Yashima reviewed A taste of honey by Kai Ashante Wilson
Review of 'A taste of honey' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This novella confused me. The setting appears to be a fantasy setting but then there are the Gods who are probably just from a "sufficiently advanced high tech civilization". So it may be a SF setting. The protagonist is Aqib a young man of noble birth who falls in love with another man and thus finds out that he is gay. Their affair lasts all of 10 days and then his lover - who was from a diplomatic delegation - has to return back home. The story of their affair is interwoven with scenes from Aqib's much more conventional later life in which hemarries a princess, has a daughter, looses his wife to the gods because she is terribly good at solving three body problems ... the science hand-wavium wasn't very good, so the mention of the three body problem felt somewhat derivative and out of place because it served …
This novella confused me. The setting appears to be a fantasy setting but then there are the Gods who are probably just from a "sufficiently advanced high tech civilization". So it may be a SF setting. The protagonist is Aqib a young man of noble birth who falls in love with another man and thus finds out that he is gay. Their affair lasts all of 10 days and then his lover - who was from a diplomatic delegation - has to return back home. The story of their affair is interwoven with scenes from Aqib's much more conventional later life in which hemarries a princess, has a daughter, looses his wife to the gods because she is terribly good at solving three body problems ... the science hand-wavium wasn't very good, so the mention of the three body problem felt somewhat derivative and out of place because it served no purpose beyond the she-is-very-smart ...
I kept waiting for this story to show me it's purpose, to show me what it was all leading up to. But that only happened on the last page. A story that keeps me waiting and guessing until the last minute and then closes with the it's all just a dream / twist ending conclusion. The end did not feel satisfying. Even the major theme and the message of don't second guess your life choices is revealed too late.
The writing is good, the world quite interesting, as are the characters ... if only there was enough plot for the length of this novella. This would have made a much better short story.
