Sarah Maas, "A Court of Thorns and Roses"

So I finally did it, broke down and found a copy of the most famous work of modern "Romantasy." This was for two reasons: because an expert on fantasy ought to know something about what is now by far the most popular sub-genre, and because I imagined writing a mocking post about it.

But honestly it was ok. I've read many books that were far worse; in fact, in terms of fantasy novels I have read in the 2020s it might make the top ten. 

Everyone I've mentioned this project to has said something like, "Isn't that smut?" But it really isn't. There's no sex at all until page 300, and when we finally get to it, it is pretty decorous by the standards of contemporary romance. The writing is ok, with some good passages, and there are even some nice bits of fantasy. 

How to describe it?

One of the reviews quoted on the back of my recent copy says, "Sara Maas transcends the genre." But that is exactly wrong. This book wallows in its genre. Absolutely every piece of it is something you have encountered before, either in the ancient archetypes of heroism and romance, or in recent fantasy. Everything unfolds just as you know it should.

Out heroine becomes a bow hunter to feed her starving family. She is so tough and resourceful and perky that she might as well be named Katniss Everdeen. She semi-accidentally kills a faerie, and discovers that because of an ancient treaty between humans and faeries she must either die or go into faerie and replace the person she killed. So she goes into faerie. Her captor is a High Lord (of course) of vast powers and great wealth, with a fabulous mansion and a flower garden even nicer than Mr. Darcy's. When he goes into combat he transforms into a monster I could only imagine as looking exactly like the Beast from the Disney movie. When he gets aroused, he growls, and his claws show. He is amazing in every way, but of course he is under a curse. In fact the whole of Faerie is under a curse, and there is an Evil Queen mucking everything up. For dumb reasons – the weakest part of the plot, imo – the sexy High Lord cannot oppose the Evil Queen, so Katniss, I mean Feyre, has to do it for him, with the help of an ambiguous nobleman from the Night Court who is the best character.

I can't make up my mind about this persistent feminine fantasy. I suppose for most women it is harmless enough, no worse than men imagining themselves as James Bond. But, really, if you think all the time about immortal billionaire Faerie Lords so handsome they hurt your eyes, somehow both dangerous and sweet, violent and kind, serious and fun, perfect in every way except for one flaw or problem that only you the perky earth girl can resolve, can you be happy with actual existing men? I wonder.

Sarah Maas, one piece of advice: you should never make it a key element of your plot that your characters cannot solve a riddle I guessed in about a second. That just makes them look really stupid. As a veteran dungeon master I understand it is hard to create riddles that are hard to solve but still solvable, but you can do better than this.

ADDENDUM

I just flipped through the second volume of this series, A Court of Mist and Fury. The sex starts right at the beginning – Feyre and her Faerie Lord are newlyweds, after all – and is significantly more, um, throbbing. So maybe the series gets smuttier as it goes along.