'Volle' by Kyell Gold
I just recently finished Kyell Gold's Volle, and I'd feel remiss if I didn't mention it here.
The Short Version:
I can't imagine that anyone who reads and enjoys my writing wouldn't enjoy this. Unless medieval settings really turn you off or something, I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys either political intrigue and/or furry homoerotic situations.
The Longer Version:
Volle is, quite simply, the best piece of furry writing that I've read. Furry fiction isn't the largest genre out there, but that doesn't mean that there aren't some legitimate gems out there, and this is one of them. We're a mostly art-driven subculture, and that's sort of a shame, when it comes to works like this, because they tend to get overlooked. Think of the hottest, most interesting piece of furry artwork you can think of, turn it into a novel, and that's pretty much what you'll get with Volle.
Kyell Gold's writing is extremely professional, and this book has been given obvious professional treatment: no borg text here! On a technical standpoint, the pacing of the writing is great, the prose is eloquent without being flashier than it needs to be, and there are a few digs at bad Harlequin romance snuck in, as well. Sick of the 15-year-olds who upload badly-written tripe to Yiffstar? Volle is probably for you.
The combination of medieval politics and furry homoerotica is actually pulled off extremely well. At no point did I find myself thinking, "Gee, I wish they'd get on with the sex already!" or, vice-versa, "Gee, I wish they'd get back to the plot..." Kyell Gold has done what I often try to do, and that's to tell a story with sex, through sex, without making it just about sex. Personally, I think that's pretty admirable, and I guess you'll just need to trust me when I say that it makes for very engaging reading.
As a basic summary, the story follows Volle, a red fox on a secret mission to impersonate a young nobleman of an enemy nation, where he is to act as a spy. Volle, however, is met with the double-sided problem that he a) lacks some of the enthusiasm that he could probably use for his assignment, and b) has grown used to having a rather--shall we say?--'active' personal life. When he hears that religious trends in this enemy nation promote chastity and frown upon homosexuality, Volle braces himself for the worst: a boring, potentially-lethal assignment with no sex life to speak of.
The only real downside is that folks who don't want to read about gay sex detail probably wouldn't want to have to read through Volle. For those of us in the market for exactly that, though, Volle provides a rather excellent backdrop for a legitimately interesting and sexually-charged story: Kyell Gold has created politcal schema, religious mores, cultural tableaux, and--perhaps most importantly--a believable society made up of anthropomorphic animal characters.
What it all boils down to is this: if you like gay furry sex, but you like it to have a plot and a purpose, you can't go wrong with Volle. It might not be slated to go down in history alongside mainstream works like Redwall and Watership Down, but I can see this acting as a beacon for other writers, which shows that you can write a good, gay-themed furry novel, get it published, and get it read (that being said, buy and read this book, damn you). I have no qualms claiming that this is the premier work of gay anthropomorphic erotic fiction available today.
The Short Version:
I can't imagine that anyone who reads and enjoys my writing wouldn't enjoy this. Unless medieval settings really turn you off or something, I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys either political intrigue and/or furry homoerotic situations.
The Longer Version:
Volle is, quite simply, the best piece of furry writing that I've read. Furry fiction isn't the largest genre out there, but that doesn't mean that there aren't some legitimate gems out there, and this is one of them. We're a mostly art-driven subculture, and that's sort of a shame, when it comes to works like this, because they tend to get overlooked. Think of the hottest, most interesting piece of furry artwork you can think of, turn it into a novel, and that's pretty much what you'll get with Volle.
Kyell Gold's writing is extremely professional, and this book has been given obvious professional treatment: no borg text here! On a technical standpoint, the pacing of the writing is great, the prose is eloquent without being flashier than it needs to be, and there are a few digs at bad Harlequin romance snuck in, as well. Sick of the 15-year-olds who upload badly-written tripe to Yiffstar? Volle is probably for you.
The combination of medieval politics and furry homoerotica is actually pulled off extremely well. At no point did I find myself thinking, "Gee, I wish they'd get on with the sex already!" or, vice-versa, "Gee, I wish they'd get back to the plot..." Kyell Gold has done what I often try to do, and that's to tell a story with sex, through sex, without making it just about sex. Personally, I think that's pretty admirable, and I guess you'll just need to trust me when I say that it makes for very engaging reading.
As a basic summary, the story follows Volle, a red fox on a secret mission to impersonate a young nobleman of an enemy nation, where he is to act as a spy. Volle, however, is met with the double-sided problem that he a) lacks some of the enthusiasm that he could probably use for his assignment, and b) has grown used to having a rather--shall we say?--'active' personal life. When he hears that religious trends in this enemy nation promote chastity and frown upon homosexuality, Volle braces himself for the worst: a boring, potentially-lethal assignment with no sex life to speak of.
The only real downside is that folks who don't want to read about gay sex detail probably wouldn't want to have to read through Volle. For those of us in the market for exactly that, though, Volle provides a rather excellent backdrop for a legitimately interesting and sexually-charged story: Kyell Gold has created politcal schema, religious mores, cultural tableaux, and--perhaps most importantly--a believable society made up of anthropomorphic animal characters.
What it all boils down to is this: if you like gay furry sex, but you like it to have a plot and a purpose, you can't go wrong with Volle. It might not be slated to go down in history alongside mainstream works like Redwall and Watership Down, but I can see this acting as a beacon for other writers, which shows that you can write a good, gay-themed furry novel, get it published, and get it read (that being said, buy and read this book, damn you). I have no qualms claiming that this is the premier work of gay anthropomorphic erotic fiction available today.