Review: Memoirs of a Geisha meets Oliver Twist...and well met
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 10, 2013
I am always interested in m/m fiction that goes beyond the parameters of standard expectations. I am especially interested in men who write this - I suspect a growing minority in the genre. John Tristan is a real find for me. (I suppose his name is another pseudonym, something that taints my love for this entire weirdly closeted world, sigh.)"The Adorned" is a magical,captivating book (IF you like this sort of thing - and I do, very much - if they're well-crafted and graced with compelling characters). It has the narrative richness of Dickens (I've read all of it), with the same sort of richly-painted characters and carefully paced emotional foundation. It is, however, the fantasy aspect of this book - the placing of the story in an almost-recognizable world in some vague pre-modern past - that shifts the entire experience of reading the text. Tristan creates a world obliquely - as if you're supposed to know what this is all about, but (of course) don't. For some readers this is annoying, but for others, myself included, it offers the feeling that you have stumbled onto some newly-discovered culture and are exploring it for the first time.What I loved most was the core premise of the novel, the presentation of the concept of "the Adorned:" beautiful young men and women who, over the course of several years, are completely covered with tattoos of such beauty and power that they become living works of art who are hired at great cost by aristocrats to adorn their soirees and celebrations. I kept thinking of "Memoirs of a Geisha" as I read this - the exotic world of pre-WWII Kyoto being no stranger than the fictional city of Peretim in the country of Kered.Etan Dairan and Roberd Tallisk - poor indentured orphan and celebrated maestro tattooist - form the emotional crux upon which the entire story pivots. Through Etan's eyes, we learn about the double-edged aristocracy of Peretim, the Blooded (who seem to be some sort of quasi-immortal, possibly mildly vampiric nobility) and the Sword-nobles - the military men who protect and fight for them in return for noble status. We see the world directly from Etan's perspective, but also reflected in the wide-ranging cast of fascinating characters who become his guideposts as he learns to live within the social customs of his new world.This book, to me, reflects where the entire m/m genre needs to go if it is to survive as anything other than emotional junk food. It is intelligent, well written (with some consistent and irritating grammatical mistakes), and captivating. It transports the reader into a world and makes one feel as if something new has been learned. I look forward to reading more of Tristan's work, and wish him a long and successful career.