A Taste of Honey

I've been in the mood only for novellas for quite a while now, somehow just not finding enough patience to read longer books. So when I mentioned the same to my dear friend Nandini, she recommended me this Hugo nominated novella which I had never heard of before. And because I trust her recs a lot, I decided to give it a try.

This is definitely one of those books which I would never read of my own volition. The writing wasn't always easy for me to follow or understand, with the prose and the metaphors going above my head but I felt the emotion behind the story a lot - and that's the beauty here. In a story of just about 160 pages, the author took me on a journey of beautiful love, the heartbreak of separation and paths not taken, the devastation of not knowing what could have happened (or even knowing it) - I felt joy and I also wept and I just about felt all kinds of emotions while reading. The world is also very fascinating with its gods, the magic being mixed with advanced science, affinities for animals etc and though it was kept mostly vague, it was enough to grasp the crux of the story. The story is also told in multiple timelines, so when the twist is revealed towards the end, I was just completely in shock. That's some amazing twisty writing.

I think I didn't really read the blurb before I started reading because I didn't realize it was going to be such a poignant romantic tale of two star-crossed lovers. Aqib and Lucrio's tryst starts off as instalove on steroids but I didn't mind that even a bit here - there's just so much honesty in their love that I was mesmerized and then was distraught when I realized they wouldn't get to be together. I don't want to say anything else because I'm scared I'll give away too much of the story and it really needs to be experienced. There are also a host of other characters whom I had all kinds of feelings for, and it's really the author's talent that he makes us feel invested in every single character's arc in such short time.

In the end, I can just say that despite being slightly out of my comfort zone, this novella enchanted me with its most memorable love story and I'm so glad I gave it a chance. We all have those moments of “what-ifs” in our life, when we ponder about missed chances and connections and wonder what other life we could have lived - this story brought all such thoughts vividly back to my mind and that's why I know I'll remember this for a long time to come.

Totally got caught out by that twist ending.

Amazing. It made me cry, which is very rare for me. And my dog just looked at my ugly crying which was because of the two-page scene with elderly Aqib's devoted dog and went back to sleep.

I know I saw the word “heartbreaking” in some reviews, so I was expecting a depressing read, but it wasn't. Aqib's love for Lucrio is such a perfect picture of first love, so all-consuming and illogical, and he loves his daughter just as fiercely. None of that is sad, as part of the story, although the implications of both are pretty sad.

The ending, well. It is also ambiguous, as in Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, but I find it easier to accept the happier interpretation this time. I understood the whole book as something like Picard and the flute, or actually, the ending of Inception, in that you never really know what the truth is. I guess it's meant to be a meta-textual moment when Aqib decides that both Aqibs are dreams and real at once. As a romance reader I would have preferred a little bit more detail about the life Aqib and Lucrio lived together, but there was enough, and anyway, it really isn't that kind of book.

While Sorcerer of the Wildeeps has no female characters outside of people's memories, this book has several interesting women, and definitely passes the Bechdel test. It makes some comments on gender in general, too; Aqib's society is very patriarchal in many ways, and he has a hard time because he doesn't fit his culture's ideal of masculinity at all. But also, literacy, math, and science are all considered “women's work;” it seems Aqib thinks of these things as lesser pursuits than soldiering, although the women don't. His daughter is also non-gender-conforming. We only see her through Aqib's eyes, but I think there is an entire potential novel about her.

This story stands alone (you don't need to read the first book). I know there are some short stories set in this world and I look forward to reading those. I also hope there will be more novels or novellas with this setting. Highly recommended.

Atmospheric, romantic and one of very few gay romantic relationships that I have read in fantasy. So far, at least.