Born to Exile

So, when I picked this book up in a free mini-library in my neighboorhood, I did not expect to like it very much. It seemed like just a pulpy seventies fantasy novel, and while I do have a soft spot for those, it's very much a "love-hate" relationship. This is fantasy from before the time that every single fantasy-trope was completely exhausted, and this often results in a kind of genuineness that I find very charming. It's just someone writing about dragons, because they like dragons and dragons are cool, in a way that has become very hard nowadays, because fantasy writers either play too much into the tropes, which makes them feel unoriginal and stale, or are too busy trying to subvert them. On the other hand... these types of books also tend to stumble very easily into terrible sexism, homophobia, racism and plenty of other -isms, which is what makes them such a gamble for me. But hey, it was short enough, so I decided to take a chance.
And I'm glad I did. No, it isn't the best fantasy novel I have ever read. It is very light literature, and honestly, it IS a bit cheesy at times, but it is also FUN. And sometimes I like things to be fun.

Some Things I Liked:
-Alaric, being a minstrel and all, isn't a "Conan the Barbarian" type fantasy hero. He wins not with brute, all-mighty strength, but mostly by using his modest magical talent, as well as by being tricky and by just simply knowing when to get the fuck out of dodge. Having a fantasy hero who owns a swords, but doesn't care to use it most of the time was oddly refreshing.
-About half-way Alaric meets a character, Mizella, who is a prostitute in a dire situation. Usually, a prostitute character in a dire situation, especially in 70s fantasy, does not exactly promise something well-written and interesting, but boy, was I proven wrong! While at first I was afraid that she would just be a very cliched Whore With A Heart Of Gold type character, with the Required Tragic Backstory, who would be nothing but a plot point to our hero, she turned out to actually be... a person? With thoughts and feelings? And she was actually interesting and fun to read about? To my surprise (and pleasure!), Mizella quite quickly became my favourite character.

Some Things I Did Not Like Very Much
-You can stop telling us how many women you boned, Alaric. We get it, you are a very good lover, even though Princess Solinde is your only true love in the world. (Also, someone should let Phyllis Eisenstein know that Hymens Don't Work Like That)
-The book has a very episodic structure, with Alaric traveling from town saving people and wooing women, and it only gains a more traditional plot structure in the last few chapters. This felt like a bit of a lost opportunity to me, since every chapter is still connected to the larger over-arching story in some way. It feels like, with only a little tweaking, and a few re-writes, these stories could have been told in a way that resembles a more natural plot structure and story arc.
-The ending to Mizella's arc was very unsatisfying to me! I would have liked a larger role for her in the last chapters (favorite character, remember?), or at least for her "happy ending" to be a little bit happier.

Conclusion: Though it's not worth the effort to go scour second-hand bookshops for it, read it, if you can find it, especially if you have a soft spot for old, cheesy fantasy. Hey, it's fun, and short enough!