About book Lord John And The Brotherhood Of The Blade (2007)
I love Lord John Grey. I kind of want to be best friends with him. Or, at least take him out for drinks and commiserate about how he has absolute shit luck with romance. He seems okay with his life, but I just feel so bad for him, like, all the time.Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade is the second novel in the Lord John spin-off series which takes place during the twenty year timespan of Voyager. You don’t need to have read the Outlander novels to enjoy these books, though. They stand very well on their own.The Lord John books are essentially historical mysteries set during the time of the Seven Years War. Lord John is a an officer in the British army. He is also gay, something which was absolutely taboo at that time, and punishable at times by execution. The central mystery of the book features Lord John and his family once again becoming embroiled in the scandal that killed his father years before. Because of the scandal, which ended with the Earl supposedly killing himself, and LJG’s older brother refusing to take his title, the remaining Grey family has had to step carefully lest they too be accused of treason.The thing is, LJG’s father didn’t kill himself; he was murdered, and his mother made it look like suicide in order to keep her children safe. So when pages from his father’s journal start showing up as threats in his family’s mail, LJG is drawn back into the scandal, trying to dig up the truth. All the while this is going on, his mother is about to remarry, bringing with him a new stepbrother called Percy, with whom John becomes romantically entangled. LJG’s investigation also brings him into contact with Jamie Fraser, the Scottish Jacobite prisoner he fell in love with during his time as warden of Arsdmuir prison. Jamie does NOT reciprocate his feelings, but he may have information that could clear his father’s name.Despite being a well-educated man of means, Lord John Grey is a constant underdog, forced to live in a world where he can never be himself. His constant transgressions provide a backbone of conflict that runs throughout even the most mundane of his interactions. Nobody in his life suspects his double life, and at points he’s forced to act as if he was “normal” and punish those who commit the same acts he does privately in order to remain safe. It’s an institutionalized hypocrisy that all these secretly gay men lived with daily, and Gabaldon manages to portray her world as one where Lord John is far from the only person in this precarious social situation. It’s a fascinating and heartbreaking dynamic.I’m SUPER excited for the next book in this series, which is supposedly the story of how Jamie and Lord John finally become friends. I am beyond ready for Jamie to stop acting like such an ass about LJG’s sexuality. He behaved atrociously in this book to LJG, cultural norms or not. I’m ready for them to be BFF now.
I've put off thinking about this one because I was so disappointed in it. At times, I downright hated it. Who the hell was this main character? I thought I knew, thought he was smarter, braver, funnier, more urbane than depicted here.1st Problem: We get to know his older brother much better here -- at the expense of camera time usually spent on his funny and insightful sidekicks Col. Harry Quarry and valet Tom. I didn't care for the focus on petulant sibling issues. I prefer Lord John in a light-hearted romp.2nd Problem: Too many problems -- did their father commit suicide or was he murdered, and who murdered him, was he really a Jacobite traitor, why did the new lover/ stepbrother/ officer trainee betray him, and should John now let him hang as a despised sodomite? By the time we discover who murdered his dad, I couldn't remember who this person was. The fact that John was sleeping with his new stepbrother and a subordinate officer he was supposed to be training totally icked me out. And I really hated that it took him so long to figure out that he should not let this young man die for doing the same thing he is guilty of doing and let go of the grudge. Like it would be hard to out-smart the guards and free him? His idea of honor and mine are very different. 3rd Problem: Did I really need the graphic, blow-by-blow sex scenes, complete with even a little S&M whip action. Nope. Nor the gross, desperate, frantic, cataclysmic masturbation scene outside the barn after a confrontation with Jamie Fraser.The glue between all these story lines was the exploration of what is "honor." People in the past (mother, brother) took certain actions to protect the family honor. Lord John struggled with behaving honorably. All the craziness on the battlefield...is war/ killing really honorable or a desperate act of self-preservation? In the end, I felt sordid for reading it...as if my own honor had been diminished, floating without an anchor.
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This was the best LJG book that I've read so far. I found out so much about his family relationships and his father's death. Also, he finally had somewhat of a relationship for a bit. I'm a big fan of M/M, but for those that aren't, it wasn't that graphic. I love how he pines for Jamie, but I feel sympathy for him also on that account. JAMMF does make an appearance in this book. That's always a plus. LJG always has so many live changing decisions to make and so many mysteries to solve. And his assistant is growing on me also.4+ stars
—Toni FGMAMTC
I enjoyed this book very much. Lord John is an engaging, interesting character -- and he doesn't spend a whole lot of time in this book mooning over Jamie Fraser! This is set right after the death of Geneva Dunsany in the Outlander timeline, but the meat of the book is a mystery in Lord John's own family, and John's love affair with an attractive young man. Gabaldon writes men very well -- we get enough emotional revelation to let us cnnect with the characters, but they are most definitely men.The writing in this story was very polished and tight, the pacing was good, and we didn't spend 150 pages at one wedding. I feel like Gabaldon needs to take some of the verve from this novel and inject it back into the Outlander series.
—Kelly
Lord John, who emerged from the Outlander series as a separate series of novels, has a few problems on his plate. For one thing, he's in love with his new stepbrother. For another, the bitter feelings surrounding his father's death are still very much alive after a period of several years, and his brother Hal won't bear his father's title. Then there's the matter of the pages from his father's missing journal that keep turning up. . . On top of which, as a professional soldier Lord John generally has a battle to fight somewhere, and the next one may cost him his life.As always, I'm impressed with Gabaldon's command of dialog and attention to historical detail. As always, her plot is intricate and involves a large number of characters. I have decided I need to get a better handle on the Outlander world if I'm going to keep reading these books (and I will, I'm a sucker for a lively historical novel) so I've downloaded the audiobook of Outlander and intend to work my way through the series in the order they were written. Perhaps my poor lame brain can get its head round all these people if someone is doing the voices.What I like most about the Lord John books is, I think, the fact that each one is based on a puzzle/mystery that gets worked out by the last chapter (whereas the Outlander series is very episodic). I also enjoy seeing how Lord John negotiates a world in which homosexuality is a crime and a guaranteed route to social ruin if found out. And I like this character; I always enjoy characters who have a smooth, polished facade that hides deep emotions. Dorothy L. Sayers fans like myself may recognize Lord John as a gay Lord Peter Wimsey (who, according to Sayers, is an 18th-century gentleman at heart).Verdict? Good. If you like intricate plots in a historical setting, you'll enjoy.
—Jane
