A Taste of Honey

September 5, 2016
Wilson’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to his lauded debut, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, beautifully meets expectations while delivering a romantic story that is more intimate than its predecessor. It also reveals more details about the books’ setting, which weaves in elements of Earth cultures, fantastical wonders, and strange technology. Aqib bmg Sadiqi, youngest child of the Olorum royal menagerie’s Master of Beasts, has the weight of his entire family resting on him. After his father’s rank-decreasing marriage, it falls to Aqib to raise his family’s fortune by marrying a well-off woman. But when he meets Lucrio, a foreign soldier from a land with different ideas about love, he realizes that the local ideas of acceptable behavior and his devotion to duty both run counter to his true wishes. As Aqib’s priorities clash, the narrative takes on a successfully ambitious structure, interleaving scenes of Aqib’s future life as the husband of the favored royal princess with the 10 days of his passionate affair with Lucrio. Setting the rewards of duty against loyalty to self, Wilson displays his talent for tugging the reader’s heartstrings and underplaying hard emotion, and he delivers a poignant and satisfying conclusion.

Starred review from October 15, 2016
Royal cousin Aqib bmg Sadiqi is expected to marry well and take over his father's position as Master of Beasts. This planned life abruptly comes to a crossroads when he meets a visiting Dalucan soldier named Lucrio, with whom he feels passion and potential beyond what he ever imagined. Under pressure from his family and a society that represses love between men, Aqib must decide whether to choose the path of duty as husband and father or bind his fate to a foreigner's and accept exile from his home. As with his breakout novella, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps (2015), Wilson only hints at his world's clearly complex setting and backstory. Men like Aqib and Lucrio are largely ignorant of the mystical arts pursued by women and divinities, but the reader gets tantalizing hints of science so advanced it appears magical. A vivid and deeply satisfying romance set against a fascinating backdrop, A Taste of Honey will especially appeal to fans of speculative fiction from authors like Lois McMaster Bujold and N. K. Jemisin and will leave most readers agitating for more from the talented Wilson.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)