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Amy Lane is one of my favorite writers of gay romance. Isn't it odd that most gay books are written by women? The absolute worst in writing about gay relationships is when two perfect people (perfect bodies, perfect faces, big dicks, bubble butts etc etc) meet and have perfect sex and the drama is all "You used cinnamon in your coffee! You don't love me!" and one of the main characters runs off crying with the other chasing after. There is usually a bunch of homophobic people (usually family) that get their comeuppances in the end. Oh and everybody has trust funds. It's very cheap, immature drama for the sake of drama.
This is the very reason I love Amy Lane. While her characters are often attractive, at least to each other. They have usually very damaged in some way. Not all of them are brilliant, or even congenial. They are usually strong, but flawed. For some it's physically, for others it's emotionally.
One of my favorites A Solid Core of Alpha is about a 12 year old boy who was living on a mining colony at the far side of the galaxy. While visiting the colonies escape shuttles with his older sister, who just learned how to operate them in school, the asteroid housing the colony is beset by a shower of large meteors that blow through it's defenses. His sister shoves him into the shuttle, designed to carry over 30 people to safety, and runs to see if she can save the rest of their family. When she realized the colony has been destroyed and she won't make it back to the shuttle in time, she sets it off by remote, knowing she is dooming herself but saving 12 year old Anderson. Anderson then starts a 10 year journey alone in hyperspace. When he starts talking to the holograms on the holodeck, he realizes he is starting to crack up. So he learns everything he can about the holodeck and programs a few holocompanions to help him through the next 10 years. At the end of his journey, the people on the space station the ship was programmed to take him to, realize he is lucky to have survived with his sanity intact. As they watch the logs of his 10 year journey though, they start to realize how damaged the lovely shining boy really is. This book should really be made into a movie. It's incredible.
Another I love is Carlos from Dex in Blue, second in the Johnnies series. Now the first book, Chase in Shadow was phenomenal, and if you really want to see what I mean about characters who are real, and damaged, read that one, first. Carlos is slightly different, though. He's built, he's sexy, hell he's sex on a stick, but he simple. He's not academically smart, and yet he's the most brilliant person in the book. He's the perfect antithesis of how sometimes intelligence muddy the waters of right and wrong until what IS right and what IS wrong get lost in the shuffle. Going to bed with Dex in his arms is right and whatever would prevent that is wrong. Period. He's just good, sometimes too good for his own good, but he's good.
I also love Naef, from Truth in the Dark. A Take on the Beauty and the Beast story, who is the Beauty and who is the Beast isn't quite as clear cut as the Disney movie. Naef was born with a club foot, after being made fun of for using a cane, he quits using it which causes his spine to twist. In his teens he had a bad case of cystic ance and his face is pock marked. When he was 12 he was beaten by local bullies and raped, further deforming him. To his despair, his sweet sister, his one bright light, finds the bully who raped him and kills him in a way no other bully will forget. So his sister won't have to ever go to that dark place again, Naef creates the persona of Knife, a surly, mean spirited ogre no one likes but no one wants to deal with either, unless they want to take advantage of his talent for exquisite carvings. When his sister finds the love of her life but rejects him because it will mean leaving Naef, Naef takes a deal to go stay with said loves cousin on his island kingdom for a year. At the end of the year he will have to perform a "regrettable task." Knife isn't the nicest person to anybody, including his benefactor Aerie-Smith, a patiently lovable man curse to walk upright in the form of a lion, his island kingdom turned into animals. Once he steps foot on the island Knife is transformed, at least outwardly to a beautiful, strong young man, and is fast falling for his benefactor the beautiful lion god, but he's spent his whole life pushing people away. It's actually more The Beast meets Quasimodo.
Whether she is writing standard romance, sci-fi, or fantasy, interesting characters are Amy Lanes strong suit. Usually finding healing in the arms of love. I laugh, I cry, with every book and I haven't even read half of them.
