In Holly's world, demon (yama) culture is like a hybrid of imperial China and Planet Vulcan: ceremonious, stratified, stern... and horny. (Think Mr Spock with a nonstop sex drive and pretty clothes.) Yama society prizes emotional control above all.
Prince Corum and Xishi were raised together until age 8. Reunited at 20, they show signs of emotions that appall Cor's royal parents. The yama are conformists, and both Xishi and Corum are already marked as outsiders: she by parentage, he by a subtler taint. Xishi and Cor face legal, familial, and cultural strictures, but their childhood bond and new adult connection are incredibly strong.
Fairytales on their heads
Prince of Ice is layered with cultural references. A pay-per-view screening of Pride and Prejudice is highly controversial: to the sexually free but emotionally uptight yama, Jane Austen is freaky porn. The resolution of P&P, with love overcoming duty and class, is exactly what Cor's family fears most.
Ice is also very much a fairytale. (The deliberate fairytale elements and anachronisms remind me a little of Robin McKinley’s Beauty.) It's Cor who's labeled the "Sleeping beauty", and Holly plays with other romance traditions too. I count 3 virgins, 2 secret babies, and a One True Love theme... but not in their usual guises. Of the 3 virgins, one seduces a man in an elaborate revenge plot, one's a trained concubine, and one's a man. Xishi and Cor have a surprisingly egalitarian dynamic, absent the usual inequalities of experience. (Xishi is slightly more knowledgeable, as her training included a, ahem, hands-on lab on male physiology.)The nonstop sex drive
We learn a startling amount about royal yama physiology and reproduction. The story centers on a clever piece of biology: yama royal males don’t mature sexually until they find their genetic match. Even at maturity, they can only ejaculate for one week a month, and only with their perfect mate. (And by “for one week", I do mean without stopping.) Holly portrays this genetic element as in part a choice--and not only a lip-service to choice; partially-matched couples are prominent in the story.The royal sex drive makes me guffaw when Xishi and Corum first meet again. Unawakened, oblivious Corum goes from zero to Ron Jeremy in a nanosecond. Before he even sees Xishi, he feels “as if a heated poker had lodged between his legs, and his balls were pulsing and hot.” He can smell her (!) from outside the building. Xishi is more restrained: her moisture doesn’t run down her thigh until he looks at her.
And then there's the royal male anatomy. The crazy sexual adaptations remind me of another recent read: Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex
. Corum’s penile peculiarities fit right in with the stick insect (stamina), the Argentine lake duck (my god, the size), and the golden potto (penis like a hairbrush).As you might imagine, the sex is strange and frequent. And if you think the ass is something to be gingerly patted after sex is over, I don’t recommend this book.
There's one bout of sex where I must, simply must, point out a moment of cheese and a trope. I've hidden the spoiler:
1. The actual moment of conception.... The little balls of light? Chiming and giggling? So much cheese there, I was totally jolted out of the story. I can go along with a fairytale of a sweet young couple, but they're 20, yes? Not 5? When did this become a Disney flick?
2. Why is it so common to wrap up a story with the couple having twins? And not just twins, but boy-girl twins? I see it everywhere. In fact, Kelley Armstrong just did it with Clay & Elena in No Humans Involved. It always feels eye-rollingly tidy to me. As one friend put it, that's the writer saying "I have nothing more to say. Life is perfect. They're having their cake and eating it too. And besides, they're busy raising twins. Don't ask to hear more of their story because you wouldn't enjoy it. They don't have time for adventures."
The ending
Others (Jane and Bam) hated the deus ex machina ending. I can understand that, but in Prince of Ice I think the ending fits the fairytale. Coach turns into pumpkin, princess is immured in castle, fairy godmother to the rescue... then a sting in the tail: losing magical powers, banishment, etc. Xishi's fairy godmother (so to speak) also helps unravel the mystery of how a commoner could be Cor's perfect mate.The other Demon books
Holly's other Demon books are set in Victorian/steampunk border towns where humans coexist uneasily with yama. (See this post on steampunk visuals for some yama-looking technologies!) Those towns are too complicated for such short books. Take a stratified Dickensian society of xenophobic Victorians; muddle it up with steampunk technological anachronisms. Then take a stratified imperial Chinese society of xenophobic, genetically-modified… Vulcans? and muddle that up with futuristic technology. Finally, take from each culture the rejects and opportunists one expects in border towns. Too, too, too many layers.Prince of Ice takes place entirely in the yama's homeland, which gives Holly more space to develop the caste system, the genetic mutations among the royals, the sexual characteristics and mating, the protagonists' relationships with family and friends. In the other Demon books, the protagonists are outcasts from their native cultures, so we see little of their past or character except what Holly tells us. The characters are shallower as a result. In Prince of Ice, Xishi and Corum are fleshed out through family histories.
I like the idea of the Demon steampunk settings, but the books lack sufficient development to convince me the couple have really connected across all those barriers, let alone enough to cement a happily ever after. I'd actually enjoy the Demon books more if Holly ditched the rush-to-the-altar happy endings and just let the characters explore the freedom to mate across cultural boundaries. The setting and plots have huge potential for characters to grow and get outside the conventions they were raised in. That would be a satisfying story in itself, though possibly not a genre romance.
Up till now, I’ve only enjoyed Holly's contemporary erotic romances. In a whole different way, I enjoyed Prince of Ice. It's great to find something new from her.
Grade: B+, maybe even A-
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