A Taste of Honey

Amazing. It made me cry, which is very rare for me. And my dog just looked at my ugly crying which was because of the two-page scene with elderly Aqib's devoted dog and went back to sleep.

I know I saw the word “heartbreaking” in some reviews, so I was expecting a depressing read, but it wasn't. Aqib's love for Lucrio is such a perfect picture of first love, so all-consuming and illogical, and he loves his daughter just as fiercely. None of that is sad, as part of the story, although the implications of both are pretty sad.

The ending, well. It is also ambiguous, as in Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, but I find it easier to accept the happier interpretation this time. I understood the whole book as something like Picard and the flute, or actually, the ending of Inception, in that you never really know what the truth is. I guess it's meant to be a meta-textual moment when Aqib decides that both Aqibs are dreams and real at once. As a romance reader I would have preferred a little bit more detail about the life Aqib and Lucrio lived together, but there was enough, and anyway, it really isn't that kind of book.

While Sorcerer of the Wildeeps has no female characters outside of people's memories, this book has several interesting women, and definitely passes the Bechdel test. It makes some comments on gender in general, too; Aqib's society is very patriarchal in many ways, and he has a hard time because he doesn't fit his culture's ideal of masculinity at all. But also, literacy, math, and science are all considered “women's work;” it seems Aqib thinks of these things as lesser pursuits than soldiering, although the women don't. His daughter is also non-gender-conforming. We only see her through Aqib's eyes, but I think there is an entire potential novel about her.

This story stands alone (you don't need to read the first book). I know there are some short stories set in this world and I look forward to reading those. I also hope there will be more novels or novellas with this setting. Highly recommended.