In which Tumperkin is very late to the Karen Marie Moning party

This week, you can't stroll through GoogleReader without stumbling upon a few reviews of Karen Marie Moning's latest release, Shadowfever.

It perhaps tells you everything you need to know about me, and this blog, that in that very week, I am posting about The Immortal Highlander, a 2004 book by the same author. You might fairly deduce the following:

- I am well behind the curve of romance reading trends

- I am not fussy about reading series in order (this is 6th in the Highlander series, the one before the Fever series)

- If you want to know what is new and bright and shiny in the world of romance - this is not the blog for you

As it happens, I'm quite glad I randomly picked this one. When I tweeted that I was reading this, RRRJessica mentioned that she'd been unimpressed by the first in the series but had been considering trying a later one and other tweeps commented that they felt the Highlander series only really got going a few books in.

So what did I make of the book? And what's with that picture?

The picture is a Simon Bisley painting of Slaine. Slaine started in the cult British comic 2000AD in the 1980s. Bisley wasn't Slaine's original illustrator, but he was, IMHO, its best. The story, by Pat Mills, brought to life a violent and mystical pagan celtic world. As I read the description of Adam Black, hero of the Immortal Highlander, I thought of Slaine.

The description below takes place over several pages - I've selected certain highlights. The heroine, Gabby, is watching Adam from afar. She knows Adam is fae and has been brought up to believe fairies are soulless and lethal, hence her thinking of him as an 'it'.

Gold armbands adorned its muscular arms, showcasing its powerful, rock-hard biceps, and a gold torque encircled its neck... Its profile was sheer majesty. Chiseled features, high cheekbones, strong jaw, aquiline nose, all covered with that luscious gold-velvet fairy skin...It exuded immense sexuality: base, raw, scorching.... Arms bunched with muscle, thick forearms, strong wrists. Cut abdomen rippling beneath the fabric of its t-shirt each time it shifted position. Powerful thighs caressed by soft, faded denim... Like one of those blacksmiths of yore who'd spent their days at a scorching forge, metal clanging, sparks flying. Possessing massive brawn...There wasn't a spare ounce of flesh on it, just rock-hard male body. It had a finely-honed, brutal strength ... all that rippling muscle ...

And here, much later:

He looked utterly devilish, his black eyes bottomless, ancient cold. Nostrils flared, lips curled in something only a fool might call a smile. He was, at that moment, every inch an inhuman Fae prince, otherworldly, dangerous. This, she realised, was the face of the Sin Siriche Du; the face her ancestors had glimpsed on long-ago battlefields, as he'd watched the brutal slaughter, smiling.

As well as the obvious crossover with Celtic mythology, the picture above and the text share a certain aesthetic: the fetishisation of an aggressively sexual male. The size and musclature of the object is massively exaggerated, his barely leashed violence hinted at. He is brimming with confidence.

The Immortal Highlander is a book in love with its hero. There is whole team of women cheering him on: Gabby, the reader, the author, the other female characters in the book (including the all-powerful fairy queen). We're all invited to admire him and that gave me an interesting reading experience. I felt like I shared a sort of unspoken territory with them. Gabby is our representative, the lucky one that gets to have Adam.

Of course, KMM is not alone in creating this sort of book vibe/ fetishising the hero/ male sexuality. However, it was sufficiently strong in this book to prompt me to articulate these thoughts, so to that extent, it has made a stronger impression on me, I suppose, than other books of this type (or perhaps it is the cumulative effect of a number of these reads that has prompted this post).

As for the rest of the book, I rather enjoyed it. The stakes were built early and high and that always creates a strong sense of promise and excitement. Did I feel that the author then made that promise good? Not entirely.

The story is initially driven by a plot that centres around the efforts of Adam's nemesis, Darroc, on the Fae High Council to dispose of Adam and depose the queen. Gabby becomes embroiled in this and her life is put in peril. At one stage in the book, at the height of this plotline, Gabby and Adam are 'sifting' all over the world, Darroc in hot pursuit. However, once the book enters its final phase (the start of which is them entering warded 'MacKelter land' in Scotland - where I assume the earlier books in the series are set) suddenly Darroc can't reach them, and all that tension simply falls away. There is one final brief scene with Darroc that concludes his part in the story, otherwise that once-central plot is simply folded up like a bit of laundry and put in a drawer while KMM moves on to bringing about the HEA.

That said, I greatly admired KMM's ability to build that early, and I did enjoy her depiction of her over-the-top-so-sexy-grown-women-literally-swoon hero. Which I suppose means that the fetishisation of sexually aggressive males in romance novels does appeal to me. An interesting thought.

Finally, why the book is called The Immortal Highlander, I could not fathom (beyond the obvious answer that it fit the series) since Adam is apparently an alien from another planet who just happens to like Scotland. But there you are.

Will I try another KMM? Undoubtedly.