Diane Duane ~ The Door Into Fire (Tale Of Five: Book 1)
From: 1979 Dell
Wow! Diane Duane (Another of the original “straight” women writing Gay Romantic Fantasy.) is finally after being in and out of print way way too long putting these books up for sale in eBook format over on her website and at Smashwords.
Quick go grab the first one! Then write her a nice note asking for the rest of the series.
Back in ancient times… Um 1981 I think, I had finished reading most of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover series and was looking around for more Gay Friendly Fantasy/Sci-fi books to enjoy. Well, there was not much out there I’m afraid, as I said ancient times folks, but then I ran into Diane Duane and her The Door Into Fire and the next one The Door Into Shadow that came out oh around 1984 or so and I think I have the last one published The Door Into Sunset. I have all the originals of this series on my shelf with the cover art you see above. Anyway, this is not like Bradley’s much more strict fantasy “men with swords and space guns” approach at all in fact it’s more ummm, Fairy Tale to me if anything. It’s all very Goddess based with lot’s of religious moments and lots of the traditional old fantasy elements running around giving portents and strange horses making prophecies and lot’s of really mysterious reasons to go on a quest that you just know is gonna happen.
If you have ever read David Eddings you know what I mean when I say I felt that a lot of the elements of the overall story came off as Fantasy cliches in a Fairy Tale soup. But… What I did enjoy was the openness of people’s sexuality found in the story even though there is not really any type of heavy erotic scenes to be found at all they still seem to spend a great deal of time getting to know each other if you know what I mean. The relationship Herewiss has with Lorn I would call fairly mushy and I am sure it would appeal to the current crop of teenage girls in a New York minute. If you liked The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander with a little gay sex and Goddesses running about thrown in for good measure you just might like this.
For being one of the firsts out there writing this type of story Diane Duane… Grade A
Tags: Diane Duane, Gay Fantasy, Grade A, SmashwordsTags: Diane Duane, Gay Fantasy, Grade A, Smashwords
Emilie wrote,
I haven’t read that series, but her “Young Wizards” series, the one starting with “So You Want to be a Wizard,” has a gay couple in it. It’s aimed for a young (pre-teen?) audience, so it’s all quite clean, but it’s clear Nita and Kit’s mentors on the Good Guy side are a couple. So the awareness is there even for the youger crowd of readers that, “Hey, these guys might be improving your neighborhood. Or saving the world.”
Link | December 6th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
h wrote,
Thank you for the heads up! At one point I owned two of this trilogy (and ha
Link | December 6th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
h wrote,
… and then the phone rang and the message posted itself. Apologies.
*off to buy*
Link | December 7th, 2009 at 12:17 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Emilie, this was the first series I saw from Diane. I have read her Star Trek related books but not her YA stuff so hope you enjoy this.
Link | December 7th, 2009 at 5:54 am
veinglory wrote,
I love Duane’s books. Gay relationships are just a recurring theme requiring not special treatment, because this is before the mixed blessing of M/M being a “genre” occurred.
Link | December 7th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Diane Duane: The Door Into Shadow | The Naughty Bits wrote,
[...] second book in Tales Of The Five series is out on [...]
Link | April 14th, 2010 at 4:09 am