Genre: Fantasy
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses
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About The Book
Tyler barely escaped the clutches of the evil king, but now he’s lost in Bramoria. With tensions on the rise and old friendships falling apart, can he find the Sage in time and save himself and his friends?
Calling on the power of the mage stone, Tyler manages to teleport him and his companions into the open air over the ocean. After a splash landing and finding themselves stranded on a small chain of islands, tensions rise and fights break out. However, the group quickly finds out that the islands hold their own dangers.
Caught unawares by sirens and a giant frog trapped in a dimensional bag, Tyler has his mage stone stolen and is poisoned. His time is running out. Putting on a burst of speed they make for the mainland, trying to find a way to save him before the toxin takes its toll. Not only that, but when Danny collapses from a terrible seizure, Tyler knows he has to call the Sage to help them. But using the magic to do it could cost him his life.
The Sage and the Phoenix is the second installment of the character-driven LGBTQ series, the Tales of Bramoria. Great for fans of isekai, portal fantasy, and dungeons and dragons.
The Review
The second stage of the Bramoria trilogy takes us first to a tropical archipelago in the middle of a vast ocean—which prompts mumbled allusions to “Gilligan’s Island.” Tyler Wilson has unwittingly launched himself and his little cohort—his friend Danny, Koto the cat-man, and Ninsar, King Clay’s ex-slave and Danny’s would-be girlfriend—without knowing the subtleties of teleportation.
Their journey, which (predictably) will be danger-filled and uncomfortable, has a single goal: to find the Sage in his citadel on the far side of Bramoria where Tyler believes they will also find a cure for Danny’s leukemia.
It is interesting what an important figure and symbol the phoenix is in this book (hence the title). It’s not the first time I’ve encountered the phoenix as a powerful creature—it has ancient roots, but in popular culture seems to date to the Harry Potter books as Dumbledore’s familiar. The phoenix plays a key role in the “Crowns and Quills” series (Casey Morales), and a similar but more discreet one here.
Tyler Wilson still has a lot to learn, and in this book the tension between him and Ninsar comes to a head. Both Clay and Danny have given themselves to Bramoria and its fantasy world; but Tyler clings to his “real” life, which made him unhappy. This becomes a critical motif in this book, as we learn the larger context for the boys’ fantasy and the very existence of Bramoria.
Is Bramoria a video-game like dream? Or is it something more that drew the three high school friends to it? Was it just chance that led them to discover the Grimoire of Kings, or was there something deeper at work?
Lots of hair-raising adventure here, along with more allusions to pop culture and the ongoing hope that Tyler will stop being a self-pitying jerk and begin to understand where is real power lies?
The cliffhanger at the end of this volume is less jarring—the reader is prepared for what has to come next, and I, for one, was ready to plunge in.
Four 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.
