At the Feet of the Sun

Good heavens, what a book. I found this very moving, almost too much so, and greatly enjoyed reading it. It's also just way, way, way too long. Easily could have been broken into three books. Or edited to half and kept the story, but maybe not the reinforcement of the emotional beats. I'm not complaining, I enjoyed reading every page and want to read more. But the length dilutes the book a bit.

Most of the reviews of the first book I read concentrated on Cliopher's love for his Emperor, his caring for the man as well as the job. It's interesting to see that kind of non-sexual relationship develop in a second book, the author went fully at it. But I'm not sure it worked for me entirely. It's just too hard for me to connect to an asexual relationship. The whole book is written around a great and romantic love between two men. And yet.. there's no sex! Like, just kiss already! It's explicitly an asexual relationship but like a marriage or deep friendship in every way and I found that.. frustrating. I'm being churlish here. Ace representation is good and I appreciate in particular how the author tackled head-on Cliopher's mostly lack of interest in sex, including the awkward negotiation over a chapter or two with Fitzroy

Also the author deftly avoids any complaint of hiding queer content by including a robustly homosexual relationship. I loved the scenes of Aurelius and Elonoa'a, in particular introducing them as a couple having sex on a beach. Just full-bore embrace of raunchy gay male sex and hilariously echoed by Fitzroy's poem about them at the end. It provided some gay representation, and some comedy, and most importantly an interesting counterpoint to Kip and Fitzroy's relationship. They're supposed to be a future mirror but not quite, right?

There's also a puzzling scene with sex and Cliopher when he has sex with the woman who paints his portraits. It's presented perfectly nicely, a fun but not too serious romp between people who respect and like each other. But then that's a little hard to square with Kip's uninterest in anything sexual with Fitzroy. He does say that to the extent he has sex it's with women, so fair enough...

I'm left wondering about the Emperor and how it's going to work, him being asexual with Kip. Because he's clearly randy AF. Maybe book 3 will include the polycule of the Red Family and all the hijinx that ensue.

I will note the book follows the first in being almost entirely a story about men. There's some minor women characters, and some diverse gender representation. And she writes men very well; as a gay man I'm delighted to read books about men! I wonder if some of her Red Company books center the women in the book and how that works.

Phew, that's a lot of review about sexual relationships. But at its heart this book is the story of a great romance, it seems what it is. I did miss all the bureaucratic fantasy of the first book, Cliopher's success at reshaping an empire through his unstoppable competence. That wouldn't have worked as a second book, fair enough, but it was a fun theme. There's also less about Kip's status as an outsider, between the Islander and Court society. But that's because he's found his place and it's fun seeing him fully claim his rightful role as a person of respect.

PS: for anyone else interested in reading her larger universe, this reading order is helpful.