波斯刺客: 囚徒之舞
Sad bittersweet ending but I love it to bits. The romance is so twisted that it borderlines on psychotic level. Which is of course the magic to capture my total attention. Seems like I have this deep fascination to dysfunctional relationships. The more fucked up it is, all the more intrigued I am with it. Need I start worrying about my state of mind?
The English translation for the title should be Persian Assassin: Prisoner's Dance by Mr. Deep Sea. I was first introduced to this author's work via another fabulous story he/she had written; 德萨罗人鱼 (Dersharow Merman). It was an impressive mythical merfolk fantasy. Epic really. So good I have read it twice! I planned on re-reading it again in future.
Persian Assassin is also a fantasy but this time it is a story with a Persian country's background filled with mysteries, spies with dangerous missions, political intrigue, supernatural power and I was delighted to discovered an mpreg subplot complete with magical birth!
The story was a very engrossing read and one of the best gay Romeo & Juliet kind of romance ever! It was filled with burning passion and the plot was action packed, an adrenaline junkie's heaven. The protagonist and his love interest is a pair of true star-crossed lovers. Yes it was tragedious but have no fear as at the end of it the author gave us a glimpse of hope and happiness.
I do adore the protagonist but not as much as his love interest who is a multifaceted character. That mysterious man is neither good or bad, he is cruel yet tender, utterly obsessive and possessive towards the protagonist, and very much a self-serving man yet self-sacrificial when it comes to protecting their love. As for the protagonist, he is a pretty face with guts and he is also loyal to a fault. As a well honed assassin he is agile, quick and lithe. He moves like a cat, a wild cat when he is sneaking into enemy's territory or when he fights. Think Prince of Persia or the Catwoman. The guy is a sexy ball of energy. The story started with him being sold as a pleasure slave at the market where he met a mysterious guy who bought him and held him captive at his mansion. A lot of puzzling things started to happen when he met that guy. It turned his world upside down and spiraling to the abyss of no return. Tried as he might to avoid that man but fate would not let him go easily.
What I noticed most when reading Chinese BL novels is that their men are real men. They don't act like girls even when they are the receiver. I really appreciate this cos if I wanted to read about girls being dominated by men, I could have just gone for a heterosexual romance book. Yes I would most definitely recommend this book. The story has imprinted itself on my mind forever. Should one day some kind soul actually helped to translate it into English, please do not miss the opportunity to read it for yourself.
*Reviewed on July 24th, 2016
(Finished reading it on 31st March 2016, that was uhmm about 4 months ago. Yes it took me a long time to get to this review. I am such a procrastinator. Red shamed face.)
