One fateful day, David Druas, a very successful psychologist is interrupted by a patient in the middle of a session. Hans Werner believes that after using an ancient invocation that he is seeing doors which lead to alternate dimensions. Being a the logical man that David is, he tries to reason with Werner and when that does not work, he decides to say the invocation out loud. At first Druas sees nothing, leading him believe that Werner has indeed had some sort of break. Unfortunately for David, shortly after Werner leaves his office in disappointment, he sees his first door. Now believing that he and Werner are sharing a psychosis, David is desperate for answers. Each world he enters using the doors has something wondrous and new but when David becomes aware that someone is watching him, these spaces no longer feel benign. When Werner turns up dead, David becomes the prime suspect, causing him to use the door to escape; however, the problem is that the place he is using to hide from the cops may itself be worse than the prison cell he seeks to avoid.Coming in at 162 pages, Doors is a comfortable afternoon read. Though in places the writing leaves something to be desired, it quite reminded me of the Adjustment Bureau. The concept of Doors was really quite fascinating but the novel fell prey to its own brevity in many ways. We didn't really get to know a lot about the characters, or what motivated them to invest in David and this left the story feeling unrelateable. We were only given brief glimpses of the worlds behind the door and even less of the doorkeeper society. In many ways, it felt like Doors was incomplete and could have used another hundred pages.Often when I write reviews about books in the fantasy genre, I complain that the books in question erase GLBT characters. In the case of Doors, the opposite is true, I wish that Brako had actually erased GLBT characters. Much of this story was about David's interaction with Avan. Avan is an Indian man, who is desperately in love with David and when a very heterosexual David spurns all of his advances and refuses to love him back, Avan in a fit of drama jumps off a roof top in front of David. I have read the tropes involving the predatory gay man, but Avan took it to a new level. He could not have been more predatory had he been a lion let loose in a nursery school. When David rejects him he whines that it's because he doesn't have a "cunt."Read More
Fangs for the Fantasy
Fangs for the Fantasy is run by Renee from Womanist Musings, and Sparky who love all things Urban Fantasy. While we do love Urban Fantasy, we're also social justice bloggers and we try to be aware – and look at the genre from a social justice lens. Whether we love a series or hate it, we look at it through this lens – and critique it in part based on its treatment of marginalised people and issues affecting them. It doesn't mean we don't love the genre – but even the books and programmes we adore have problematic elements and we refuse to ignore that even while we enjoy them..
In addition to this blog we also have a weekly Podcast on Mondays
Full details can be found on our blog, Fangs for the Fantasy
One fateful day, David Druas, a very successful psychologist is interrupted by a patient in the middle of a session. Hans Werner believes that after using an ancient invocation that he is seeing doors which lead to alternate dimensions. Being a the logical man that David is, he tries to reason with Werner and when that does not work, he decides to say the invocation out loud. At first Druas sees nothing, leading him believe that Werner has indeed had some sort of break. Unfortunately for David, shortly after Werner leaves his office in disappointment, he sees his first door. Now believing that he and Werner are sharing a psychosis, David is desperate for answers. Each world he enters using the doors has something wondrous and new but when David becomes aware that someone is watching him, these spaces no longer feel benign. When Werner turns up dead, David becomes the prime suspect, causing him to use the door to escape; however, the problem is that the place he is using to hide from the cops may itself be worse than the prison cell he seeks to avoid.Coming in at 162 pages, Doors is a comfortable afternoon read. Though in places the writing leaves something to be desired, it quite reminded me of the Adjustment Bureau. The concept of Doors was really quite fascinating but the novel fell prey to its own brevity in many ways. We didn't really get to know a lot about the characters, or what motivated them to invest in David and this left the story feeling unrelateable. We were only given brief glimpses of the worlds behind the door and even less of the doorkeeper society. In many ways, it felt like Doors was incomplete and could have used another hundred pages.Often when I write reviews about books in the fantasy genre, I complain that the books in question erase GLBT characters. In the case of Doors, the opposite is true, I wish that Brako had actually erased GLBT characters. Much of this story was about David's interaction with Avan. Avan is an Indian man, who is desperately in love with David and when a very heterosexual David spurns all of his advances and refuses to love him back, Avan in a fit of drama jumps off a roof top in front of David. I have read the tropes involving the predatory gay man, but Avan took it to a new level. He could not have been more predatory had he been a lion let loose in a nursery school. When David rejects him he whines that it's because he doesn't have a "cunt."Read More
