Crown Duel

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

Originally published as Crown Duel and Court Duel.

Great writing, great characters, great story. (Even realistic cover art!)

Unfortunately it was written as a romance.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with romance per se, nor is there anything wrong with romantic elements within a story, but I am not particularly fond of books written as romances when I want to read a fantasy. It’s one of the reasons I stopped reading Anne McCaffery, because her books got too mushy, and that’s just not what I typically want to read.

I think I personally take affront at ‘fantasy romances’ because I am particularly fond of female authors and female lead characters, and so it always feels like a bit of a cop-out to me, if an author takes a strong female lead, in a well-written story, and then dumps in a bunch of transparent romantic plot devices.

Which is why I was particularly disappointed with this book. The characters, as I said, were very well written and likeable. The plot was very good, and I particularly liked the fact that the author was willing to admit the weaknesses of the characters, specifically, someone who has only practiced minimally, unless they have an extraordinary talent (combined with constant practice), is never going to be able to take on swordsmen who have spent their whole lives practicing. This is a convention that is somewhat frustrating in many fantasy books, but I’m typically willing to suspend disbelief, so it was refreshing to read a fantasy book where this reality was admitted.

But was I said, there was such an unfortunate amount of romance that the book completely frustrated me, especially since the romance bits were interwoven such that I couldn’t simply skip the mushy bits to get on with the intrigue and story.

It was one of those things where you meet the female lead, like her, then you meet a major male character, who is written in such a manner that you know, you just KNOW, that the two are going to become an item. Unfortunately all sorts of obstacles are placed in their way, each is blind to circumstances, blah, blah, blah, so that they DON’T GET TOGETHER TILL THE LAST STINKING MOMENT.

Ugh.

Anyway, it’s a good story, and if you don’t mind romance, I’d recommend this book. But if you’re not fond of mushy romances, you might want to avoid this book.

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