DeliveranceAleksandr Voinov
Deliverance is a short story in a gayhistorical fiction antholigy from Novle Romance called Forbidden Love. There are three other stories, My Outlaw by Stormy Glen, Forbidden by H. C. Brown and Poisoned Heart by Anna O’Neill. Forbidden takes place in Norman England, or a reasonable.. well not really.. facsimile thereof. I mean, one of the people mentioned in the story is El Cid, for Pete's sake. But I am perfectly aware of and accept that the point of this story was not necessarily anatomical accuracy no less historical.
So much the more astounding, then, is Deliverance by Aleksandr Voinov. It tells the story of William Raven of kent whose love for Guy, his tournament partner, was becoming so notorious that he escaped to the Holy Land and found "deliverance" by becoming a Knight Templar. Lo and behold Guy, still carrying a torch for William, shows up and William must battle his desire for Guy while coming to understand why Guy is so angry with him. The actual "deleverance" comes when he makes his decision about which oath, his first one to Guy and his second to the Templars, is the priorty.
The thing with this story is that it is good! It is easily the best written in the anthology and could stand alone as a well written story in any collection. the characterization is good, the writing better, and whaddya know, the author actually knows a great deal about the Crusades and the era. Aleksandr Voinov has done a fine job that will not make any historical accuracy obsessed reader shake his or her head. All that and erotica too.
This story is only available as part of the anthology, Forbidden Love., an ebook in several formats, at least two of them accessible for people with print impairments. I purchased my download of the book. It should go without saying, this is a novel for mature audiences only.
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