A review by korrick
Sword Dance by A.J. Demas

4.0

This is another book I was suckered into via instantaneous eMaterials, but you'll catch me dead before I start logging reads here as such. I say suckered, but a read like this will always do more for my health than I may have intended, and with a brand spanking new cancer diagnosis under my belt, anything and everything I do from now on could be characterized as a 'health' decision in one way or another. In any case, this is one of my queer reads I've dove headlong into this year, and the reason why this did better than the vast majority of them is, at its heart, this is a good story that takes queerness seriously, from the heady infatuations to the social ideologies that consider such anathema. One could call it more 'mature', in a sense, and not just for the 'slow burn' romance pace, for while there may be murder mysteries and sexy dances galore, both main characters reckon with a world that has already hurt each of them deeply, but not without honing their talents or enhancing their survival skills in the process. It's how queer people have and continue to be hurt and have and continue to survive to this day, and to read a story that grappled with a society that certainly wouldn't throw around terms such as 'homophobia,' 'fascism,' or 'military industrial complex' and yet reckons with those real world phenomenon in an Ancient Greek alternate history was harshly affirming. It didn't hurt that Demas has a keen sensitivity when it comes to writing sedate yet deep running sex scenes involving atypical bodies, making for a tale that could certainly take you to the brink of despair but always bring you back through the joy of queer ardor. In the days and months and years to come, I'm going to need a great deal of the balance in the face of the grand scale of national policy and the minutiae of my body's symptoms, and while I haven't committed to the rest of this series yet, I may reach for it, less of a suckering and more of a saving grace.