Some Things Transcend

Princes' Game #2

by M.C.A. Hogarth

Given a choice, Lisinthir Nase Galare would have stayed in the Chatcaavan Empire to help its reformed Emperor and Queen remake the worlds in their image. But when his presence proved a threat to the Emperor’s attempts, he bowed to necessity and accepted an exile that he thought would kill him… for what was left without duty and the company of the beloved? Adding insult to injury, his escort home included two psychiatrists, as if he was something broken and in need of therapy… and one of them was another Eldritch. Did they expect him to spill his soul to anyone without the courage to make his sacrifices, and to a member of a species he now considered completely craven? And would he even have the chance, when the Emperor’s enemies had a vested interest in never letting him see the other side of the border?Xenotherapists Jahir and Vasiht’h of the novels Mindtouch and Mindline make a guest appearance in this second book of the Princes’ Game, and the game is as large as the fate of three nations and millions of worlds. Perhaps there’s a role for an additional prince on the playing field….

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Queer, Romance, LGBT, Space Opera

428 pages, Paperback

First published July 21, 2014

About the author

Daughter of two Cuban political exiles, M.C.A. Hogarth was born a foreigner in the American melting pot and has had a fascination for the gaps in cultures and the bridges that span them ever since. She has been many things—-web database architect, product manager, technical writer and massage therapist—-but is currently a full-time parent, artist, writer and anthropologist to aliens, both human and otherwise.

Her fiction has variously been recommended for a Nebula, a finalist for the Spectrum, placed on the secondary Tiptree reading list and chosen for two best-of anthologies; her art has appeared in RPGs, magazines and on book covers.

Reviews

[Quartzen · Rating 1 out of 5]

The concept of this book is great, and really enticing for fans of Hogarth's other work: xenotherapists Jahir and Vasiht'h face the most difficult and serious task of their lives, meeting, treating, and escorting home Lisinthir, the Alliance ambassador to the Chatcaava, who has suffered physical, mental, and sexual abuse and torture for a year and a half in the Chatcaavan Court, much of it at the hands of the Chatcaavan Emperor who he claims to have converted and reformed to decency and also fallen in love with, and both of them with the Chatcaavan Slave Queen who has also suffered at the Emperor's hands her whole life. To add to the tension, Lisinthir's body is failing him and the courier ship that the Alliance sent to fetch him and the vital intelligence he carries was attacked at the rendezvous point, stranded in enemy territory a long, long way from proper medical facilities.

This book is about how, through the magic of Eldritch emphatic abilities, Lisinthir's perspective on his relationship with the Emperor and the change in the Emperor's nature is validated as true and correct without any doubt. Also through those same mysterious powers, in an extension of the ability to pull patients back from the brink of death as seen in Mindline, Jahir and Vasiht'h are able to block Lisinthir from feeling pain and stabilize his condition so that, despite the drug withdrawal, occasional seizures, blood vomiting, brushes with organ failure, and the complete destruction of his alimentary canal to the extent that he has to be fed by pump, Lisinthir is able to a. conduct self-defense training sessions that exhaust both Jahir and Vasith'h who are both in good health, b. act as a sex therapist to Jahir to help him come to terms with the unexpected discovery that he has a sexual response to violence (alongside the way he's somehow completely repressed his ability to feel sexual attraction at all because of his Forbidden Love for his female cousin, to the extent that Vasiht'h thought he was asexual until just recently- see the novella Family which has this unexpected reveal), and c. formulate and execute a plan to lure in a Chatcaavan ship and board it and kill dozens of Chatcaava on the crew so that they can all make it back home to the Alliance.

This book is, in short, something of a mess, unexpectedly and unfailingly pulling its punches when they could have had most impact and railroading the characters away from sensible responses onto the predefined relationship train full steam ahead: the obvious question of Stockholm syndrome only briefly comes up and is magicked away, and the elision of even the possibility of lasting trauma from the torture Lisinthir endured is even more remote, an acceptable choice in Even the Wingless where the narrative was stylized and abstracted to the point of a parable of suffering and redemption but one that clashes poorly with the more grounded (and later written) attempt at psychological detail in the Dreamhealers Quartet. The same goes for Lisinthir's physical condition, which is sometimes a source of angst and tension but mostly alternately ignored, magicked away, or elided because Jahir throws up his hands in helplessness, lacking the proper specialization- a far cry from the tense medical scenes of Mindline, and somewhat out of character for Jahir to boot.

I will note that there was one thing that worked for me, and that was Vasiht'h's arc. Vasiht'h had a good bit of anxiety about whether he was willing _or_ able to follow Jahir into the coming Alliance-Chatcaavan war because Jahir believes it is his duty to fight, this arc felt strongly in character and wasn't handled badly, though I wished it had been given a little more page time.

I remain disappointed with the author's handling of Jahir's sexual orientation as well. The Dreamhealers quartet- Mindtouch (2013), Mindline (2014), Dreamhearth (2017), and Dreamstorm (2018)- are billed as "an asexual romance" and tell the story of Jahir and Vasiht'h meeting, going to school together, and building a life and a practice together, a relationship that reads as a committed queerplatonic life partnership; parallels are drawn in the later books to the commitment and intimacy arcs in romance novels in-setting. The series is followed chronologically by the earlier and much weaker novella Family (2011, recently revised) in which the nature of their relationship is different, coworkers who cohabitate and think of themselves as siblings and become sworn siblings in truth in the course of the story, during which Vasiht'h also learns after years sharing a close mental bond to Jahir that Jahir is not asexual but allosexual and sexually repressed.

I've not read the revised edition of the novella, but reading the original one in order there was a... serious discontinuity between the quartet and the novella, and this novel, Some Things Transcend (2014), written after the novella between the two halves of the quartet, takes up with the Jahir and Vasiht'h we met in Family and goes from there, which is jarring if one reads these in chronological order because it means the closeness of their relationship (and the functionality of it with regard to hiding worries and needs from each other for fear of judgment) feels like it's taken several steps back. This kind of discontinuity might be inevitable for a series written so out far out of order over a period of years, but I can't help but feel like it could have been handled better- especially since Jahir's sexuality was a foregone conclusion, I would have liked more foreshadowing of that throughout the series, and it rather undermines his and Vasiht'h's relationship a bit to me that Jahir evidently never told Vasiht'h about his difficulties in that area through the quartet _and_ that Vasiht'h uncharacteristically never encouraged him to seek out therapy or help for it in the years between Family and this novel.

There was an opportunity for representation and exploration of what it's like to question one's sexuality here, but what we got was... I don't even really know. Over the course of a couple of days, things go from Jahir being extremely severely repressed and avoidant and the product of an extremely homophobic society to... joking about having sex that includes being the recipient deliberately inflicted pain with his male cousin? This happens in the first half or so of the book too, so it's really not even an "after all they've been through" situation at that point. It was another unrealistic profession and another huge missed opportunity in a book full of them. It doesn't help that the book's larger points about the Eldritch suffering as a civilization for eschewing having sex all the time don't fit at all with the romance we see in the Earthrise trilogy.

At this point, for readers who are interested in this series as a continuation of Jahir and Vasiht'h's story, I'm not sure I'd recommend it. For readers interested in the dark space opera series, I'd recommend starting with Family and then continuing to this book, skipping Even the Wingless because it's a weaker novel and doesn't really lead into this one well because of friction in characterization, but maybe reading that as a prequel; really, in all ways I'd recommend the Earthrise series over this, though the first book is weaker than the second two there as well and could possibly be skipped and gone back to as well.

[erforscherin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one much better on reread than initial read. I didn’t care much for Lisinthir in Even the Wingless, but now I wonder how much of that was just the setting: there, most of what we saw of his character was all urgent reaction to the Chatcaavan politics, with little insight into what was driving him. Here, we finally get a better look into what motivations drove him into the Ambassadorship in the first place, and why he made some of the choices he did while on the ground. It’s an important second half of the puzzle, and goes a long way toward fleshing him out as a character.

Jahir and Vasiht’h are delights to revisit, as always. Jahir’s plotline with Lisinthir was an... interesting... development (i.e., if you read his character in the Dreamhealers series as mostly-asexual, now’s the time to make some course corrections to that idea), but after the initial weirdness I can see how it draws on his actions in prior books, and how this is kind of a natural extension of his personality. Later in the novel it occasionally felt like Vasiht’h’s indecision was being dragged out a bit just for the sake of drama, but I can see how this will probably feed into later parts of this series, and I’m looking forward to that new direction for both of them.

———

Read: Nov 11, 2016
Reread: Nov 24, 2018

[Vika · Rating 5 out of 5]

i'm obsessed with this series and how imperfect it is somehow makes me like it more instead of less. admittedly i have more points of criticism for this second installment - most of them to do with how inconsistently jahir is written across the peltedverse series he appears in. i already got over the fact that his sexual identity was sort of retconned - turns out i will sell my aroace brethren to satan for one illicit smut scene😅 - however comma if he's so repressed then 1) why didn't we get a single whiff of it in the dreamhealers and 2) why did he give in to temptation so easily in this book? i feel like a big part of the fun of reading about repressed characters is the slow buildup of watching them fight their desires before they inevitably can fight no more. jahir was just too easily seduced which made the story lose its momentum. with the first book i was literally forgoing sleep to find out what freaky shit the author will make her ken toys do next - this one by contrast took me almost a month to finish bc the freakiest thing happens in the very beginning and then there's nothing to look forward to, depravity-wise lol

i'm still giving it full marks tho bc it's a unique genre bender tackling the themes of sexuality and emotional intimacy in ways i have never seen done before. also it has the "stuck on a broken spaceship together" forced proximity trope which i'm partial towards so🤷‍♀️

[zjakkelien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. It's just a pity that you have to read book 1 first.
This book is plain cute. I love Jahir and Vasiht'h, and their relationship with Lisinthir is delightful. Especially after the initial contention. There is plenty of action in this as well, but the focus is on the relationships and emotions. The over the top events of book 1 are more palatable in summary.

[Pamela Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am amazed by M.C.A. Hogarth's ability to handle complex emotions in multiple characters and to evoke them in me as a reader.

[Maggie Boyd · Rating 1 out of 5]

I dislike two tropes ardently. Passionately. Zealously. The first is a Mary Sue character. Under no circumstances should these ever appear in any work whatsoever. Even rank amateurs, publishing debut works, know better than to include it and yet here it was, in a second book of the series. I am referring of course to Linisthur, who is so handsome people still want him even though he is deadly sick. Who is so insightful he can challenge highly sought after psychotherapists. Who is so clever he can outwit the shrewdest opponent. Who is so skillful he can outfight great numbers of skilled warriors single handedly. His only weakness seems to be that he falls sick like most mortals and yet, even that is no real weakness since he is strong enough to function well (not adequately but almost outstandingly) even while poisoned.

The second is smexy times during battle situations. I'm not talking about the biological instinct for procreation in the face of death, which can sometimes occur and which I have seen used to great effect in some romances. I don't mean the need to connect with others when facing peril. I mean people facing life and death odds and deciding now is the time to focus on sex. How do they feel about it? What does it mean in their life? How should they handle it? Hey, let me kiss you with gore all over me from the last guy I killed before racing towards the next guy I'll kill. This is just head-bogglingly stupid. People on the verge of death tend to care they are on the verge of death. The endless discussions and memories of smexy times didn't belong in this volume.

Add a plot that plodded and a story that could have been told in short story format stretched into a book and you have a tale that cancels all the joy I took in the Jahir/Vashit'h series I read before this. I want to find out what happens to them next but I do not want to keep reading books like this one. Will think carefully before possibly picking up the rest in this series.

[Mary Soon Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is set in Hogarth's Pelted universe, a science fiction setting with many different sentient species. It is, however, a poor entry point into that universe, because it builds on earlier books from two different story arcs. It's the direct sequel to "Even the Wingless," which was a notably dark book, picking up the story arc of Lisinthir, who is one of the three point-of-view characters in this book.

The other two point-of-characters are Jahir and Vasiht'h, the main characters in the Dreamhealers story arc, an arc that has an entirely different, and far gentler, aspect than Lisinthir's story. I discovered the Dreamhealers books a month ago, yet already the friendship between Jahir and Vasiht'h is among my favorite fictional character pairings.

I found the marriage of the two story arcs uneasy. Major spoilers ahead. This book strains the friendship between Jahir and Vasiht'h, and takes Jahir in a direction I hadn't expected: we learn that Jahir is a masochist. This jarred with my earlier impression of his character, and made his pairing with Vasiht'h seem less certain. That said, there are many nice moments during the book, including nice moments between Jahir and Vasiht'h -- moments that moved me, moments that held sweetness.

Before reading this book, I would strongly recommend "Mindtouch," the softly moving start of the Dreamhealers arc. If you devour all the Dreamhealers books and are searching for more, be aware that (a) the direct prequel to this book, "Even the Wingless," is a very dark reading experience, and (b) this book may shift your conception of the partnership between Jahir and Vasiht'h.

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I thought this was going to be a five star book for sure. The interactions between Jahir and Lisinthir were fantastic, and watching the try to figure each other out was my favorite part of the book. But their antagonism was resolved far too quickly and easily and the complete lack of inter-character conflict dragged the book down for me. Still absolutely beautifully written, and I look forward to seeing where the series good next.

[Catherine Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A "Rescue"

Another amazing, complex, vibrant piece of work by Hogarth. The Ambassador's return from Chatcaava is fraught with peril, though there are many moments of self reflection & character growth. Hogarth manages to make even minor characters, important to the reader, so when you lose them, there is sadness. This one ends with a cliffhanger. I must know what happens.

[Narzain · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I had some initial trepidation about bringing the protagonists from the Dreamhealers series into the much darker Prince's Game series, I am pleased to say that they integrate seamlessly.
Between well-placed flashbacks and memories, the end of Even the Wingless is expanded and enriched.

[Rosalind M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not entirely comfortable with everything created here, but I'm swept up in the development of the characters.

[Thelma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this series. Each book is depending to the dark motives that trigger some humans. The author shows her understanding of human nature.

[Shaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars

Compelling and readable and rather less dark and dramatic than Even the Wingless, I enjoyed reading this and like most of what it is doing but I do have some quibbles.

[Rabbit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am enjoying the heck out of this series, though I found this entry... interstitial, and fraught. It’s odd, because it’s clear how necessary it is to get us to Amulet Rampant (which sucked me in immediately), but it’s so fraught and full of tension build that it seems like it’s filling space, in a very... real world way. Not a bad thing, but still made it hard for me to read. If I had it to do over again, I’d almost consider reading the books out of chronological order and reading AR first, then going back and reading STT to figure out how in the heck that even happened. Either way, taken as a whole, it works well, and does it’s job.

[K Fray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Been a while since I read one of Micah's books, isn't it? For a while I was waiting for paper versions of books so that I could add them to my bookshelf, but I got impatient and Maggie could use some uplifting stuff as her job situation changes, so OFF TO THE E-BOOK STORE I WENT.

Lord, I've missed the Eldritch.

This is the second book in the Princes' Game set, the first of which was Even The Wingless. There will likely be Wingless spoilers in here, and possibly some Mindtouch/Mindline spoilers...? This is where the books start to mush together. Read on with discretion. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum.

Okay, so. We have Lisinthir Nase Galare, Ambassador of the Alliance to the Chatcaavan Empire. He is an Eldritch, a very reclusive and xenophobic race of people who basically don't talk to anyone ever, unless they have to. Lisinthir is...a bit of an anomaly in his people. But he's been with the dragons (Chatcaava) for a while now, and given how different they are from the Eldritch, he's going to need some help recuperating.

Enter Jahir Seni Galare and Vasiht'h. Jahir (if you couldn't tell from the name) is another Eldritch and a far-cousin of Lisinthir. Vasiht'h is a Glaseah, one of the Pelted races--races borne out of genetic experiments of many years ago now. The two of them together are a promising duo of xenopsychotherapists (there's a mouthful) who work through the esper capabilities both of their races offer them. They have a wonderful and fascinating relationship, one deeper than either of them ever expected. And since they're familiar with Eldritch in ways pretty much no one else is, they're the best bet for Lisinthir.

But no one could prepare any of them for each other.

I've been both waiting with bated breath for this book, and been terrified to read it. I absolutely adore Jahir and Vasiht'h; they're two of my favorite characters of Micah's. I also really loved Lisinthir's story from the den of the dragons. But putting them together...? I read bits and pieces of this when Micah was serializing it for her website, and every word I read made me more and more uncomfortable. Lisinthir is everything Jahir isn't, and everything Jahir isn't familiar with dealing with. And Lisinthir...well, he's used to a very forceful and violent climate. They're going to have very different reactions to things. and poor Vasiht'h in the middle, trying to balance his work and his partner.

I'm not going to lie and say that I was completely relieved of my worry by reading this. I spent a good chunk of the book squirming around and whining about what was happening. But so were the characters. And that, I think, is what saved me. Everything I was uncertain about, Jahir was uncertain about--and CERTAINLY Vasiht'h was uncertain. I think I bonded more with Vasiht'h as a character in this book than any other. And by the end, I was more comfortable with the whole thing.

Lisinthir and Jahir are a fascinating pair to watch around each other. Both Eldritch, both descended of the Galare line, both lords of their station...and yet two more different people you almost couldn't name. Watching them have to both balance the worlds that have formed them and the worlds that they were born into is fascinating. Add Vasiht'h into the mix with his Pelted nature--and an asexual one, to boot--and his unique connection to Jahir, and you have a very convoluted story.

I love how intertwined Micah's worlds are, and to see them all lacing together is wonderful. Even with the hesitation I've felt, the convoluted nature of this book is both required and interesting. Everything Lisinthir has been through lately has been complicated, and unknotting all of that isn't going to be a simple task. Likewise, the issues that Jahir faces throughout the course of this are so steeped in who he is as a person that they're not going to come loose by playing nice. As is brought up in the book, they truly need each other, in many ways. And that kind of conflict is uncomfortable, but in the way necessary things are.

I've already bought book 3 in the Princes' Game set, AMULET RAMPANT, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the war goes from here. With where this book leaves off...there is so much possibility, and Micah has time and time again proven herself capable of anything. I'm excited.

Rating: ***** (Highest Recommendation)

[Ryft Sarri · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the standards of the first book to live up to, I was definitely anxious going in to this story. To my delight, the characters that had originally drawn me into this universe reappear here and hold a major role; I fell in love with Jahir and Vasiht'h and they continue to justify that feeling in this book as well.

We already met Lisinthir and have his ideas about how he would interact with his people were he to return to them, but having him be forced to interact with Jahir brings a whole new layer to the personalities of them both. I adored the interplay between them and getting to see how Vasiht'h fit into that dynamic was delightful beyond words. Seeing my favorite duo perform under duress the likes of which they had never dreamed they would face was the perfect way to add on to the series. Top notch!

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still a darker tale than I am entirely comfortable with. However it features 3 of my favourite characters, so I still quite enjoyed it. It was wonderful to watch the relationship between Lisianthir and Jahir grow through the story, going from strangers to close friends, with the potential for more in the future. It was also wonderful to see the relationship between Jahir and Vasih’t continue to grow stronger as they faced new challenges.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rushed out and bought this the second I knew that it was available...so that should tell you something.

A moving and complicated sequel to Event the Wingless. That first was harder for me to read, I think, but there's plenty of darkness here too.

Once again, an ending that leaves me hungry for more.

MORE.

[Jasmine]

Yes, it took an entire book to repair the psychological damage done by the last book. Therapists from another series had to be called in.

Also, there are sociopathic dragon-pirates.

(Holy Cow do you not want to meet them. (These are the people the Ambassador was living with int he last book. (Holy Cow do you not want to meet them.)))

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

On re-reading this after digesting the first five volumes, I liked this so much more that I decided to upgrade it to a 5. There are plenty of excellent and deep characterisations, beautiful language, an almost feverish feel to the book, plus two exhilarating and daring fight scenes - I was deeply invested in this when I read it again. Can't ask for more than that.

[Dianthaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the turmoil in book 1, this is completely different. It mostly takes place on a stranded spaceship. Lisanthir (Badass) is trying to recover from the wounds and addictions he got in book 1, aided by a platonic couple of empath/doctors that struggle through all the new elements Lisanthir brings into their life.

[Zeta Syanthis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The quality of the writing in these books, and the love in all the pages... is overwhelming. I love them. <3