, go buy Wicked Gentlemen by the same publisher. Ginn Hale will blow you away.

Neither short stories nor novellas are my absolute favourite thing in the world, for it is easy to go wrong writing them and so many of those I have read have been less than satisfactory. If, however, they are well written, they always leave me craving for more because they are so short. It's is like a no-win situation, in a way. The reason why I picked up this anthology was Astrid Amara, to a slightly lesser extent Ginn Hale, both exceptional writers, and the thought that I might find some new authors to like - because variation is really the best thing about anthologies such as these where there are so many writers. My overall impression stayed quite positive throughout the whole book as there were both highs and lows and I always feel that the highs can absolutely outshine the lows, especially when you know you are going to come back to them many times over the years. For these reasons I gave the anthology four stars as a whole.

Gene Mederos: Moons of Blood and Amber
Three stars
This is one of those stories that turned out to be too short, not because I liked it overly much, but because I could have liked it a lot more had it been longer. As it is, I found it to be a bit too simple and the characters not fleshed out enough. There was no wow-factor, but I didn't hate it either. Quite traditional fantasy adventure/romance that left me feeling happy, so that's a plus.

Steven Adamson: Monument
Three stars
Rather interesting, but not interesting enough. I might best describe my impression with the word "nice", even though that is quite horrible of me.

Astrid Amara: Lord Ronan's Shoes
Five stars
I read it twice in a row, because it was just so delicious. It has this genuine fairy tale feel to it: an evil witch, a pair of magical shoes, an enchanted lord - the whole setting is perfect because it could just as well slip into an anthology with The Red Riding Hood and other such stories. There's even a proper lesson in it, just as you would have in any great fairy tale. It is not a "nice" story, because there is this oppressing, menacing feeling hanging over the course of events, yet the ending is just the one you most want to see.

Jesse Sandoval: Los Conversos
Five Stars
This one is "the new find" for me. Extremely well written and engaging, fresh and different. Hard to explain the feelings I had, because I was so blown away. I would love to see more of the world and the characters. Just wow.

Mark Allan Gunnells: The Lost Gentleman
Four Stars
This one was quite sweet and I liked it for it. A bit sad as well. Romantic.

Tenea D. Johnson: Release in a Minor
One star (or zero)
There was nothing I liked about it (except that the misery lasted only for about three and a half pages). Even the title is a really crude pun. Not for me.

Jeremiah Job Levine: The Coming of the Fourth Dawn
Three stars
Just like with some others: didn't hate it, but didn't love it either. Very basic and traditional and for those reasons slightly boring. An okay read.

Lawrence Schimel: Fag Hag
Three stars
A story told from the perspective of someone who is just unusual enough as to make the story interesting. Sweet and bittersweet mixed together.

Astrid Amara: Remember
Five stars
As with Lord Ronan's shoes, this one is very haunting. Everything seems to be sliding into the wrong direction and you cannot be sure of the motives of all the characters (most importantly the main character's love interest's). Very hot and well written!

Erin MacKay: Crossing the Distance
Four stars
I had mixed feelings about this one, but in the end I decided to like it. The writing is very good, but I didn't much care for the first person narrator, the main character, until he grew a bit, both mentally and physically. There was this sense of wrongness, of unhealthiness, that I didn't like at all, but I suppose that you must also try to embrace things you are slightly uncomfortable with.

Ginn Hale: Feral Machines
Five stars (four and a half)
A great sci-fi read with important themes (important to me at least) and a good plot.

If you're looking for just a sci-fi/adventure collection where the heroes just happen to be gay - this if for you. If you want something other than a passionate kiss for the heroes - find a different book. The stories are all right, decently written, but certainly more on the fluff side of things than any real meat or passion to them. Women's romance novels have more sex in them than these did. If you liked Luck in the Shadows (Nightrunner, Vol. 1) by Lynn Flewelling then this is up your alley. It's not a bad collection, just rather - yawn. And as another poster said, a couple of them are just plain wierd and not in a good way. Happy reading.

Nothing in this collection really stood out. It was a mix of stories that I now barely remember, a couple I truly hated, and a novella that would have been better off on its own (the very last one). It really wasn't worth my money. I've been burned on anthologies over and over again, I think after Tangled, I am swearing off anthologies for a very long time.