Best Gay Fantasy (1° place): Miles and the Magic Flute by Heidi Cullinan

[reviews_and_ramblings]

What I usually don’t like of the Fantasy genre is the heavy setting; sincerely I’m more for a “light” reading experience. So it’s always with a little of caution that I approach such novels, even if, like in this case, what I heard of them is only positive things. It was then with surprise, good surprise, that up from the first pages, the story flowed easily, light and also a bit sexy.

Miles is not exactly a total positive character, he is whiny, depressed and also a bit arrogant; due to the economic downfall, he lost his white collar job in the big city and he is not back home, living in a trailer and continuously saying how much better his life was before, that he doesn’t deserve such fate, and maybe even thinking that he is better than the people around him. He is only lucky that he has really good friends near him, and not like those in the city, who promptly forgot him as soon as he is no more “one of them”.

I don’t know if the fate wanted to award or punish him, but Miles finds himself involved in an adventure with fairies, beasts and dark lords. In and out of a sleep that sometime is dream something is nightmare, Miles falls in love with Harry, that I think is a similitude with Miles’s actual situation: Harry, the beast, is Miles’s today life, simple, good and sincere, even if maybe not so nice and shiny, while Terris, the fairy, is what Miles left behind. And indeed, when he is first faced with the choice between Harry and Terris, Miles chooses Terris, since he is more beautiful, more alluring, even if Harry was offering love, and Terris instead was offering lust.

Miles’s adventure will be totally involving, a bit naughty, and plenty moving, but to me has never reached the point I feared for him; I have always felt like the happily ever after was possible, and that in a way of the other, Miles would be able to understand what is really important in life. Maybe since, after all, all this fantastical adventure happened in the back door yard.



http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1875

Amazon: Miles and the Magic Flute
Amazon Kindle: Miles and the Magic Flute
Paperback: 214 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (June 7, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1615814353
ISBN-13: 978-1615814350

Reading List:



http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Anne Cain

Comments

[lusiology.livejournal.com]

Harry, the beast, is Miles’s today life, simple, good and sincere, even if maybe not so nice and shiny, while Terris, the fairy, is what Miles left behind.

Interesting ideas. I read it that Harry, good and sincere, was the kind of bloke Miles often overlooked in favour of the shiny but shallow Terris type.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Yes, also that can be a valid point of view ;-)

[valkovalin.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this one! Miles was a complicated character that I could relate to, and he undergoes a lot of hard-won character growth. The urban fantasy setting (a pawnshop in Minnesota!) is very unique. I need to get organized and review this on my own blog!

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

I liked that it was an "unusual ordinary" fantasy, sometime I'm not really for all those heavy setting fantasy.

[lucifuge-5.livejournal.com]

I'll be the first one to say that I'm not a fan of fantasy in general and much, much less in M/M books. In truth, it kinda takes an original or interesting story for me to even consider picking up the book. Still, I've heard nothing but praise for this book (even in sites that cater to more "general/mainstream" romances.

So, with that in mind, I've gone ahead and bought this book. Less than the fantasy aspect of it, I'm more intrigued about Miles. Because if there's one thing that everyone mentions is how Miles changes and grows up. Having that kind of character development in addition to the M/M romance is like a shiny lure for me.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Luce, I think you will like it. This is not an ordiary fantasy, and indeed Miles has a clear evolution, from selfish (and depressed) man to hero