In the world where everybody (at least everybody in his royal family, because we are not told as to everybody in his world) has magical skills, Llycel is kind of an outcast. He does not seem to have any magic and I guess this is why his family is so very overprotective of him. He is a talented artist but of course he also wants to feel that he can stand up and fight for himself as all warriors in his family. I think I fell in love with Llycel from the very first pages of this novella. I loved his voice, I really appreciated that he did not feel like a damzel in distress to me and how what he felt to be his weaknesses, turned out to be his strength. I often feel that short stories or shortish novellas in mm genre seem to take too much material and do not develop plot and/or characters in sufficient depth. Somehow this one felt perfect to me for its length. Llycel had been thinking and fantacizing about his love interest for quite a while before story begins and the beginning of their relationship does not feel too sudden and rush. I really loved how in this world relationships between different sexes are treated as a matter of fact and did not feel rigid, static. And the writing was beatiful and the illustrations are awesome. Loved it. This is one of those stories I really wanted to love, but just couldn't quite get into. Don't get me wrong, The Fifth Son is not a bad read by any means, it just lacked that something special to really find its way into my heart.I think part of what distanced me from the story is the fact that we're kind of bashed over the head with the fact that Llyskel is an outcast. He doesn't fit in with his royal brothers. He doesn't have a role to play in court. He's an arist in a warrior's world. He lacks the magic that is so common-place to those around him. With all that emotional baggage put before you, the fact that he's gay is almost an anti-climactic.Having said that, I absolutely loved the character Llyskel. He's a complex, well-developed character, with a colourful style of narration that sounds very much like one of his paintings (if you know what I mean). Young, innocent, and adorably romantic, he's also a young man with some very secret fantasies. My problem with the story is that while Captain Ariv is a likeable enough character, he just doesn't match my idea of the man who can fulfill those secret fantasies. There's something lacking in his personality to make him worthy of the royal lad I loved so much.It is a wonderfully well-written story, and for readers who don't share my reservations about Captain Ariv, it's certainly a great read. For me, though, it remains a good one, and a lovely one, but a few ounces of testosterone on Ariv's part shy of a great one.
What do You think about The Fifth Son (2014)?
Another enjoyable Fantasty from Blaine D. Arden.
—Ria
Sweet, fun and light read. Some light bondage.
—PoopSchmuck
