A review by chirson
An Earthly Crown by Kate Elliott

3.0

Massively confused and mixed feelings. Some bits are amazingly awesome (that last scene?!) Some bits I really didn't enjoy but they could lead to amazing consequences and plots (Nadine...) And some of it... was unpleasant, and depressing, and I guess I've had too much homophobic societies between real life, Bujold, Wilson and this.

The strange thing is, after 500 pages, I'm still not quite sure where the plot is supposed to go. It's all very meandering, and yet awfully gripping (for me anyway).

Spoiler

But how I suffered through that threesome scene (embarrassment squick + just regular squick). What was it supposed to be, sexual therapy by means of coercing someone to confront their bisexuality by violating their consent? I mean, I'm the last person to complain about nice triad content but... it was, I think, slightly more disturbing than intended. I'm scared to think what terrible repercussions that will bring because I just want everyone to be happy and healthy and ride nice horses.

Elliott has quite a thing about how beauty / ugliness can screw with someone's head and with how others perceive you. I guess I would have liked it more if Vasil wasn't this side of a stereotype.

Poor Ilya. Now I feel bad for a guy who's conquering and razing cities.