Note that I try to target more obscure books for my literature recommendation section. After all, everyone’s heard of 1984, but how many people have heard of Eve of Destruction? Also, I am aware that I said I would pick something not LGBT focused, but I failed to come up with anything in prose that met my criteria while not being focused on LGBT.
Anyway, let’s get to it.
Eve of Destruction
Mr. Medrano described the inspiration for this story as letting his id run wild, and you can tell. A harem around our uber-powerful protagonist, lots of jewelry, and a genie who likes the idea of putting said protagonist in fancy dresses. Something she does not appreciate. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, by any stretch. It’s actually quite the fun read.
Our protagonist here is an elf named Evelyn (any resemblance in name to Evi is purely coincidental. I got that name from BehindTheName.com), who previously conquered a world. She grew frustrated by the difficulty in keeping it under her thumb and retired to another world where she ran a pawn shop. until things went sideways (read: shell through her front window). This results in a series of events ending in her freeing several slaves. These include humans, elves, an angel, a demon, and others I’m probably forgetting. At the suggestion of her djunn, she buys a ship and takes the women she freed from slavery as her harem, if they agree. If they don’t want to join, they get to go home instead.
This results in her going on a cross-galaxy journey, with her harem. Some bonus fun comes in book three, when she has the deposed princess of the planet she previously conquered on her ship with her. This comes with all the entertaining awkwardness that you would expect. It’s a good escapist fantasy, all inspired by someone letting their id run nuts.
It probably helps that Ben has some odd story ideas, and the skills to make them work well. Check out the Beesong Chronicles (Bee people!) as well.