T J Klune, for me, has gone from “I hate women who write gay novels” to The torch song, The standard bearer, The best of all writers of gay male fantasy. I’d STILL like to know how that works but, it does. She’s fckn awesome! I won’t hesitate to say, I’ve purchased most of her titles. Two I’ve returned but, the others are ones which will stay with me forever, in my hand and in my heart. I’m one of those happy masculine gay men who enjoys being totally male. I love the binary. T J Klune has an unnatural affinity to write novels I love while avoiding the rigidness of binary as if it didn’t exist, yet, without offending it’s clear existence and fact of being.

Despite all this praise, I’m having a harder time getting into RavenSong because of a binary objection I have to a “male witch”. There’s no such thing. We have witches and warlocks. Sorceress and Sorcerer. They don’t inter-chance. So, every time I hear the main character say, “I’m a witch”, it’s like watching a Lonnie Linebacker, hairy-legged horror say, “I’m a woman!”. It disrupts the flow. It disrupts belief. It breaks the storyline.

Still, the storyline is dragging a bit at the start but, I can already recommend this title. For a record of what I don’t love in the Klue collection: I sincerely HATED “the Lightning struck heart” and consider that writing to be entirely different from her norm. The problem with writing diversification is, it makes saying, “Oh, you’ll love everything the author writes” untrue. I hope it works to make Klune’s empire even stronger. We NEED her. She’s become a savior of gay novels, and I’m super grateful.

Although this sequel is grounded closely to the first title, it’s quickly find a place for itself. I like “Ox”. Thomas was an obnoxious cnt but, he was a kid then. I’m willing to see how his character develops and whether there were interesting stories made on the road with this crew. The one clear fact, even early on into chapter 4 is, the writing is pure Klune. She’s even carried over the “I said” and “she said” aspects which endeared me to Ox. Nice touch. Thoughtful. Great wink.