Genre: Fantasy
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses
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About The Book
In a world where dragons and magic collide, one reluctant hero will discover his true destiny.
Tyler Wilson’s ordinary life is shattered when he’s suddenly transported to the realm of Bramoria – a land of epic battles, powerful wizards, and fearsome dragons.
As war looms on the horizon, Tyler finds himself caught in the crossfire with abilities he never knew he possessed.
Torn between two worlds and grappling with his own identity, Tyler must navigate treacherous alliances, master ancient magics, and confront the dragons that threaten to destroy everything.
With pulse-pounding action, heartfelt romance, and a richly imagined fantasy world, this thrilling portal adventure will keep you spellbound until the very last page.
The Review
I have the whole trilogy, which I know I will enjoy as I commit to reading it straight through. This is an intriguing and nicely-written takeoff on other quest stories, with a clearly Young Adult perspective (the protagonists have all just completed high school). The difference here is that the story is triggered by a mysterious book, which is a portal to a different realm.
Our three protagonists are Tyler, Clay, and Danny; three fast friends of long standing. Both Clay and Danny have their issues—which I will not detail so as not to spoil the emotional impact of the story. Tyler Wilson is the centerpiece of the story and the narrator. He inadvertently starts the chain of events that leads the trio into their adventure in Bramoria.
Tyler is a whip-smart young man, a helpful and obedient son to his single mom, abandoned by her husband when Tyler was little. She has done everything possible to make a good life for Tyler; but has also pushed him to excel in school so that he can attend an elite university. He has achieved his mother’s dream: a full scholarship to a prestigious school.
But, see what I said there: his mother’s dream. Tyler isn’t so keen about leaving home OR going to college. He wants to design video games and, for once, live entirely for his own well-being, to pursue his own happiness.
And herein lies the twist that makes this story so interesting. Tyler is kind of a whiny bitch. We begin to understand him as a dutiful young man who looks out for others and does what he can to be a good friend and a good son. He’s a regular boy scout (although the Scouts are never mentioned). Problem is, he resents being stuck in this position. He wants to be selfish; he wallows in self-pity, even when he’s worried about Clay and Danny. We watch him make his way through the magical world of Bramoria, treating it like a video game instead of his new reality. We keep expecting him to have an “aha” moment as he faces the dangers of the fantasy realm he has been dropped into.
At the cliffhanger finale of book 1, we understand that Tyler has, in fact, missed the point entirely. He wants to save his friends and take them home. This, however, is not enough.
As with his Crystalline Dragon series (written as Eoghan Cunningham), the gay subtext is miniscule in this first book. If you read carefully, you realize that Tyler is gay; but you have to look very closely. I assume/hope this part of Tyler’s identity will develop over the course of the trilogy. It is one of the things that distinguishes him from Clay and Danny. It should be a crucial aspect of his personality.
We’ll see.
4 stars.
The Reviewer
Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.
Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.
By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.