Genre: MM Romantic Fantasy

Length: Novella



WEAVERS AND spinners are two peoples of the Talac—phenotypically different, and the way they use the ancient magic of their peoples is different. Out of tradition they keep to their own social clusters, but Anan, a spellweaver, and Terja, a spellspinner, are about to discover through hardship that the two peoples are meant to be as one.

When their village is attacked, Anan and Terja ban together in blood vengeance against the tribe that enslaved and killed their people. Their trust is fleeting, but as they fight and care for one another, it grows stronger. They may not be strong enough to stop the Varas slavers, but the gods are on their side, and they have each other.

This is a great fantasy story. The magic system is unique and intricate, the characters are authentic, and the world is nearly touchable it seems so real. I felt the dry dust of the earth in my mouth, and smelled the blood drying off skin. Grit was in my teeth, and my adrenaline was one spike away from giving me a heart attack. Tension balanced on the point of a knife. Besides being rich with sensory detail, the story also emotionally impactful. Two people who had been bred to mistrust the other are thrust together to find vengeance, absolution, and ultimately a new life.

One thing I love about speculative fiction, is the ability to explore contemporary issues in a more relaxed setting, and in sometimes a more truthful manner. Both Terja and Anan are male, but not a single reference is made to cast their enjoyment of each other as profane. In fact, they have a very frank discussion about it that lasts all of two sentences and is very anticlimactic (as it should be). However, spinners and weavers aren’t supposed to bond, and that is considered profane. Watching Terja and Anan negotiate these prejudices may seem fantasy, but their struggles have deep roots in the real world.

I was a bit surprised by some of the I read. I read all kinds of warnings that suggested that Obsidian Sun wasn’t romantic in nature. I don’t have a problem with reading Non-Romance, so I picked up the book thinking that there wouldn’t be a romantic thread to the story, and that was fine with me. However, because of those warnings I wasn’t prepared for the beautiful love story that simmered in the pages. Terja and Anan’s angst and love towards one another seemed so obvious to me, and their struggle for peace was inspiring. I’m not quite sure how people were missing it.

The fantasy is solid, and the romantic elements are a delightful bonus. Whatever you enjoy, I think you’ll enjoy Obsidian Sun.

Jon Keys has written speculative and contemporary fiction, novels and shorts stories—the works. He even has quite a few free reads. Check out his website: http://www.jonkeys.com.
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B. A. Brock is a reviewer for DSP and QSF. He enjoys reading, writing, running, family and food, and fills his life with bent bunk. He especially loves to discuss LGBTQ+ literature. His website is http://www.babrockbooks.com. You can find him on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/BABrockBooks.

Dreamspinner Press–Where Dreams Come True… International publishers of quality gay romantic fiction since 2007. http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

DSP Publications–Off the Beaten Path. Worth the Journey. http://www.dsppublications.com

Harmony Ink Press–LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction. http://www.harmonyinkpress.comlgbt3 s Love Bytes Reviews2,529 37

4 Heart Review by Dan

In “Obsidian Sun”, we are introduced to the land of the Talac people. The Talac as a species are mostly covered with a layer of velvet fur. The exceptions are the tribe’s spellspinners. The spellspinners alone are born without the velvet, instead having smooth skin. The species appears, from the world building, to be a peaceful hunter/gatherer level civilization that also has the ability to do magic. As the story begins we meet a young Talac man named Anan when his village is destroyed by slavers and his mate is killed. When he feels his bond break to his mate, he returns to find one living man in the village, a spellspinner. Anan is a spellweaver, and even though they distrust each other the two are thrown together to try to save the captives who are being dragged against their will to the neighboring land of the Varas. If they don’t free them, the Talac captives will become sex slaves, or will be skinned for their hides. No worse fate is possible for the Talac people.

There was a lot of bloodshed, some non-consensual sex, and slaver/slave brutality in the book. None of it was too intense though, and it shouldn’t cause anxiety to anyone’s trigger issues.

I have to say that the in depth world building on this book was confusing to me at first. I got bogged down with all the unfamiliar terms. Although they were listed at the front of the book, it is super hard to page back and forth in an e-book (without real page numbers) to constantly try to figure out what something is. Honestly, I almost gave up reading at one point. Then suddenly, it all made sense. I’d looked up enough terms so that I was comfortable reading straight through the rest of the book. I understand the world building, is necessary; is usually confusing in the first book of a series; and I should be used to it. So enough whining. I’ll whine loudly though if there isn’t a second book coming! And I’ll freely admit, I skipped the word definitions at first because there seemed there were so many. I recommend reading through them quickly so that you aren’t flipping back and forth me! ;-)

After I got by my issues, I realized that I enjoyed this read. The characters were complex, the world was complex, and the storyline was entertaining. I found myself really drawn to the characters and events as they occurred and I kept flipping pages to see what happened next. I recommend the book, and look forward to another in the series (I hope..hint, hint Mr. Keys). The book would be a good purchase for anyone who, me, loves fantasy novels! Oh, and I really d the cover! My compliments to the cover artist!

This book was provided free in exchange for a fair and honest review for Love Bytes. Go there to check out other , author interviews, and all those awesome giveaways. Click below.

3 s Joyfully Jay7,967 458

A Joyfully Jay review.

4 stars

With two glossaries, high emotional triggers, and quite a bit of violence, Obsidian Sun was as the blurb suggested, but far more intense.The book had two storylines, that of Terja and Anan, the would-be saviors, as well as the slavers themselves and the Talac captives, mainly focussing on two Talacs, Jovan and Morea, who are survivors of the attack. By doing this, Keys effectively builds empathy for the protagonists, and the right amount of disdain and, dare I say, hatred for the Varas slavers and especially for Xain, a traitorous Talac Spellweaver.

I d the dynamic between Anan and Terja, how they perceived each other at first meeting, and the growth they experienced as they worked together and got to know each other. Both were raised to believe that the velvet and non-velvet could not be together, and there is gradual growth and acceptance that their different appearances were not as important as originally thought. This shift in attitude reflects our own cultural views, which are admittedly better than they used to be 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

The Varas slavers were pretty much everything you could ask for in antagonists: cruel, heartless, and self-centered, but sometimes things are not as they at first appear. I am not saying that I ever d the any of the Varas, but there was a time when I understood how someone would be motivated to act one way out of desperation versus simply being a sadistic individual to the core, inflicting pain and suffering for the sake of personal pleasure.

Read Jason’s review in its entirety here.jason3 s Serena YatesAuthor 97 books769

A new fantasy world the one Jon Keys has created with his ‘Obsidian’ series is a rare delight. There is some very creative magic around the idea of weaving spells, but more than that, the entire culture of the Talac is built on threads, weaving, and how two opposites work together to make a new whole. Spellspinners are the ones who produce the magic and energy-infused threads, and spellweavers take those to create spells of all kinds. Other than this cooperation they are not supposed to interact, they even have a strange disdain for each other.

But then one day Terja, a spellspinner, and Anan, a spellweaver, have no other choice but to work together a lot more closely than they ever thought possible. It is not by choice, and not before they have tried absolutely everything else, and even then it takes quite a while before they start trusting each other, never mind actually each other. But in a world where they are the last two men left of an entire Talac clan extinguished by Varas slavers, they have no other choice.

Theirs is a tale of the discovery of old wisdom, deciphering and reinterpretation of historical records, and a quest for revenge that comes close to killing both of them more than once. But it is also a journey that teaches them about working together and trusting again, and as they come closer to their goal of avenging the dead of their village, they also discover there is a lot more between them than professional cooperation and a talent to do the unusual, sometimes even the supposedly impossible.

‘Obsidian Sun’ is an imaginative action/adventure and a quest, but it is quite bloody and brutal in places. After all, these are slavers Terja ad Anan are dealing with. A lot of the underlying violence is, unfortunately, quite familiar. The Talac dwell in the wilderness and live close to nature. Their bodies are covered by a fine pelt (except for the spellspinners), and the Varas consider them animals. The Varas live in cities and keep the Talac they can capture as pleasure slaves. There are some more fine details around these two cultures and their societies, but the core elements of their conflict sound awfully familiar. I can’t wait to see how Jon Keys is going to solve this problem – hopefully – in the sequel!

If you magic and fantasy, if you want to find out how two men fall in love who would have never even been friends under normal circumstances, and if you’re looking for an imaginative read full of fresh ideas about magic and how it works, adventure, action, brutality, and characters who have to learn and grow if they want to survive, then you will probably this novel. I look forward to the sequel, that’s for sure!


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.fantasy gay magic ...more2 s Susan LaineAuthor 78 books221

I pretty much gobbled this up in one delicious bite. Beautifully descriptive use of the English language, showing a realistic yet frail, violent fantasy world full of intriguing details. Anan and Terja complement each other so well, in and out of bed. As a velvet weaver and a non-velvet spinner, they're different but sport a united front against their foes, the Varas addicted to velvet. The plot tells a story of revenge and a battle for the survival of the Talac peoples, and there's quite a bit of violence shown here, so be forewarned. A wonderfully woven tale of kilt-wearing heroes, and I can't wait for more by this talented author.2 s Julesmarie2,506 85 Shelved as 'dnf'

I chose to DNF this when the poor character finds himself in a situation where he has to have sex with someone he's known for a day, one day after he's found his husband murdered. I'm all for situations which force characters to get closer than they might on their own otherwise, but in this situation it just seemed awful, not sexy.2 s Amy1,873 33

Can't wait for a sequel! This was new and interesting, I enjoyed everything g about this bookown-them2 s Bobbette75

Let me start by saying that this is NOT a romance in the traditional sense, it's a m/m action/adventure with some necessary sex. The two MCs do develop a relationship and become a couple, but it's the circumstances that lead to that, not some initial great mutual atttraction that make them can't stay away from each other you'd find in a traditional romance story. They didn't even decide they wanted to bond, but the things they needed to do to sucessfully fulfill their quest led to them being bonded, which opened them up to caring for each other. Now, the reason this book is so great is because the action is aweome, the adventure is captivating, the world is intriguing and the villians are both expected and surprsing. The sex scenes are decent, but not pages upon pages long. By the end, you can see that the two MCs do love each other, but neither have declared it verbally and they probably won't for awhile since their mission is only half complete according to their Gods. I'm actually hoping for a sequel because the world/characters are so fascinating and the story ended in a way that would lead you to believe there's going to be retaliation from the bad guys. The characters are well developed, though I could have used some more backstory as to why modern Talac believe that spinners and weavers shouldn't bond, but for the limited amount of time-span the story is written around, you get enough. The story starts off with a bang and keeps going until the end. I have re-read this quite a few times, with special focus on the many pages that I tagged. My one issue is that for a book with 2917 locs, $6.99 is too much. Of course, this is a Dreamspinner Press book, so that's to be expected. If you don't object to the price and you're into action/adventure fantasy m/m stories, I'd highly recommend this book because you get so caught up in the story and the plight of the two MCs and the other characters.
1 Molly Lolly834 3

Original review on Molly Lolly
Four and a half stars!
This book was wonderful. Watching these two men fall in love through the toughest time in their life, and the battle for their survival was beautiful. The world Mr. Keys created is so vast and complete, I felt I was there seeing what the characters were. Anan treats Terja with such tenderness and care throughout. I enjoyed seeing a few scenes from other points of view than the two main characters. The way the society worked with spinners and weavers needing each other for magic to work, yet they didn’t interact with each other was so fascinating. I loved how the spells and weaving were described. I could see it in my head as I read. I couldn’t put this book down. Anan and Terja are so happy together at the end of the book. But it’s clearly the start of a series with how it ended. There are things they still need to overcome, things left undone, and things that are waiting for them to finish. I cannot wait to read more by Jon Keys.1 Melanie2,231 3


A Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Review


Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

For the full review, visit http://wp.me/p220KL-5qm

From that review: "What a wonderful debut novel from Jon Keys! The story was imaginative, heartbreaking, layered and beautifully developed. What a high mark to hit with your first book. But first a sentence or two about the power of a book cover. You see, it was that amazing Paul Richmond cover that caught my eye and made me want to read the blurb. Those eyes combined with the presence of skin marks and a web? Mysterious and compelling. I had to know more. What I found matched that powerful cover in every way."

for more , guest blogs, author interviews and book giveaways, visit http://www.ScatteredThoughtsandRogueW...1 Daniel MittonAuthor 3 books36

(Originally reviewed for Love Bytes Reviews with a copy provided by the publisher / author for an honest review.)

In “Obsidian Sun”, we are introduced to the land of the Talac people. The Talac as a species are mostly covered with a layer of velvet fur. The exceptions are the tribe’s spellspinners. The spellspinners alone are born without the velvet, instead having smooth skin. The species appears, from the world building, to be a peaceful hunter/gatherer level civilization that also has the ability to do magic. As the story begins we meet a young Talac man named Anan when his village is destroyed by slavers and his mate is killed. When he feels his bond break to his mate, he returns to find one living man in the village, a spellspinner. Anan is a spellweaver, and even though they distrust each other the two are thrown together to try to save the captives who are being dragged against their will to the neighboring land of the Varas. If they don’t free them, the Talac captives will become sex slaves, or will be skinned for their hides. No worse fate is possible for the Talac people.

There was a lot of bloodshed, some non-consensual sex, and slaver/slave brutality in the book. None of it was too intense though, and it shouldn’t cause anxiety to anyone’s trigger issues.

I have to say that the in depth world building on this book was confusing to me at first. I got bogged down with all the unfamiliar terms. Although they were listed at the front of the book, it is super hard to page back and forth in an e-book (without real page numbers) to constantly try to figure out what something is. Honestly, I almost gave up reading at one point. Then suddenly, it all made sense. I’d looked up enough terms so that I was comfortable reading straight through the rest of the book. I understand the world building, is necessary; is usually confusing in the first book of a series; and I should be used to it. So enough whining. I’ll whine loudly though if there isn’t a second book coming! And I’ll freely admit, I skipped the word definitions at first because there seemed there were so many. I recommend reading through them quickly so that you aren’t flipping back and forth me!

After I got by my issues, I realized that I enjoyed this read. The characters were complex, the world was complex, and the storyline was entertaining. I found myself really drawn to the characters and events as they occurred and I kept flipping pages to see what happened next. I recommend the book, and look forward to another in the series (I hope..hint, hint Mr. Keys). The book would be a good purchase for anyone who, me, loves fantasy novels! Oh, and I really d the cover! My compliments to the cover artist! Teresa3,478 40

****Reviewed for Prism Book Alliance®****

4.25 Stars - Obsidian Sun definitely has some uniqueness in the fantasy realm. With the velvet covered Talacs and the velvet obsessed Varas, conflict is destined to arise. However, as much as that dynamic is a part of this story, the real story is Anan and Terja overcoming their differences to complete the quest to free the captured Talac.

There is much magic, and even how that is performed and how it exists is new. I loved the idea of magic being woven from people’s emotions and that their emotions literally coloured the strands. A lot of this concept is explained in the huge glossary at the beginning. I urge you not to skip it as you will be a little lost if you do so.

The romance part was not typical. I got the affection, but these two were thrown together by circumstance and need. The physicality was a practicality more than desire, however I did feel the growing love. I would adore a sequel in which their feelings grew to something more true. Yet the lack of romance did not hamper the story. It was as it needed to be for the timeframe and circumstance. The adventure and quest was the main story.

The world building was great and I loved that the author had inventive creatures and plants that inhabited it. There was a lot of time put into making the world stand out.

Despite the spiders, which gave me the creepy crawlies, I really enjoyed this book! A definite recommend for anyone wanting something new.

fantasy mm over-100-pgs ...more Kathie Royce7

The author chose to use quite a lot of unfamiliar words, and to prepare the reader, he included a glossary at the beginning of the book. Still, the back and forth between trying to read and confirm word definitions was quite aggravating at first, and I feel that in this instance, less would have been more, or better. Still, once I had enough new words down, the story began to take shape and became very clear, up to a point where I appreciated the efforts the author made to create all these new terms. As with most Sci Fi novels, this book as its common rough, or SM sex scenes, but the author was decent enough to keep these low key, and no go overboard with the idiotic over the top sex slave relationships that plague modern Sci Fi lit (as if all Sci Fi authors had the sexual maturity of a 14 yrs. old male.) The complexity of the characters matched the complexity of the words, helping the story move along. El255 9

Rating: 3 out of 5

I'll admit that I don't read high fantasy novels very often, because I struggle to keep track of the invented landscapes, phrases, and religions. So I apologize if my preconceived dis of the genre has affected my review, although I did try to read this novel without any bias!

Obsidian Sun follows two men who are on a quest to avenge their tribe, slaughtered or taken prisoner by another race. It's a novel with some interesting twists, a compelling adventure quest, and some very intense world-building. This is the kind of novel that has a glossary at the beginning to help you understand all of the strange terms... and I'll admit that I had to reference it more than once!

Read the rest of the review on Just Love @ Wordpress. Elisa RolleAuthor 61 books234

Obsidian Sun by Jon Keys: http://-and-ramblings.dreamwid... 2015 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention (5* from at least 1 judge)
Shelley2,780 19

3.75 stars2015 mm mm-challenge-2015 ...more A23

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