The Thorn Boy [Paperback]

Storm Constantine (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Eidolon Pubns (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0958686432
• ISBN-13: 978-0958686433
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,233,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and agonizingly passionate, November 6, 2000

By 

Professor J (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Thorn Boy (Paperback)

She's baaaaaack...

Any Storm Constantine fans who were hooked by the Wraeththu novels and have been disappointed in her other works will be overjoyed to realize that she hasn't lost it, it's just been lying dormant a while, and in this novel it has returned in full force. "It" being her marvelously lyrical, poetic prose and deliciously decadent and aesthetically fascinating worldbuilding. And, for those who are fans of it, the homoerotic element is powerful and prominent (and explicit) in this book.

This story takes place in a fantasy realm where two countries---one that's similar to ancient Persia, another similar to ancient China, although these comparisons are too crude---have just completed a war. The king of Mewt is dead, and the king of Cos lays claim to the dead king's "boy," a beautiful and strange young man named Akaten who, to everyone's shock, actually grieves for his lost king. No one is more horrified at this---actual love between a king and his boy---than Darien, the favorite boy of the kind of Cos (until Akaten comes along). In Cos, kings often take beautiful young men as concubines/sex slaves, but they would never dream of actually *loving* such boys, and the boys know better than to expect love in return. But Akaten does, and he turns the entire palace and the very order of Cossic high society upside down because of it. In the end, no one will escape unscathed.

Several things made this story unique. Many novels have explored past societies in which young men served as sexual objects for other men, but few have done such a wonderful job of incorporating desire and sensuality into these worlds without somehow emasculating the boys. This one doesn't. And there is an almost holy quality to this story; both Darien and Akaten are motivated by far more than lust and love. Patron goddesses, spiritual epiphanies, and rigid traditions all play a powerful part in this story. And the story is simply beautiful. Cos is beautiful, the characters are beautiful, and the writing itself is beautiful---as befits a story about a decadent, hedonistic ancient society. This is the closest allegory to the Japanese "yaoi" literary model that I've ever been able to find in the English language---closer even than Wraeththu.

My only complaint is that it's painfully short. This is one-day reading (actually only took me a few hours), here, and that's a true shame because when I find a good book, I like for it to last a while. But that's just my impatience. The story didn't feel truncated, to me---sometimes a story is just meant to be short, and to extend it would dilute its power. In this case, the story was short, bittersweet, and *very* powerful. Definitely recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtakingly, achingly beautiful, June 25, 2002

By 

Wendy C. Darling (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Thorn Boy (Paperback)

I think there would be a lot more reviews of this if only it were easier to find! There are far too few copies of this exquisite novella, alas.

An elaboration of a historical event mentioned in Crown of Silence, the second book of Storm Constantine's Magravandias trilogy, Thorn Boy is a tragic love story with elements that are rare -- chiefly its focus on kings and their boy lovers, lovers who are not only willing but devoted...these boys have not been emasculated but are whole beings with their own masculine will and passion, albeit tempered by fate. Storm's rich, seductive imagery is here in full force and there are wonderfully evocative passages of love and sex as well as grief and pain. Splendid from beginning to end.

For a much richer review, check out one written by Kris Dotto for Inception, the Storm Constantine fan zine I edit.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An older edition, now scarce and pricey, August 26, 1999

By 

Paul W. Cashman - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Thorn Boy (Paperback)

This was originally intended for one of the "Bending the Landscape" collections of gay-oriented SF/fantasy, so it should come as no surprise that it has LOTS of gay and homoerotic content. But, as usual, Storm's handling of the relationships is among the best I've read, and overall this is a great, if a bit short, story. That's my only serious beef with the book; it's a novella published as a single work and at US$13 or so, it's quite pricey. It has since been reprinted by a domestic press with additional stories to "flesh it out" as a collection of short fiction, and that edition is easier to find, cheaper, and a better overall buy.