Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Rule of Three
AUTHOR: Lore Graham
PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press
LENGTH: 45 pages
BLURB:
Provoked by yet another argument with his rival, Ian sets out to prove he’s capable of serious black magic by summoning a demon. Instead of a hulking, red-skinned brute, however, he winds up with the handsome incubus Alistair. Now, Ian must cope with a wily and seductive matchmaker who insists his rival may be more than just an adversary.
REVIEW:
Fed up with Jae’s insistence that he is is a gray mage, and a rather boring one at that, Ian is determined to prove that he more than mage enough to summon a demon. Granted the demon he plans to summon is not particularly powerful, but a demon is a demon and Ian can damn well summon one if he wants to!
And, well, turns out Ian is correct. He can summon demons all right. Just not the kind he was expecting. Instead of a low-level demon to show off to Jae, Ian instead gets Alistair in all his incubus glory. And boy is there a lot of that glory to show off.
This was a really fun short story. I wasn’t expecting it to take the turn it does, but I am sure not going to complain.
I’d love for there to have been a bit more story to this short, but for what there was it was very good. I really liked the rivalry/hate/love thing Jae and Ian had going on. Jae was a bit of an ass, but when ze and Ian were in the same room together you could totally tell that they had all sorts of chemistry going on. Granted, most of the time it was more likely that they would take a swing at each other than making out, but it still made for some damn interesting reading.
And once you toss Alistair into the mix you definitely get a blow out. Alistair was very well written in that he came off as seductive and slightly shifty, but you could tell that he is damn good at his job of seducing unsuspecting–ok, they are probably more suspecting than they would let on–men to their well pleasured doom. Add to that the fact that Alistair is more bottom than top and you have a character well worth reading.
I had a lot of fun reading this, and wouldn’t mind reading more about these three characters. The world doesn’t get nearly enough time to shine, but I have a feeling it could be really interesting if given the chance.
RATING:
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