The Unspoken Name

Well I had a good time reading this book. Page turner, finished in six days. A rolicking fun adventure with a great main character. The first section of the book feels a little derivative of The Tombs of Atuan but I mean that in a good way, and the narrative and characters swiftly go their own way. Sections two and three were good fun and god interesting, especially with a tonal shift with some of the characters dialog to modern instead of mild fantasy. And then the fourth and final section takes an interesting narrative turn entirely and wraps to a nice conclusion. Well paced and fun all the way through.

I picked this in part because it's listed as an LGBT book. And it is in the simplest sense; the main romantic relationships are homosexual. But they're told fairly shallowly, personal feelings are not the strength of this narrative. And they didn't feel queer at all, this is more in the genre of "gay and lesbian relationships are perfectly ordinary and unremarkable". So while that's healthy I wouldn't look to this book for much insight into the LGBT mindset. Fair enough, because it is a good fantasy novel.