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The Tempering of Men
So I just finished The Tempering of Men--the sequel to A Companion to Wolves, just out this week--and...
What an odd book.
I may be interrogating the text from the wrong perspective, but I can't help feeling that Isolfr's miserably persistent straightness (and persistent misery) is written in some kind of opposition to slash, which, having felt like the first book was a great big HERE, FANGIRLS, ENJOY THE DUB-CON GANGBANG WOOBIE ID CANDY WITH BONUS THREESOME HAPPY ENDING, was a bit... weird. There is, more or less, a romance--Isolfr's two husbands fall in love with each other mostly by dint of spending nearly the entire book separated and pining for each other (when they think to--about twice apiece), though we also get to see how they first reached rapprochement because the book starts before the last book ended but in a very--well, a very fanfic way where you know that people know the canon so you don't need to fill in the bits you're not interested in. I thought there was going to be another romantic sub-plot, between third POV character Brokkolfr (who? you say, yeah, I have no idea either, but he seems nice and at least he seems okay with sleeping with dudes) and Kari, but Kari just sort of appears to drop from Brokkolfr's attention immediately after they finish having Big Important Adventures together, just the two of them. So. Guess that's not where that was going, then.
The actual A-plot was... well, if this is the second book in a trilogy, okay, I guess it's that sort of A-plot. But since what I have seen mentioned as the intended title of the intended third book (Apprentice to Elves or something like that) seems to imply a book about Isolfr's daughter, whom he has promised to send to the elves as an apprentice, uh. I guess we're not going to see a resolution of the A-plot. So that's... an interesting choice. Come on, it seems to be saying, we know you're not here for the war. You're here for the wolf-bonded gay romance!
But we're all out of wolf-bonded gay romance, so it's just ...
I'm being maybe a little harsh because I wanted my goddamn wolf-bonded OT3 and didn't get it, and because they kept capitalizing allthing as AllThing. The ending of the book seems to suggest that it should, in fact, be read as the romance of Vethulf and Skjaldwulf and, okay, sure, it's a reasonably nice romance--but, seriously, what an odd book.
What an odd book.
I may be interrogating the text from the wrong perspective, but I can't help feeling that Isolfr's miserably persistent straightness (and persistent misery) is written in some kind of opposition to slash, which, having felt like the first book was a great big HERE, FANGIRLS, ENJOY THE DUB-CON GANGBANG WOOBIE ID CANDY WITH BONUS THREESOME HAPPY ENDING, was a bit... weird. There is, more or less, a romance--Isolfr's two husbands fall in love with each other mostly by dint of spending nearly the entire book separated and pining for each other (when they think to--about twice apiece), though we also get to see how they first reached rapprochement because the book starts before the last book ended but in a very--well, a very fanfic way where you know that people know the canon so you don't need to fill in the bits you're not interested in. I thought there was going to be another romantic sub-plot, between third POV character Brokkolfr (who? you say, yeah, I have no idea either, but he seems nice and at least he seems okay with sleeping with dudes) and Kari, but Kari just sort of appears to drop from Brokkolfr's attention immediately after they finish having Big Important Adventures together, just the two of them. So. Guess that's not where that was going, then.
The actual A-plot was... well, if this is the second book in a trilogy, okay, I guess it's that sort of A-plot. But since what I have seen mentioned as the intended title of the intended third book (Apprentice to Elves or something like that) seems to imply a book about Isolfr's daughter, whom he has promised to send to the elves as an apprentice, uh. I guess we're not going to see a resolution of the A-plot. So that's... an interesting choice. Come on, it seems to be saying, we know you're not here for the war. You're here for the wolf-bonded gay romance!
But we're all out of wolf-bonded gay romance, so it's just ...
I'm being maybe a little harsh because I wanted my goddamn wolf-bonded OT3 and didn't get it, and because they kept capitalizing allthing as AllThing. The ending of the book seems to suggest that it should, in fact, be read as the romance of Vethulf and Skjaldwulf and, okay, sure, it's a reasonably nice romance--but, seriously, what an odd book.
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But, uh, yeah. This is me, reminding myself that Nate IS my fix-it fic for this canon, I do not need to go also writing actual fix-it fic. Unless someone requests it for Yuletide.
(Other things I do not need to go writing: A GK hockey AU where first Nate and then Brad wind up, for reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture, leaving the NHL to play in the Swedish Elite League, and then getting outed as a couple and being the first male hockey players to come out during their actual careers. Because. Um. Who needs that story anyway. Other than me.)