skygiants

My last foray into Andre Norton's non-speculative fiction was a SPECTACULAR success, but I am sad to report that the follow-up, Velvet Shadows, was an equally spectacular failure.

I was saving this one for last of the free Andre Norton Gothics I acquired last year because, well, here is the summary:

Tamaris Penfold was hired as a companion to Alain Sauvage's frail but lovely half-sister, Victorine. She would be a "friend" who would try to protect her from another scandalous involvement--like the one back in France.

Of course I was hoping it would be gay! Obviously I was hoping for this! Alas, not only was it not at all gay, it was also extremely racist.

The 'scandalous involvement' is that Victorine, who grew up in the West Indies a la Mrs. Rochester, was engaged to a man of color before her brother came and swept her away. Andre Norton wants everyone to understand that the panic about this is not because racism, it's because he was EVIL and also VOODOO. Why, Mr. Dreamy Love Interest Alain Sauvage can't be racist, he himself had a Native American grandmother! We're definitely not going to be at all weird about that in this book either!

The narrative's stance on ethics becomes especially hilarious when Victorine does finally run away with her secret boyfriend -- super consensually! it's very clear! -- and Tamaris gets some ZOMBIE POWDER to RENDER HER INCAPABLE OF PROTEST when she KIDNAPS HER BACK. What a plucky heroine!

( Spoilers )

That said, the book did have the bonus of featuring Mary Ellen Pleasant as a Historical Side Character. It is also very ambivalent about her -- 'she helped the Underground Railroad, that's cool, I guess, but also she was mean to some white people and HAS AN AGENDA, MAYBE SINISTER!!!' -- but I am not at all ambivalent and would like to know everything about her, immediately. Expect more on that in accordance with the will of the library!

I HAVE A NEW FAVORITE RURITANIAN CHILDREN'S BOOK.

The Prince Commands: Being Sundry Adventures of Michael Karl, Sometime Crown Prince & Pretender to the Thrown of Morvania begins when Our Hero, Michael Karl, a youth raised in stifling isolation by a Sinister Guardian, finds out on his eighteenth birthday that he is the secret heir to the throne of Molvania!

NOPE, says Michael Karl, NOTHING DOING, I'M AN AMERICAN CITIZEN AND I HAVE MY RIGHTS AND MY RIGHTS INCLUDE NOT BEING KIDNAPPED TO RULE OVER A RANDOM EUROPEAN COUNTRY, but despite his protests he is immediately bundled off to Molvania. (This is the last we will ever see of the Sinister Guardian.)

While en route to Molvania, Michael Karl learns about the existence of a sinister nobility-hating bandit called THE WEREWOLF. Both he and I simultaneously start rooting for the Werewolf to be the real hero of this novel.

MICHAEL KARL, AS THE TRAIN STOPS AT A PERILOUS MOUNTAIN STATION: Here's the Werewolf's chance to bag one perfectly good Crown Prince.

(Italics, for the record, are all direct quotes.)

...and indeed the Werewolf nabs him, and tears his shirt open to show his royal jewelry (a sparkling diamond cross embedded with a sliver of St. Sebastian's arrows, in case you were wondering whether this book was going to really commit to homosexual undertones), and they exchange some flirty banter while Michael Karl stresses about impressing!

"Enter the villain," announced Michael Karl clearly, still impressed by the melodrama of it all.

"Just so," agreed the masked newcomer, "only I am afraid that we might differ upon the identity of the villain. Now you, of course, have cast me for the role, while I have definitely selected you for the part."

"Of course that is to be expected," answered Michael Karl politely. He wondered desperately just how long they would keep this sort of thing up.

However, Michael Karl decides that he has a duty to get the secret royal jewelry back to the treasury before he peaces back out to America, and so he MAKES HIS ESCAPE and promptly runs straight into ... an extremely dashing American with laughing eyes and a gay smile.

The dashing American ALSO promptly rips Michael Karl's shirt open to see his jewelry, because when you wear a sliver of St. Sebastian's arrows against your chest that's just the kind of thing that happens to you twice a day.

DASHING AMERICAN: I am Frank Ericson, a wealthy eccentric here to write a book about your beautiful country! Why are you wearing royal jewelry?
MICHAEL KARL: I'm ... the prince .... 's ........... totally unimportant friend ..... John????

( What follows are extensive spoilers for what is definitely the most homoromantic Ruritanian novel I've ever read that's not explicitly a gay romance novel and may in fact actually be MORE homoromantic than some gay Ruritanian romance novels )

Are you guys tired of Gothics yet? Because I have TWO MORE! And then I am caught up (on Gothics) (not on books in general) (despite my best efforts, that is unlikely to ever happen.)

Anyway these are a new-to-me beast, Andre Norton gothics! I had no idea that she had written anything of the sort until Open Road Media put out all those free ebooks a month or so back, at which point I of course grabbed as many as I could find; I have saved some for later, but while in the Galapagos I read Iron Butterflies and Snow Shadow.

( Iron Butterflies )

( Snow Shadow )