Patrick C. Notchtree Historical Fiction novel Biltham Hall is an m/m romance that is a touching and moving book that celebrates love in various forms and embraces change for the better.
Lieutenant Commander James Linnel, Viscount Rede DSO RN son and heir for the Earl of Biltham has returned home after WWII. As if the post trauma wasn't enough, he is in mourning for his lover Seaman David Yarridge who was killed in battle. Upon his return, he finds a different world that he has to rebuild from the ground up and a handsome multitalented servant named Jack Milburn who fascinates him. He is attracted to Jack and can't quite shake the feeling that Jack feels the same way.
There are two facets to the book and both compliment each other rather well. They are James's relationship with Jack which flies in the face of British society in the mid-20th century and James changing his home Biltham Hall and his future earldom to become more inclusive, involved, and modern.
Homosexuality in 1940’s Britain was still illegal and could have resulted in imprisonment, separation, exile, ostracism, and disgrace. It is a very huge risk for James and Jack to pursue their attraction to each other. But their relationship is a vibrant egalitarian one that mutually benefits both.
James had always been class conscious but maintained close associations with working and servant class people. That distinction became thinner during the war as he got to know David, who was from a lower status. This personal relationship completely changed James's outlook when the people who worked under him revealed their faces, personalities, goals. Before he saw people lower than him. Afterwards, he just saw people.
Now with Jack, he sees a potential lifetime companion. James is a visionary who looks at Biltham Hall and makes far seeing plans to preserve its future. Jack is the details person who knows what it takes to get the job done. James is idealistic and Jack is practical. Jack needs someone to give him a chance to show off his various skills. James needs someone to carry out his ideas and interpret them in a way that everyone can understand.
James and Jack are a couple who if they existed today would have no barriers towards their union. They would be seen as a perfect couple and #relationship goals. The only things keeping them apart in the 1940’s are the law which is unjust and the class divide which is being redefined. Here, they complete one another and take James's eventual ownership of Biltham Hall seriously.
Biltham Hall does something rather clever and sweet demonstrating tradition and how James and Jack can still use it to their benefit. In many LGBT+ romances, the protagonist is thrown into an unhappy marriage with a horrible opposite sex person in the name of tradition and producing heirs.
Notchtree does not do this. In fact, he takes a unique approach towards the Honorable Isabel “Izzy” Errington daughter of Sir Edward Errington of Craneshaugh and the woman that James's parents want him to marry by making her another terrific character and good person.
Izzy is also able to complement the others and contribute to the changes. She is more outspoken and forthright than the more diffident and accommodating James and the blunt but self-conscious Jack. She becomes the duo’s spokesperson promoting James's ideas and Jack's work to the public as a challenge to a stodgy Conservative reactionary authority.
The other reason that Izzy is so developed is because she understands exactly how James and Jack feel. She is in a lesbian relationship with her friend and companion, Eleanor. Unfortunately Eleanor isn't nearly as developed as the other characters and often just supports the others and chimes in with whatever is going on. But she is a sweet, sometimes dizzy partner to Izzy and is able to smooth out her brash girlfriend’s prickly rough edges. Eleanor is welcomed to the family to the point that the two couples eventually refer to themselves as the Fearless Foursome.
Because of their mutual homosexuality, the quartet redefines marriage, companionship, and eventually family. James, Izzy, and eventually Jack and Eleanor grow to love and respect each other but in platonic brother-sister non sexual ways. They save the romance, beds, private times, and the titles of “husband” and “wife” for the real same sex loves of their lives.
There is another addition to this family that also illustrates James's empathetic progressive nature and willingness to give everyone a chance to be heard, seen, and understood. He is Albert Linnel, James's developmentally disabled cousin who is probably on the Autism Spectrum. He has been institutionalized by his parents and released by James.
The family's unconventional foundation is what helps them understand Albert and his struggles. Since James has been through war, he recognizes the trauma symptoms within Albert because of the institutional abuse directed at him. He tries to help and support the boy with Jack, Izzy, and Eleanor also contributing to the boy's care.
Albert begins to adjust, embrace a talent for art and horse reading and becomes a beautiful addition to this unique family. It is a family of outsiders that form a whole unit. Albert is the son and heir to two sets of loyal, loving, and devoted parents.
While Biltham Hall is a beautiful m/m Historical Romance the best aspect isn't just the romance. It is the relationship between five people who become a non-traditional but loving family
Tachyon Tunnel (Book 1 The Daklin Empire) by Michael Gorton has a lot going on that can be overwhelming but it also keeps the reader emotionally invested in the scientific possibilities, the gripping action, and the multi-dimensional characters.
Even though The Daklin Empire is listed as book 1, it is preceded by Tachyon Tunnel: Prequel. In it, engineer Alex Durant uses Tachyon technology to rescue his girlfriend biologist Paula Campbell and prevent her from dying in a car collision. Fascinated by the tachyons’s ability to travel faster than light, Alex and Paula use it to travel to the distant star Cassiopeia.
They are stranded and build a life on a planet called EtaKatz. After tens of generations the planet erupts into war. Their son, Alexander Bell “Zander” uses the technology to correct the timeline so Alex and Paula aren't stranded in space and instead return to Earth with Zander and his girlfriend EtaKatz native, Lyra.
In this volume, Alex, Paula, Zander, and Lyra want to explore the Tachyon Tunnel’s capabilities even further and they aren't alone. They, AI personality Emily, Zander’s business partner Mark Adams, and AI hacker Megan Hoglund form the crew of the ship Tranquility.
They use the Tachyon Tunnel to explore far away galaxies, millions of years backwards in time, and run afoul of the authoritarian Daklin Empire who are familiar with interstellar travel and want to use the Tunnel for themselves.
The science behind space and time travel is thorough. The character's use of tachyons is a fascinating potential for the theoretical particles that travel faster than light, possess imaginary mass, travel backwards in time, and are not subjected to our laws of physics in our limited 3D world.
Gorton uses tachyon capabilities the way other science fiction authors use wormholes and warp technology. He stretches scientific possibilities into an imaginative but potentially plausible scenario. The characters use this incredible scientific resource to bend space and time. It's an intelligent and thrilling experience to read about.
The book travels through fascinating settings. From the silvery towers and temples to knowledge of EtaKatz to the endless seas and evolving dinosaurs of Prehistoric Earth, the landscapes are exercises in imagination, science, and rich world building.
The settings and scientific procedures aren't the only fascinating aspects to the book. It is filled with sharp multi-faceted characters, some plucked from Earth history. Many alien species have also developed time and space travel, took frequent jaunts to Earth and couldn't resist picking up souvenirs from their trip, including Earthlings.
Among the humans that they abducted is Maria, a 16th century Spanish woman and niece of Don Quixote creator Miguel de Cervantes. She adjusted to the futuristic environment, embraced scientific studies and concepts, loved the fact that women were independent and self-sufficient, and became a prominent scientist and ally to the Tranquility crew.
The Tranquility crew are also interesting characters as this frequent travel, exploration, and adventures keeps them in close proximity to each other and causes them to weigh their next steps in life. Alex and Paula in particular take their relationship further and result in moments that are both moving and heartbreaking.
Zander and Lyra are a bit more underdeveloped as compared to the other characters. However, their personalities and different experiences make them a diverse but compatible couple who pursue their scientific interests to their fullest. They, particularly Zander, are adaptable and easily adjust to the strangeness of their family dynamic such as since Zander and Lyra traveled through time, Zander's parents are currently younger than him.
Since Alex, Paula, Zander, and Lyra are in happy relationships, many of the romantic woes are instead experienced by Zander’s business partner, Mark. He has a complicated love life from becoming attracted to the abrasive and volatile Megan to having relationships with other women including Maria and an EtaKatz native.
For her part, Megan hovers between returning Mark's affections, turning him down, and reacting with a jealous gaze. She also has her own side romances as well. The couple's volatile and at times aggravating love lives give a personal human dimension to a book that otherwise would overflow with wide expansive Science Fiction concepts.
By far the most fascinating character is the least human, Emily the AI interface. AI technology has improved to the point where Emily is indistinguishable from her human counterparts in terms of voice, personality, mannerisms, and later in appearance. Her limited emotional states increase the more that she is around her colleagues to the point that she displays more character development than the humans surrounding her.
Emily's emotional journey gives her a sense of belonging and acceptance with the human and extraterrestrials around her. She becomes so integral to the others that they refer to her as family. In one sweet chapter, she is moved beyond tears when Paula, Lyra, and Megan invite her to a Girl's Night Out. To them, the AI is simply one of the girls.
With fascinating concepts, settings, world building, and characters, Gorton doesn't just effectively explore scientific possibilities. He creates a brilliant novel that explores them to its fullest potential.
