Books

About the Book

Title: Lander

Series Title: Oberon Cycle

Date: 13 February 2018

Length: 90k words

Publisher: Dreamspinner

Categories: romance, sci fi, fantasy, wingfic

Goodreads

Synopsis

Sometimes the world needs saving twice. Xander and Jameson thought they’d fulfilled their destiny when they brought the worlds of Oberon and Titania back together, but their short-lived moment of triumph is over. Reunification has thrown the world into chaos. A great storm ravaged Xander’s kingdom of Gaelan, leaving the winged skythane people struggling to survive. Their old enemy, Obercorp, is biding its time, waiting to strike. And to the north, a dangerous new adversary gathers strength, while an unexpected ally awaits them. In the midst of it all, Xander’s ex Alix returns, and Xander and Jameson discover that their love for each other may have been drug-induced. Are they truly destined for each other, or is what they feel artificial? And can they face an even greater challenge when their world needs them most?

Purchase Links

Dreamspinner eBook | Dreamspinner paperback | Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | QueeRomance Ink

Review

Full disclosure: I did not read the first book in the series. It didn’t hurt my enjoyment at all. Despite how this book builds on the previous one, I wasn’t lost. It was easy to pick up from context what had happened, and the glossary at the end was immensely helpful just to keep things sorted out. I appreciate how skillfully things are explained throughout. There’s no info-dumping or long passages rehashing the previous novel’s plot. It works well, and I can say that as a newbie to the series, I wasn’t thrown off at all.

Now to the good stuff, and oh boy, is there a lot of it. I often struggle with complex world-building and plot-heavy books. Yes, there’s character development, but it’s secondary to the action and setting. This book drew me in even without context. Or rather, it threw me off the dock and into the deep part of the pond. Everything is so carefully detailed, and it’s easy to become fully immersed in the story.

I love how the author weaves religion, faith, and spirituality (and the distinctions among the three) into the plot. There’s some really cool stuff in here, and it delights me to see how other societies conceptualize God/gods. Despite some well-placed, and well-deserved, digs at some of the worst of human religions, there’s a lot of empathy for people of  faith. The best way I can describe it is as a kind of intellectual appreciation. It makes the characters and situations well-rounded.

Another thing I love is that the men aren’t the only ones in on the action, and the women (and people of other genders, hooray!) don’t require being rescued. A good deal of the time, they are the heroic ones. Not only that, but there’s no division of “men use their muscles, women use their brains” when it comes to saving the day. Women interact with other women besides their partners, and friendships cross gender lines. Even the “drama” over ex-partners is low level and not integral to the plot.

Which brings me to the “love story” portion. It’s barely there. Sure, there’s a misunderstanding and the discovery of something which might tear Jameson and Xander apart. But it’s not the main focus of the story by any means. Besides the fact that this particular thing (which I won’t spoil) is one of my favorite tropes, I felt it was handled well. It didn’t turn into endless and annoying theatrics between the two of them. I don’t know if it’s all resolved, but even if it never comes up again, I felt it was addressed satisfactorily.

All in all, this was a fantastic read. I’m definitely going to pick up the first book before the third one is out so I can have everything sorted about the plot. I can’t wait to see where this goes next time.

For gender equality, excellent world-building, pacing, and plot, and a fantastic sequel that can be read on its own, this gets 10/10 fountain pens.

Excerpt

Jameson savored the kiss, his arms around Xander, the way they fit together just right. They were finally together, and Titania and Oberon were one again.

Erro, Quince had called this new world. Like the skythane god of the sun, the one Errian and the Erriani were named for.

For the moment, everything was right in his life, and he never wanted it to end.

A cold drop of water on his cheek brought him out of his reverie. He glanced up. Storm clouds were piled high, swiftly overtaking them. Rain began to pour out of the sky like a waterfall, and thunder echoed in the clouds as the valley went dark, sunlight smothered by the onrushing clouds. Nearby trees thrashed about in the wind, their purple leaves fluttering in distress.

“What the hell?” Xander said as the winds picked up and ruffled the feathers of his wings. He stared up at the black tempest.

“The Split!” Jameson shouted over the howling of the wind. He mimed the two halves of the world, each with their own atmosphere, suddenly being forced together in the middle. “When the Oberon half shifted, all the atmosphere it brought with it along the Split was forced up here!”

A bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree, crisping it to ashes and standing Jameson’s hair on end.

“Run!” Xander shouted.

Jameson’s vision swam, and a memory slipped into his conscious mind from that other part of him—a high-ceilinged cavern that was more like a faery palace than a cave—where he’d stolen away with a lover. More than once.

His stomach heaved at the displacement, and he clenched his hands. That wasn’t me. They were someone else’s memories.

“Follow me!” he shouted at his four companions—Xander, Quince, Kadin, and Venin—and ran toward the cliffs that were rapidly fading to invisibility behind the rain. He pushed down the memory-nausea, tasting bile in the back of his mouth.

Alia was missing. He’d last seen her as they had fled the Mountain, when it had begun to collapse. Jameson looked around wildly, but she was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Alia?” he shouted at Kadin as they ran. Thunder shook the valley.

Kadin shook his head, mouthing, “I don’t know.”

Rain swirled all around them, coming down so fast that it pooled on the ground and ran in rivulets downhill toward the lake that was now half filled with the broken remains of the Mountain.

The mud made the footing treacherous. Jameson clambered up the hill, using roots and rocks that offered a firmer surface than the naked ground. The wind tugged at his wings, threatening to flip him over. He pulled them in tightly and glanced back to be sure the others were following him through the tempest.

Jameson reached the cover of the forest, plunging under the protection of the canopy. The trees here were tall and thin with white bark trunks and broad purple leaves that were being shredded by the storm.

About the Author

Scott was indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine. He devoured her library, but as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were. He decided that if there weren’t gay characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends. A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark, sites that celebrate fiction reflecting queer reality.

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