A review by wilt
The Door Into Fire by Diane Duane

slow-paced

4.0

 Any book that can be summed up as "it's about love, actually" is going to be a good read for me. My favorite thing about this book was the presence of an established relationship between Herewiss and Freelorn. It's not something I get to see often in fiction and for a while it had me wondering if their relationship would be relegated to minor flavor text, a small detail that wouldn't play a big part either way. How glad I was to be wrong about that. Not only is their relationship emotional and tender and  withstands the test of time, it's frequently pulled to the very forefront. We linger on their feelings for each other, their love and fears and struggles. They're also both bi and there are obvious polyam elements that I enjoyed. As if that wasn't enough, there's also a cool genderfluid elemental who is also sometimes a horse.

I did find this to be a slow read at times, as meandering and languid as retro fantasy tends to be. There's a ton of worldbuilding and lore given to you at all times but by the end of it I really enjoyed my time here. As someone who enjoys pre-2000s fantasy it was really nice to see a complex m/m relationship in tandem with all the swords and sorcery, and the ending left me feeling really, really good.