“You look like hell”
A running joke throughout the first third or so of the book is based on a simile. The protagonist and hero, Vanyel, has just returned home after a prolonged absence leading a campaign on the border against the neighboring country. A number of different people upon seeing him for the first time since his return remark upon his looks with the simile quoted above. So often does this occur that he is moved at one point to rhetorically ask if there is just one person who can greet him without saying that.
Sexuality
One of the things which sets this fantasy series apart from the conventional norm is that it features a homosexual hero. And that component of his sexuality is not just mentioned and tossed into the background, but becomes a centerpiece of his story. Especially the way his parents respond in such a conventional manner:
“That whole monstrous mess of tangled emotions and misconception is why I never have spent more than a day at home if I can help it. If it isn't Mother flinging women at me, it's Father watching me out of the corner of his eye.”
Hero Worship
One of the travails that our hero has to deal with on a daily basis is hero-worship. This travail is compounded in its ability to irritate when accompanied by heterosexual desire directed toward him by another:
“He noted out of the corner of his eye—with more than a little alarm—that she was clutching the mug he'd drunk from to her budding bosom as though it had been transformed into a holy chalice.”
The Darkness
Darkness is everywhere. In post-19th century fiction, that is. You can try to escape darkness as a metaphor, but chances are you won’t get past two works of fiction of any length before you encounter it. And then you will encounter it again and again and over and et cetera. It is omnipresent in the literature of our age so don’t expect this book to be one of those which you read with the hope of escaping the reference:
“Vanyel took that borrowed strength and hurled it at the unprotected, unsuspecting darkness like a spear of light. It penetrated. But it did not kill. The darkness fled, wounded, but not conquered, as Vanyel began fading into a darkness of his own.”
The Peacock
Vanyel is referred to—not openly by many, of course—as “the peacock.” There is not much that is stereotypically homosexual about him, but when it comes to fashion and style, this subversive approach begins to lapse:
“The Field uniforms were strictly utilitarian, leather and raime, wool and linen. And he hadn't had many occasions to wear formal, richer Whites. No wonder they call me a peacock. Sensualist that I am—I like soft clothing.”
