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A review by elenajohansen
The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey
1.0
So, so very bad. Even though I know this book is over twenty years old, and the fantasy and fantasy-romance genres have matured since the mid-1990's, this is still really, really bad.
Despite the overly stuffy and "proper" narrative voice, I found the prose oddly compelling and readable--I think I finished almost 100 page in my first sitting--but some of that interest was coming from a "what stupid thing will happen next," rubber-necking sort of curiosity. It's a Beauty and the Beast retelling reframed through the mastery of elemental magic. But this Beast did it to himself directly, rather than his affliction coming from an external source. Okay, I suppose we can work with that, but the redemption of Jason Cameron's less-than-stellar qualities never happens. He's a pretty terrible person, even setting aside the innate racism and sexism endemic to the setting and thus, his character. I mean, he knows his personal secretary is out there abusing women for fun, and has the power to do something about it, and doesn't. Not a good look for a romantic hero.
Rosalind is less of a terrible person morally, but still a pretty boring character. Her spitfire attitude is nothing we haven't seen from a million other "but women were oppressed at the time" stories where the One Special Woman rebels against society somehow. Rosalind does it by being smart and studious and working for her living, albeit under odd circumstances, but she spends so much time reveling in the luxuries Jason surrounds her with that her uprightness folds under a few pretty dresses and sumptuous baths. I could even get behind the "if this is what I'm offered, by golly, I'm going to enjoy it" justification, if only the author didn't spend so. much. time. describing these luxuries; the clothes, the baths, the rooms, the food. It's excessive detail that slows down an already thin plot.
Then the real kicker--it's a romance, except I never once felt like either Jason or Rosalind was falling in love. They spar with each other convincingly at first, but the tension between them is more intellectual than romantic or sexual. After the revelation of Jason's condition, he admits to himself he feels sexual attraction, but, you know, given his situation, wouldn't he be attracted to just about any woman who could stand to be in the same room as him? Beggars can't be choosers, and all. As for Rosalind, there's just nothing convincing going on there. For all that she makes "uncensored Ovid" and Caligula jokes, she never managed to show me she was a sexual character, and of course, the romance ends with a marriage but no physical contact, not even a kiss? Bestiality is apparently not a line we're going to explicitly cross, yet by not having Jason regain his human form, that's the only road open to this romance. So it's weird and unsatisfying and not credible.
And the villains are barely one step up from mustache-twirling idiots, they're so ludicrously thin and dull. Didn't want to not-mention that failing, but don't have much more to say about it, because there's barely anything there to criticize. They exist because Jason needs antagonists, but they're not interesting.
Despite the overly stuffy and "proper" narrative voice, I found the prose oddly compelling and readable--I think I finished almost 100 page in my first sitting--but some of that interest was coming from a "what stupid thing will happen next," rubber-necking sort of curiosity. It's a Beauty and the Beast retelling reframed through the mastery of elemental magic. But this Beast did it to himself directly, rather than his affliction coming from an external source. Okay, I suppose we can work with that, but the redemption of Jason Cameron's less-than-stellar qualities never happens. He's a pretty terrible person, even setting aside the innate racism and sexism endemic to the setting and thus, his character. I mean, he knows his personal secretary is out there abusing women for fun, and has the power to do something about it, and doesn't. Not a good look for a romantic hero.
Rosalind is less of a terrible person morally, but still a pretty boring character. Her spitfire attitude is nothing we haven't seen from a million other "but women were oppressed at the time" stories where the One Special Woman rebels against society somehow. Rosalind does it by being smart and studious and working for her living, albeit under odd circumstances, but she spends so much time reveling in the luxuries Jason surrounds her with that her uprightness folds under a few pretty dresses and sumptuous baths. I could even get behind the "if this is what I'm offered, by golly, I'm going to enjoy it" justification, if only the author didn't spend so. much. time. describing these luxuries; the clothes, the baths, the rooms, the food. It's excessive detail that slows down an already thin plot.
Then the real kicker--it's a romance, except I never once felt like either Jason or Rosalind was falling in love. They spar with each other convincingly at first, but the tension between them is more intellectual than romantic or sexual. After the revelation of Jason's condition, he admits to himself he feels sexual attraction, but, you know, given his situation, wouldn't he be attracted to just about any woman who could stand to be in the same room as him? Beggars can't be choosers, and all. As for Rosalind, there's just nothing convincing going on there. For all that she makes "uncensored Ovid" and Caligula jokes, she never managed to show me she was a sexual character, and of course, the romance ends with a marriage but no physical contact, not even a kiss? Bestiality is apparently not a line we're going to explicitly cross, yet by not having Jason regain his human form, that's the only road open to this romance. So it's weird and unsatisfying and not credible.
And the villains are barely one step up from mustache-twirling idiots, they're so ludicrously thin and dull. Didn't want to not-mention that failing, but don't have much more to say about it, because there's barely anything there to criticize. They exist because Jason needs antagonists, but they're not interesting.