Title: The Servant
Author: Mary Calmes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Buy Link: Buy Link The Servant
Genre: Fantasy M/M
Length: Novella 184 PDF pages
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Sirius
Summary review: It started as exciting and fast paced tale, however it all went downhill for me once I realized that the protagonist has the same character traits as all protagonists that this writer’s works have.
BLURB:
After saving his younger brother’s child, Daemon Shar is cursed by a witch and runs far from home, a stray who will seemingly never be anything more. But destiny is hard to outrun, even for a man who is now more cat than man beneath his robes and cowl. A chance battlefield meeting between he and Ehron, a foreign lord, gives him purpose amidst the darkness of his accursed life. Soon Daemon finds that his true nature cannot be corrupted no matter the form he inhabits.
As Ehron’s consul, Daemon plots and plans to shape his new lord’s future so that he may leave it blessed when he runs away yet again. But he never counted on his soul hungering for Ehron’s brother Gareth or for his past to catch him by the tail at last.
REVIEW
Empire of Narsyk is in the middle of a civil war. Two brothers are fighting for the emperor’s throne and the third brother is just trying to be a peacemaker and stop the bloodshed. The tale opens with the third brother Valian and his friend and servant Ostyn Tan racing against time to try and save the life of the wife and son of his younger brother Jaron who wants to be an emperor of Narsyk in place of their oldest brother. Valian and Ostyn manage to save the baby but not the mother, who is killed by a witch assassin. Valian is also hit by a mysterious curse, which supposedly should make him look more like a cat than a man, but we are not given any more details.
Valian and Ostyn bring the baby to his father and Valyan decides that he should leave the country now. His face and body are hidden from his brother while they talk. His brother tries to stop him but without any luck; they part and we leave Narsyk.
I really liked the beginning of this story. It was fast paced, exciting and fun and I could not wait to see what happened next. Unfortunately when we are in Rieyn, some sort of feudal-like state, I quickly realized that it is unfortunately what I consider the usual fare by this writer, just dressed up in a much nicer and more appealing wrapper. In Rieyn we are introduced to the ruling family in the barony of Kasany, their oldest son is coming back from war and he brings with him his trusted Consul Daemon Shar who saved his life many times on the battlefield.
And here it begins. Daemon is wearing a black robe, his face is usually hidden, and nevertheless he manages to charm everybody and I mean everybody very fast. Ehron, the oldest son, whose affection for Daemon at least was understandable for me. After all, how can one not love a comrade who saved your life many times? Ehron already loves him after the war, however the youngest daughter Amelina and his younger brother Gareth fall in love with Daemon very fast. He is smart, capable, resourceful, ready to tackle any problem, thinks ahead, brave, have I mentioned brave? Oh and despite the fact that nobody sees his face till a certain moment, everybody is sure that he is beautiful. Of course when his face is finally revealed he is indeed very beautiful. When we finally see the romance between Daemon and one of the members of Kasany’s ruling family, I found it to be quite boring to be honest. Yes, the man is head over heels in love with Daemon, not a surprise, everybody (including one usually stubborn to the point of being a murderous horse) either loves him or respects him, or does both.
Here is the brief summary of how much everybody loves Daemon Shar:
“Not want you, daft man – love! I love you, Hektar Prahna loves you, my brother loves you! Even Mycah Ilen, for all his poxy pride, loves you! We all love you, and if that is what is needed to truly see you, then all the powers of Rieyn will only ever see a man with golden eyes and the most sinful mouth I—“
The more I read this book the more I groaned. I have read every book by this writer, except her A Matter of Time series and if you were to ask me to describe the protagonist in each of them, I will change the names and pretty much give you the very same description. Amazingly beatiful, talented, sociable person, whom everybody around them cannot help but love dearly. This is probably the main reason why the book overall did not work for me. I do not want to sound hypocritical here, since as I said above I have read every book by this writer except A Matter of Time series, so obviously something attracts me to her books, although I have no idea what the attraction is, as over the top beatiful and talented protagonists are something that I usually cannot stand. The best I can come up with is that her writing is addictive, despite the same characterizations over and over again.
I thought for example that the worldbuilding in this book was really really good and Rieyn’s social structure and overall settings truly came alive. I wish I would have cared as much for the characters as I liked the surroundings. I also did not think there was enough conflict between the lovers, and whatever conflict there was, was not enough for me.
I think readers who are new to Mary Calmes’ works may enjoy this story more than I did.
Hi Sirius, I have to agree with you about the familiarity of Calmes’ heros, having said that I do enjoy her books, for me they are the equivalent of a nice cup of tea!
I enjoyed your insightful review, having read the Kindle extract I had given it a miss, and I think you back my initial impression.
However sometimes you just can’t resist that cup of tea and Mary Calmes is addictive, so maybe one for another day.
Thank you for the information, Sirius! It sounds like the problem is what’s known as a Mary Sue/Gary Stu type of character — essentially, a character who is so perfect that it’s irritating. Stephanie Meyer received a lot of criticism for making Bella Swann like this in the Twilight series.
It can be so difficult to get the right balance on a character. You don’t them to be too perfect, but you don’t want them to be so flawed and obnoxious as to be unappealing. 😉
I haven’t yet read fiction by this author, so I can’t comment specificially, but I think you’ve given her and the readers valuable, honest feedback here. Thanks again! 🙂
I’ve enjoy reading some Mary Calmes stories. The problem I had with this book is that the cover reminds me of Puss in Boots and I hate that fairy tale 😉
Thanks for the review, it’s good to know I’m not missing much by not reading it.
Hi Sirius, thanks for the review!I think you’ve pointed out perfectly why this book didn’t work for you. I haven’t read anything by Mary Calmes yet, but I could imagine that many of her fans love her books just for the certainty of always finding the “same” characters. I’d call this the comfort read effect, which is something I appreciate on occasion.
I have given up on this author completely after a few books. What was somewhat interesting in the beginning, then slightly annoying became completely unbearable. It kind of destroys the reading when you know what you are going to read about before you even started. Her leading characters are SO perfect they aren’t even human. And I didn’t mean the cat nature of this particular character.
Congratulations on your first review on the site, Sirius! You did a great job. ^^
I have to agree. I did buy this one but waited until I was in the mood for one of her stories, since I pretty much knew what to expect. By the way, I always look for your reviews (as well as any from Jessewave, of course) on Amazon when I’m checking out new ebooks – thanks!
Raine, I definitely agree that sometimes her books feel like a nice cup of tea.
Val, yes absolutely all of her protagonists have had Mary Sueish/ Gary Stu qualities. I mean, once or twice such character can be endearing. I liked her Gin from Change of Heart, but it gets very tiresome after a while. The biggest mystery for me though is trying to figure out why I am still reading her books, you know? I buy every single one of them, although hopefully I reached the stage where no matter how much I like her writing, same character over and over again gets tiresome.
It just feels to me that she is capable of writing complex flawed character, but it does not look like she is going to write one any time soon.
Luci, OMG thanks for pointing that out, cover does indeed reminds me of Puss in Boots now when you pointed that out 🙂
Feliz, maybe that’s it, comfort read, knowing what to expect, but usually when I know all the time what to expect it can become boring for me.
LadyM you described exactly what I am feeling, except I am still buying her books lol.
Pea, yes indeed and thank you so much.
Guys thank you so much for your kind words about my review and again apologies for replying to everybody in the same post, I still cannot access normal version of the site 🙂
Hmmm… I do usually like Mary’s work, but I may well take a pass on this one, or at least wait until I’m in the right mood to get it. (When i want something easy, y’know?) 🙂
Very good review, and thanks for your perspective!
~Tis
Sirius,
What a wonderful first review! Congrats 🙂
I think I’m beginning to understand why people have difficulty reading Mary’s books. Having only read the two I reviewed last year, Change of Heart and Trusted Bond, I don’t have the experience yet of someone who could tell you about her writing style. I still don’t think I’ll read this book, however, just because it has never appealed to me.
But, you did a great job of highlighting why the book didn’t work for you. Great job!!
Hi Tis, if you usually like her books and when you are in the mood, I think you may like this one, it is in essense no different than her others imo. And thank you 🙂
Hey Cole, thank you so much :). I loved Change of heart, but when Gin started to appear in different reincarnations in every single one of her books, well lets just say I did not like it as much.
Good review Sirius.
I’ve read two books by this author, and can already see the writing on the wall. A talented writer, she appears to have firm stereotypes in her characters…especially heros. After awhile, this can appear cookie cutter…same characters w/ similar plot, different names.
Thanks Denni and yes, exactly, it feels like her protagonists are the same character getting different names in every book pretty much, and different profession I guess 🙂
I did find this book very enjoyable. I see what you mean about Mary Calmes protagonists all being similar. The same could be said about many authors though. The more books you read in any genre the more they start to blur together.
Hi Tara, I am glad you found the book enjoyable, there were things in it I liked too, I think I have to disagree however about many writers writing similar protagonists in all their books. I think this writer is firmly in the league of her own, with writing IMO same protagonists over and over again.
I mean, of course writer usually has distinct style, she may use same phrases in her writing, give some similar qualities to the guys, but while I have no doubt such authors may exist I guess Mary Calmes is the only author where I see it on such repeated scale, because I have read so many of her books? Usually I say good bye after second book if I do not see that writer is capable of writing something different.
One of my favorite writers in this genre is Ann Sommerville. She often writes about people with different paranormal mental abilities (empaths, telepaths, etc) and one of the themes in many of her books is how society treats people who are different.
However, I can never confuse one of her protagonists for the character from her other book, if that makes sense, they are all pretty unique “people” to me. I hope I am making sense.
I like this writer’s writing and I just feel that she is capable of more.
Sirius
Thanks for the review. I like Mary Calmes books as well, but I’ve been really hesitant over this one. Your review helped me decide. Do you think you will pick up the Time series by M.Calmes?
Thank you Hannahva. I am not sure about A matter of time series, I heard the hero there is as perfect as they come and I am getting quite tired of them 🙂