I started off delighted by how refreshingly different this book felt. I liked the elaborate world-building and how beautiful the writing was. But my interest waned as the plot began to meander, and as more long dream sequences occurred. And what had initially been a positive, open take on sexuality started to seem... almost menacing? As if sex was the only emotional currency the characters had. I'm glad the first book had a reasonably conclusive ending because I am not sure I'll read any more.

Re: my cozy rating... What makes this cozy to me is the tone that it’s written in, more than the things that happen. I never felt super nervous, even when the protagonist is attacked by a horrible monster. The least cozy parts were when the characters argue or hurt each other emotionally.

Sex. Drugs. And Rock... Color Purple. Very 70-ies.

What. A. Drag.

Never a straight (no pun) line in this book. I don't mind when a story gets from A to D via B, C and while at it detours through E and K. I do mind however, when the author goes through entire alphabet to connect A to B. Now imagine that alphabet being intense purple. It frigging haunts me in my sleep now.

One star.

And no, DD was not the one and only writing and publishing queer literature prior to 2001. No credit for that. Sorry, not sorry. ( )

I keep re-reading this series, and every time am reminded why Duane is one of my favorite authors. Well executed characters, system of magic, and most important of all: A strong feeling of connection to every aspect of the tale. ( )

I loved **The Door Into Fire** by *Diane Duane* a whole lot. It's incredibly character-focused fantasy, to the point of reminding me strongly of Lois McMaster Bujold for its strong characters and Ursula Le Guin for its sensitive, almost lyrical descriptions of magic and nature and the relationship between everything. It's set in a fascinating world that clearly follows a set of rules of magic and mythology (gods! Excellent gods, and all kinds of other beings), but the rules are sufficiently mysterious to feel consistent, yet not clinical. I'm writing this review more than a month after reading the book, and the characters are still very vivid in my mind, which is probably the highest praise I can pay the book.

Also, because this may impact some of my readers' decision to read the book: This world feels wonderfully archaic in many ways, but it is also very emancipated and queer. The protagonist is in a same-sex relationship, and there are open relationships, discussions of how children are brought up, and all female characters have very much characters, opinions, and arcs of their own. The story is not such that I think this needs to be a selling point – it is really good! – but sometimes you just want to read queer-friendly Fantasy, which is a bit thin on the ground. ( )

The Door Into Fire is a 1979 fantasy novel set in a world where essentially everyone’s pansexual and same-sex relationships completely common and accepted. Since some great past calamity, Herewiss is the only man to posses the power of the blue flame, but he cannot find a means to control or use it. But while he’s struggling to try and forge a sword capable of bearing his power, he receives an urgent summons from his lover Freelorn, a usurped prince trying to gather an army to retake his country. Freelorn is trapped and needs Herewiss to rescue him. And perhaps along the way, Herewiss will finally learn to unlock his magic.

I’m a big fan of Diane Duane’s Young Wizard series, so I decided to finally getting around to checking out her debut novel. You can see seeds of the writer that she’ll become – the themes of the importance of life and fighting against entropy are still in her works – but The Door Into Fire is so much less polished than her other works.

The focus of The Door Into Fire was on the characters. The plot felt lackluster, and I at times felt like the narrative was just moving from set piece to set piece. Now that X is done with, it’s time to move to plot point Y. And so forth. The pacing at the beginning is also rather slow, and it took me a while to get any degree of involvement in the book at all.

Unfortunately for a character based novel, I didn’t have much engagement with the characters. The only character who I really liked was Sunspark, a fire elemental that shows up on Herewiss’s journey to rescue Freelorn. Sunspark’s dialogue practically sparkled, and it provided pretty much the only humor in the novel. Basically, Sunspark is what brought the book to life for me.

That said, Herewiss did actually have a lot of characterization. I could see myself potentially liking him and the other characters more if I read the sequels… but I doubt I’ll read the sequels.

The Door Into Fire‘s main world building innovation is the non-heteronormativity. I’ll also point out that it’s not an especially erotic book, although sex and sexuality do seem threaded through the story. The focus is on the relationship between the characters more than the details of their sex lives. Aside from the normalization of same-sex relationships, most of the fantasy elements were exceedingly familiar, although perhaps it would have felt fresher when it came out in 1979.

However, at heart The Door Into Fire is a happy story, and there’s not a lot of LGBT fantasy books you can say that about, particularly older ones. So while I’m not planning on visiting this world again, I can still see it having an appeal for those looking for queer fantasy novels with happy endings.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. ( )