Book: The Pyramid Waltz
Author: Barbara Ann Wright
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Every family has a dirty
little secret…
When
I was in college, I had a roommate who had been adopted by a wonderful older
couple right after she was born. She had only a passing curiosity to learn who her birth parents were,
and never spent a single minute looking for them. Of course, her world was
rocked when, at the ripe old age of 20, she wandered into her parent’s
kitchen on Christmas morning for a cup of coffee only to overhear an uncle exclaim
over a platter of bear claws and cheese Danish that the couple who lived directly
across the street for her entire life was her birth parents.
Awkward...
In
my family, though, the secrets weren’t quite as dramatic—Great Uncle Paul was “queer
as a three-dollar bill,” Aunt Tootsie was bald as a coot, and wore a wig (she
wasn’t a natural blonde either), and my mother swears that Grandma could heal
burns through touch, but that was uttered after a second glass of my dad’s
“homemade” wine.
There were also hints and
allegations that Cousin Stevie had a love child with his high school geography
teacher, but if you ever met Cousin Stevie, you’d realize it was considerably more
likely that he had a love child with his high school geography textbook.
Family
secrets take center stage in Barbara Ann Wright’s debut novel, The Pyramid
Waltz. Princess Katya Nar
Umbriel of Farraday is seen by most as a self-centered, uninspired playgirl.
However, out of the public eye, she and a select group of specialists comprise
the super secret Order of Vestra, a group tasked with running down
traitors to the crown, protecting the monarchy from unseen dangers, and
ensuring that no one in the Kingdom learns that the Royal Family are part
Fiend. Enter the smart and saucy Allusian
courtier, Starbride, who has come to the Court to study Farradain law in order
to help her people level the fair trade playing field.
The
two women meet, and sparks fly as they jest and joust their way about the
castle and the countryside. When a day on the town goes horribly awry, and
Katya’s fiend is released by those seeking to overthrow the Royal Family,
Starbride begins to learn the many secrets of the Umbriels. But love, umbrage, and
a pushy attitude prevail, and Starbride finds a way to prove herself worthy of
the Princess and the Order of Vestra. Everything is falling into place
for the young lovers until traitors within the Royal Family unveil an insidious
plan to unleash the supreme Fiend, Yanchasa the Mighty, and destroy the
Umbriels and the kingdom once and for all.
To
most modern fiction readers, romance rules the day. However, fantasy stories involving magic, gods, heroes,
adventures, monsters, and epic themes have existed in spoken forms since the very
dawning of language. In fact, it can be argued that Homer's The Odyssey,
which was composed near the end of the 8th century B.C., satisfies the very definition
of the fantasy genre.
Fair enough, what is this
great definition of the fantasy genre?
Well,
every great fantasy piece has a formula that is manipulated to create its
one-of-a-kind whimsy, imagination, and spirit—the list includes things like
supernatural creatures, magic, a unique setting and a distinctive language, a
special weapon, a grandiose battle, a sweet love story, and a really nasty Big
Bad.
And, how does The Pyramid Waltz stack up?
Barbara
Ann Wright is a master when it comes to crafting a solid and entertaining
fantasy novel. It’s hard to get more supernatural than rampaging bloodthirsty
fiends with curly horns, oily black wings, razor like claws, and sharp, pointy
teeth in the presence of lowly, whimpering humans—all of which creates a
delicious dynamic between the real and surreal.
Supernatural: check.
Next,
the metaphorical landscape of Farraday is littered with a plethora of good and
evil "pyradistés," all manipulating their
magic pyramids, disintegrating opponents, opening and closing minds, shooting
fireballs, erasing memories, and blinding bad guys with flash bombs. Most
notable in The Pyramid Waltz is that one of our heroines unknowingly, at
least initially, possesses a very strong magical ability.
Magic: check.
The
Farradain Kingdom, with its capitol of Marienne, is home to the Royal Palace, Pyradisté Academy, towers, turrets, and numerous chapterhouses with tolling bells
and carved façades to their patron saints. Outside
the city walls, Farraday is dotted with thriving towns, taverns, manors,
homesteads, fields, forests, rivers, and rolling hills. In the "far away" lies
the exotic land of Allusia, with its dark-skinned, horse-riding,
trouser-wearing peoples. Allusia is home to the mountains where the pyramid
crystal is mined by the pale-skinned Farradain outlanders. Ms. Wright takes
modern day language and gently manipulates its vernacular, making it playful yet slightly antiquated. This linguistic construction heightens the reader’s ability to
transport themselves into the fantasy world of The Pyramid Waltz.
Okay, setting and language: check.
Within
the pages of this novel, no one single character wields the special
weapon. This is because the weapon is in fact many weapons—the pyramids.
Pyramids are used by pyradistés to sift through and erase memories, create light
sources, to disintegrate people and things, to protect areas
and people, to cause general mayhem, death, and destruction, and to protect the
Royal Family by keeping their inner Fiends at bay. The pyradistés are both good and evil, and have
very different skill sets. Starbride learns that she has the inherent gift to
use pyramid magic, and becomes an apprentice to the King’s Pyradisté, allowing her to deepen her
relationship with Princess Katya.
Special Weapon: check.
Without an epic battle in
which the heroines are nearly defeated, ultimate victory would not be so sweet.
Enter Yanchasa the Mighty, evil pyradistés, walking dead, bastard cousins
with a grudge, traitorous in-laws, sucking chest wounds, and multi-speed
swordplay, and you have one helluva royal smackdown.
Grandiose battle:
check.
Since
no fantasy novel is complete without a sweet and simple love story between two
dissimilar characters, The Pyramid Waltz offers up love-a-plenty. Katya and Starbride are a heady mix of
light and dark, royal and courtier, butch and soft femme, rapier-wielding rogue
and law-studying magician. Their attraction is immediate, but the flirtation is
slow and rich. They become lovers and confidents, yet misunderstand each other
and make invalid assumptions. Their romance warms the
cockles of the heart, and makes the reader want them to live happily ever
after.
Sweet love story: check.
And
lastly, the Big Bad Villain must be
extraordinary and not easily defeated, and he or she cannot be revealed until the end of the story, in order to create
the most impact. And, while The Pyramid
Waltz’s Big Bad was telegraphed throughout the story, Ms. Wright threw in
more than a handful of surprises to turbo-boost the shock-and-awe of the epic
battle, and leave the reader as bruised and bloody as our heroines.
And, a really nasty Big Bad to tie it all together: checkmate.
The world of lesbian literature
has a small handful of high-quality fantasy authors, and Barbara Ann Wright is
well on her way to joining the likes of Jane Fletcher, Cate Culpepper, and Andi
Marquette.
The Pyramid Waltz is equal parts romance and adventure, with a
hefty dose of wry humor and memorable sidekicks thrown in for good measure.
Lovers of the fantasy and futuristic genre will likely adore this novel, and
adventurous romance fans should find plenty to sink their teeth into.
I’m
giving it a hale and hearty 5.1 out of 6.0 on the Rainbow Scale.
