Strange Fortune edition by Josh Lanyon Literature Fiction eBooks
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Dashing soldier of fortune Major Valentine Strange, late of the Emperor of Alba’s 21st Regiment of Benhali Lancers, is hired by Brahman Ehimay Warrick to find a legendary diadem reputedly hidden in a lost monastery somewhere deep in the distant, snowy mountains of Hidush.
To ensure Strange’s success in this quest vital to the future of the politically unstable Hidush, the powerful Holy Orders designate Master Aleister Grimshaw, a powerful young witch with his own history of instability—political and other—to accompany the dashing major.
But long before Strange and the unwilling Grimshaw reach the tea bushes of the foothills and the lost city of Nagara, they realize there are forces both natural and unnatural at work to stop them from ever achieving their objective.
Their only chance for success relies on each other and their tentative friendship—as does their only hope for survival.
Strange Fortune edition by Josh Lanyon Literature Fiction eBooks
Quite a bit different from the other Lanyon works I've read, but definitely an enjoyable read. I thought the magical plot was quite interesting, I really enjoyed the characters, and I found myself quite drawn into this other world. I thought the relationship between Aleister and Valentine was wonderfully built and paced, and I very much enjoyed the ending.I will say that I thought the world building could have used some work. It was a little too confusing, and it took me much longer than I would have liked to really understand the players and the background of the different peoples and myths. All of the politics and religions etc. played a large role in the plot, and it felt like, at times, Lanyon assumed the reader had a much greater understanding of this world than I actually did.
Also, a small, silly thing, but all the sex scenes were implied/fade to black, which was disappointing. Perhaps it wouldn't have been if I hadn't many of Lanyon's other works and hadn't come in with an expectation of something more explicit, but I did feel a little cheated.
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Strange Fortune edition by Josh Lanyon Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Strange Fortune is probably the biggest departure for Lanyon, a fantasy adventure novel about two very different men, one witch, one soldier, who are forced to journey together to retrieve a religious artifact, and along the way, discover a far more sinister plot with potential world-ending consequences.
The story is set in an AU world, but Lanyon's fantasy setting is heavily inspired by turn-of-the-century India under Britain's colonial rule. In this story, ruling Alba is trying to maintain its control over the colonized Hidush, and any talk of mutiny or displeasure of the ruling government is treason.
The MCs--Major Valentine Strange, seasoned soldier and heavy gambler, and Aleister Grimshaw, a powerful witch haunted by fits of madness, are both sympathetic and interesting. Their relationship at first is based on mistrust and irritation with each other, but that slowly burns away as they realize that to get home, they'll have to rely on each other, and in doing so, they unearth something far deeper between them than either had expected.
Lanyon told the story from both MCs' perspectives, which is a nice change since he often writes from one sole perspective, and it gives the reader a glimpse inside each character's thinking (while still allowing the reader an idea of when an MC's narration is somewhat unreliable. Like when Valentine's attraction and feelings for Aleister grow, but he keeps thinking inwardly that any romantic thoughts must be because Aleister bewitched him. Yeah, that must be it...bewitchment.)
I was also kind of enjoying the book because it's so different from Lanyon's other works. It's his most fantastical, way more than The Darkling Thrush or his story in Irregulars. It's the longest of his works, at over 300 pages (which at times it felt very leisurely-paced, but it was still enjoyable to read.) It has quite a few action scenes, sword and gun fights, magic spells, etc. The romance is a very slow burn. (Not as slow as Fatal Shadows, but it's up there on the list.) The few scenes of intimacy are either non-explicit or off-page.
Lanyon's usual focus on murder mysteries comes to play here mostly in the way that he unravels the pieces to the larger puzzle that plays out over the novel, slowly drawing out the reasons behind Strange and Grimshaw's quest for the diadem.
Like Lanyon's other books, the writing is very clean and well put-together. There were a few tics that he usually steadfastly avoids (like using nouns instead of pronouns, "the younger man", "the witch") but overall his writing is smooth enough that it didn't jar me out.
Because it lacked so many of the usual Lanyon-isms, outside of the MC pairing of strong fighting MC and learned bookish MC, it would have been easy for me to not know that this was a Lanyon work, and just think it was by someone else who, like Lanyon, was a good writer.
My main quibbles are that it did feel a little slow during the first half, but overall I enjoyed the chance to read a longer novel by him. I also almost wish that he went all out and created a completely new fantasy setting rather than have a setting that is so recognizable. I kept mentally comparing the faux colonized India with details from real colonized India. (This might be a more personal reader issue though, since I didn't really dig the faux Russia and Japan references in the fantasy-steampunk novel Havemercy either. I find it can be distracting, but that's just me.) This distraction by the setting did lessen though as I got further into the novel, either because I was so used to it, or the story was rich enough that I stopped caring (and stopped mentally comparing.)
I was a little worried at first since the story focused on two "white" MCs in a colonized faux-India, and I wondered if I was going to read something fantasy-orientalist and it kind of started that way for me, but Lanyon moved it into an interesting direction, and I appreciated the story's trajectory and how the MCs were both participants in shifting Hidush's future as well as bystanders.
Strange Fortune is a very solid fantasy read, and I definitely recommend it if you like m/m fantasy. (And it's also a safe book to read on a crowded plane or bus since it's not explicit.) If you love Lanyon, but don't like fantastical elements, I say maybe give it a shot since it does have Lanyon's smooth writing, so it may still work for you.
Long story short--good fantasy story, very different from Lanyon's usual work, but still enjoyable.
Like all Josh Lanyon books this is a beautifully written novel with deep and realistic characters, succulent world-building and nuanced plot. But despite the high quality, I would say this is the weakest of any of Lanyon's works and I have never before come across one book or novella from this author that I couldn't call 5-star. It feels.... Younger. Not as complete or polished. (I could be completely wrong, but this feels suspiciously like an early Lanyon book.) In the m/m mystery fantasy/horror genre (sub-genre? Sub-sub-genre? um...) this book falls noticeably short when compared to the reigning champion "Whyborne and Griffin" series. Why? This book is not deep enough. For a story that relies not on a plot that is dynamically-driven but character interaction and the socio-political saturation of the setting, there just doesn't feel like there is enough material. Not in the critical skeleton and articulations, but in the added flesh that fills out a story like this. There isn't enough detail shown to the reader in the interactions surrounding the plot to bolster the story's depth, or in lieu of a detailed web of interactive characters and forces, detailed character history to give multi-layered grounding and understanding to the social and political elements that weave throughout the novel. The reader knows what is happening and why, and we have the important outlines and facts, but the juicy detail necessary to add meat and deepen a story of this type and make it 5-star are missing.
Lanyon does have a unique way of using the impersonal narrative voice, omniscient in nature and yet only giving the reader carefully crafted snapshots of the characters and plot that build up to a whole without giving everything away up front, and always before this has been used to brilliant effect, but this time...the field of view was too narrow and the reader ends up missing detail and even scenes that really need to be there to give the whole picture.
The following is SPOILERS so BEWARE.
----
Where was I rambling? Oh, yes. Let me explain what I was talking about. In this book, often, the reader is too removed from scenes or action that they really need to be in the thick of, like taking a photograph from a far off vantage point when you need a close-up. For example, At the climax, we're watching the only dialogue between Dakshi and our resident Evil Overlord from Strange's perspective - this ancient relationship that has been built up over the entire novel, and it happens in a language we can't understand with no subtitles. And if the relationship and dynamic had been filled in more previously, or there was more non-verbal and emotive nuance to the scene, or we got some sort of substitute experience from Grimshaw, that would have been fine, but instead it's all too little, too removed, and ends up feeling pointless and anticlimactic. Or take for instance, Grimshaw and Strange's relationship - sexual tension and prominent physicality has underlined their entire relationship from day one, and yet sex and physical intimacy gets the barest mention when they finally get together, and there didn't have to be a sex scene or the like but instead there needed to be an emotional and/or psychological interpretation from at least one of the characters. In the end a large part of their relationship, the physicality and physical intimacy which is so important particularly to these two characters considering their circumstances and the sparse sexual options that have previously been open to them when it comes to men, is basically missing. The reader doesn't get to know what happens or the impact, or even the resolution of their physical and emotional issues - ALL of that happens in a narrative blindspot.
------ SPOILERS OVER.
This sort of narrative loss of detail or scenes litters this book. Not in critical ways that stop it from being high-grade reding material, but for this book with this kind if immersive fantasy that relies so heavily on the characters and not the plot, it stops this from being more than just a good book. Whether this could have been a 5-star book with just added detail or if it would need something more, I don't know, but as it is this book is 4-star.
Quite a bit different from the other Lanyon works I've read, but definitely an enjoyable read. I thought the magical plot was quite interesting, I really enjoyed the characters, and I found myself quite drawn into this other world. I thought the relationship between Aleister and Valentine was wonderfully built and paced, and I very much enjoyed the ending.
I will say that I thought the world building could have used some work. It was a little too confusing, and it took me much longer than I would have liked to really understand the players and the background of the different peoples and myths. All of the politics and religions etc. played a large role in the plot, and it felt like, at times, Lanyon assumed the reader had a much greater understanding of this world than I actually did.
Also, a small, silly thing, but all the sex scenes were implied/fade to black, which was disappointing. Perhaps it wouldn't have been if I hadn't many of Lanyon's other works and hadn't come in with an expectation of something more explicit, but I did feel a little cheated.
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