Of Fire and Stars

If Audrey Coulthurst thinks she can get me to read her whole fantasy series with bait like ‘nerdy princess blushing wildly as she ties the laces on the dress of her hot riding instructor’, she’s completely right. She has my number. I’m ~so~ here for this. There’s no way I wouldn’t binge on the whole thing.

OFaS is a romance novel, more than fantasy. Plot development is slow and the worldbuilding is cursory. What makes it work is the buildup of the relationship, the abundance of meaningful moments. Also horses.

(Book #2 and especially the prequel flesh out the world, but beware—do not read the prequel before the other 2, it is highly spoilerish.)

It’s no secret that I read fantasy for the lesbians, but cute though Denna/Mare may be together, the really interesting relationship for me was Mare and Nils’. I feel like friendships in general are undervalued in our culture; treated (unfairly) as less important or meaningful than romance. Under comphet, this gets ten times stronger for heterosexual friendships. It sometimes feels as if writers were constitutionally unable to allow a woman and a man be good friends; straight ppl seem to expect that if Sherlock means anything to Irene, if Mulder means anything to Scully, then the girl ought to prove it with kisses.

Nils’ friendship is fascinating to me because not only he’s Mare’s bff, he’s her ex. They already did the kissing. It was good. They grew out of it, and the resulting friendship has that level of intimacy and trust that often develops among lesbian exes, and I wish was common with male exes too. I was moved by the scene where Nils helps Mare choose a nice dress to go see Denna because, while aware of the risks, he knew she needed a push out of her comfort zone, that her best life lay in that direction. I want more of this particular kind of representation.

I think it is meaningful that this is a world with no homosexuality stigma. It makes sense to me that male/female friendships would safely grow deep when neither side is being especially marked as a unique sexual object in potentia by virtue of gender. The damage that comphet wreaks on queer relationships is obvious, but it also has negative consequences for m/f relations in general.

Look my low review isn't going to be much different from everyone else's. No world building. Predictable. Dull characters. Confusing plot points. Magic system isn't fleshed out. You've heard it all.



But I'm not here to tell you the book is bad. It's a f/f romance fantasy book and I think it's spectacular that it exists. This book may be a low fantasy trying a biiiit too hard to be a high fantasy(and falling way waaaay short) with a kinda bland YA romance, but this sort of book is EXACTLY the type of simple read some people are looking for, and now they have their simple low fantasy with a healthy dose of representation and that. IS. WONDERFUL.



The plot wasn't for me, though. I tried, and I failed to get through it. I found it boring and tedious and at least 55% is because romance and low fantasy bore me in general. The book left much to be desired for a lot of reasons. But I'm glad it exists and people can find some joy in it.