Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennette. A review by Liz Nicholson

This gorgeous steampunk fantasy (with magically powered mechanical dragons) has gained a lot of ‘mainstream’ praise within the fantasy genre. Some people call it ‘young adult’, presumably because most of the major characters fall into that category, but I think the intelligent reader will soon see it has a great deal more to offer all ages.

The basic premise has a country at war, heading for a hard won victory because of the dragons, their riders and the wizards who provide the means of flight. The world building is excellent and the royal court is politically interesting. ‘Havemercy’ is the name of one of the leading dragons and has nothing to do with royal pardons or military surrender.

Royston, a wizard who has had the temerity to have an affair with a foreign prince, is exiled to his brother's house in the country where he meets a young student, a distant relation who is tutoring the brother's children. Royston and Hal develop a delicate and beautiful relationship, full of angst about their differences in age and experience. This thread of the story has some of the most erotic non-explicit love scenes I have ever read.

A different relationship, or rather a series of them, is explored in the way a young academic is catapulted into the closed and testosterone-fuelled world of the aviators. There are friendships, hatreds, long-lost siblings, teacher/student problems, deaths, the extreme behaviour of young men who know they might soon die and extraordinary bravery.

When enemy action causes a plague among the wizards, the dragons are affected and the two stories merge.

There is plenty of political and cultural interest which holds up a mirror to some of our own international assumptions. There is military strategy. There are comparisons drawn between court life and rural backwaters, soldiers and civilians, young and old. The society of wizards shows us some truths about the practice of science.

At the individual level the characters are well developed and whilst all have flaws, all elicit the reader's sympathy.

A refreshing aspect of the m/m romance is that with the exception of one old-fashioned countrywoman nobody turns a hair at the gender of the lovers – the things that shock are age and class.

In the end, the war is won, at a high cost, and true love is rewarded, but we are left very aware that this is not a happy-ever-after ending. There is much work to be done at both a national and a personal level.

The authors, who collaborate in their writing, have published a sequel, Shadow Magic, which takes the reader to the court of the vanquished enemy in company with a delegation from the victorious kingdom. We meet a new set of characters as well as a new land and culture. The same style is used: each main character tells his story in the first person.

This time the two pairs under scrutiny are a prince accused of treason and his loyal servant, and the potentially romantic but rather unlikely friendship between a military hero and a somewhat eccentric wizard. Any actual romance is left to the imagination of the reader, except for the mild interest a female member of the delegation shows in a top advisor of the enemy court.

Our friends from Havemercy play minimal roles though it was nice to have someone refer to 'Royston's shy child bride from the country'. However, another book, Dragon Soul, is now out in hardback and it is possible the writers will return to a m/m theme. It has certainly proved a winner for them.

To sum up, I bought and read these books for the dragons, and ended up loving them for the characters and the romance. Highly recommended!

Ballantine Books Inc., 2007 // ISBN 978-0-553-59137-8 // 448 pp. $7.99 (Random House Digital reprint) // Also available in e-book form // ISBN 978-0-553-90525-0 // $7.99