> Janine Ashbless (which is a pseudonym if ever I heard one), Cruel
> Enchantment. Black Lace, 2000, ISBN 0-352-33483-5. It's the story
> called Toil & Trouble. There's a Dreamlands porn piece as well.
> In any case, as I said before, the Gloranthan 'feel' is
> limited to the scene-setting at the beginning and is only from
> reading between the lines.
Found, read, agreed.
Yes, it's set in Boldhome with the serial numbers filed off. Or somewhere very similar, built on a cliff - the description of the battle where it fell is toned down (Sky Bull v. wyvern, not dragon v. Bat), and they seem to be eating sticklepick. Definitely Glorantha, though - bronze armour, an Empire invading somewhere whose chief god is the Windlord and that being the one god they won't tolerate. But, oddly enough, it isn't "Gloranthan" in feel at all.
What we've got is a simple little story about an abused barmaid and some soldiers from the occupying army. Nothing kinky, nothing original, just three people having a good time. It could just as easily have been set in any other place where there was an army of occupation and the chance for soldiers on the "bad side" to turn out to be quite nice really. The feel if any is generic pseudo-medieval. I suspect a bored author turning out a hack story in a hurry picked a setting that matched those requirements, and it had to go in a fantasy collection so it got a fantasy setting.
And yes, there's the scene setting at the start, which any ten-year-old could read, and then the rest, which they probably wouldn't want to. Almost separate stories.
The other stories in the book are considerably better, and far more original.
I'll bring it along to Tentacles so that anyone else curious can have a look, but I think reading it aloud will be a waste of time. It just isn't that good.
End of Glorantha Digest, Vol 11, Issue 137
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