Wilson eschews a linear structure in favour of something more complicated. The so-called gods are just people with Sufficiently Advanced technology salvaged from their predecessors and the mortals are the people with whom the gods keep in ignorance and servitude. Specifically, it is the sort of setting where a previous civilization had a Singularity and effectively vanished from human ken, leaving behind it their relics and lot of very confused heirs. This certainly has a lot of fantasy terminology but the scenes with the so-called gods strongly suggest that this is actually an SF setting. The gods have their plans and unlike mortals, the power to ensure lesser beings play their assigned roles in those plans.

Not only would he be abandoning his duty to his family but the gods themselves might intervene. The servants take careful note of their masters’ behaviour and servants gossip.Īqib could leave Olorumi with Lucrio when the Dulacan embassy returns home. His world is filled with servants he barely notices. Aqib is at the bottom of the aristocracy but still of elevated rank. Aqib’s judgmental, violent brother will react very badly if he learns about Aqib and Lucrio’s affair. In the short run, it is a happy arrangement. Experienced Lucrio is more than happy to share his knowledge with Aqib. Lucrio’s Dulacan in contrast has no problem with it at all.

Aqib’s stuffy, puritanical homeland Olorumi forbids love between men. This is a sacrifice his family is more than willing for Aqib to make.Ī chance encounter with handsome Lucrio, a visitor from far-off Dulacan, soon leads to a close friendship and more. For his family to regain the status they lost when Aqib’s father was tempted by love to marry far beneath him, Aqib must marry well. Kai Ashante Wilson’s 2016 A Taste of Honey is a stand-alone story set in the same universe as Wilson’s The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps.Īqib’s life has been charted out for him.

A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson