Surrender

by Eric Alan Westfall

Revised Second Edition

Royalty Notice: 100% will be donated to an LGBT organization in my community.

***

The Kingdom and Empire: a thousand worlds across the Heart, linked by magic-driven Gates.

Kilthar: A recent “acquisition” where Imperial law is only a veneer. Clan law runs silent now, and deep, and men who love men are abominations. Abominations caught are abominations killed, or gelded and enslaved. Clan Aeris prefers the latter.

Two men meet on Winterdeath Eve in a Kilthari tavern: Karel, a tall young warrior, heir of Clan Aeris, drinking in silent mourning for his best friend, who endured six months of the punishment for being caught with another man, and then hanged himself five days ago. Caaroc, a taller, older warrior, drinking for his own reasons. They introduce themselves in the privy behind the tavern, and take the chance of meeting in secret again a few months later.

Warriors. Abominations. Lovers. And the additional secret of one puts them both at even greater risk.

And then there is the free-standing Wall, in the sere and dead valley where tir-Lothian ruled two thousand years earlier. On the Wall is an impossibly huge painting that wasn’t there until five years ago, appearing to show an Aerisan warrior with bloody blade, defending a blood-dripping Gaarchan Stone Beast. Yet more abominations.

This is a love story, and it is not an easy one for Karel or Caaroc, or to read. There is explicit male-to-male sex, violence and pain in this dark fantasy, but there is also love. Where there is love, there is hope. There is always hope.

An earlier, and significantly different version, was published for free as part of the Love Has No Boundaries event for 2013, by the M/M Romance Group.

43,816 words of actual story text.

Genres: M M Romance, Fantasy, Romance, Dark, LGBT, Fiction

158 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2013

About the author

Guess what...that image ain't really me! (Not nearly enough grey hair). That's Kerry Chin Chew Yee's image of DarkFire for the cover of The Warlord and the Bard. And since he's the favorite of my characters...what better image? Maybe more about me later.

Reviews

[Penumbra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Surrender was written for the M/M Romance Group's Love Has No Boundaries picture prompt event. Told in first person from the young man, Karel, who is the warrior in the picture. The photo prompt is really, really cool. I wish it was used for the book cover.

Be warned there are some very graphic torture and rape scenes toward the end of the story.




You know, I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea what happened in this story. I was confused through the whole thing. Something about a painting that pulled Karel, into and he becomes the warrior in the painting or something like that. Karel also ends up sort of dying at the end. But it's more like the movie Ground Hog Day it seems where the warrior ends up repeating death after death but never allowed to die. I'm not sure if he's not allowed to die by the Goddess or by the 'it' that has him captured. But it's for some reason. Karel's tortured, raped and other horrid things for what reason I don't know. There's an 'it' that hates Karel and Caaroc and considers them 'Abominations' because of their love for each other. 'It' captures them both, extracts a promise from Karel, manipulates Karel's mind and then forces him to kill Caaroc. After Caaroc is dead, 'It' continues to torture Karel through his mind and I 'think,' I'm not sure, also in real time. So confusing. Don't know how long Karel will be tortured but the one light 'memory' he has is of his lover, Caaroc, telling him that he loves him and would come back for him.

Can someone honestly tell me that Karel would not go insane from the mental and what appears to be physical rape and torture after what will likely be years upon years of torment? And why doesn't the Goddess grant Karel death instead of letting him be tortured? Did Karel displease her? Or is it because Caaroc made the oath so that in order to fulfill the oath Karel has to stay alive? Is Caaroc going to be reborn? If so, Karel would have been tortured for possibly years. Then that could make Karel quite a bit older than Caaroc when they meet again, unless Caaroc's soul gets reborn or 'transfers' to another being's body upon his death and then he has to find his way back to Karel's world or where Karel is held captive. Or maybe the 'it' keeps Karel young by letting him rejuvenate. Does reborn Caaroc's people send someone to destroy the 'it' like the other three 'its' that were destroyed? I love mysteries as you can tell by all the questions, but this story left too many holes about what's going on, especially surrounding the background. I find reading stories with holes leads to confusion which makes a story very annoying to read and as if I wasted my time. However, I plowed my way through the story and made myself finish it hoping to find answers.

So I guess this is supposed to be a love story mixed with the ultimate homophobia and hatred of interspecies relations (xenophobia), then throw in some gratuitous torture and rape through mind games and by physical control of other people. I think... I'm not sure :\

I do have to say that the ideas about the type of worlds they lived in and the 'Worlds Beside' I think it was called, was an interesting concept. I would have much rather read about that and also about the species Kalen and Caaroc where rather than the violence and torture. It's harder to create a unique world with history and unique species with unusual abilities than it is to just write out violence and torture. However the story read choppy and disjointed which I find hugely annoying. I like stories to flow nicely from one idea to the other, not stutter and stop or jump from one mini-scene to the next.

In the end I enjoyed the world building and what little info we got about the species. I also enjoyed the bit we learned about oaths and the Goddess, but all the interesting best stuff was kept very, very minimal. So I can only give this story 1.5 stars because this story confused the heck out of me since it leaves out so much information that I need to make sense of the story. I was always going "What?" It's not my kind of story either, although I can usually get past dark stories, for example another fic in this prompt event I gave five stars to, if I understand what is going on because of the excellent writing and it makes sense. But Surrender had me nothing but confused. I guess this is where I'll diverge from those other readers who will probably love this story because of the darkness and horror. For me if a story even if it is dark, doesn't make sense and doesn't contain enough background about the characters and the world they live in, then I can't give it a high rating. 1 Star final score.

[Hpstrangelove · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing story, especially if you like dark!fics (and it is very dark - please mind the warnings and don't read if any of that might squick you).

From the beginning, the story sucked me in. The author grabs your heart and squeezes it painfully, having a plot twist that reveals the significance of the title. I've started going through it a second time to pick up on details that I missed or that didn't seem important at first.

It is definitely not a HEA or HFN, but somehow, along with a feeling of despair, there is also a sense of hope. The writing is excellent and the universe is well crafted; there is so much potential for a sequel, prequel, side-stories, etc. I look forward to reading more by this author.

This story is a free read but is far, far better than many m/m ebooks I've spent (wasted) good money on. I know I will be thinking about this story for a long time to come.

[Free_dreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, this was unusual. The beginning was a little confusing. I skipped the gory parts, I can't stomach too much of that, especially late at night. It's nice to read something so completely different every now and then. I liked it.

[This Old Moe · Rating 5 out of 5]

E.A. Westfall is such a talented writer. His style is beautiful, poetic, and in this case it hurts. This book made me remember what it was like to grow up gay in the 60's and 70's. ,even tho it is set in a fantasy world. Don't miss out on this book.

[Curtis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally enjoy fantasy and m/m romance, so when you put them together, I expect to really love a well-written story. And I've read and enjoyed other work by this author, so I guess I had some expectations going into this book. And while this is technically well-written, it just didn't work for me. Not really my kind of story and I found it very difficult to connect to the characters in any meaningful way. Though I think it likely that someone with more of a penchant for darker stories might have a more enjoyable time with this one.

[Melanie~~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not my cup of tea far too much gore and violence.

I read it as part of the LHNB even staff. However, this story completely met with the parameters of the member's prompt, so it was definitely a gift to the M/M Romance member and group.

Thank you for your generosity.

[NOTE: I rate most writing event stories (free reads) 4 or 5 stars because of my appreciation of the author's participation.]

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was a little hard to get into, as it tried to introduce a new society all at once. Eventually I really liked it even though I wished for a happier ending.

In contrast I found his other entry, "The Song," to be unreadable. It jumped around to different characters' points of view, and I found that distracting. I tried to finish it but couldn't.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice interpretation of the photo and the story letter. Thank you Eric Alan Westfall for donating your story, your time and your talent.

[Alishea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well a truly beautiful writing, but I did not like the story.

[GlamLawyer]

skipping that one