Rating: 
Summary: Professional Reviews and Quotes
Review: "In a land ravaged by the rule of the usurper know as the Blue Queen, a young boy fulfills his destiny by entering the service of Kirith Kirin, who seeks to reclaim his rightful throne. Jessex grows strong in his magical studies and fighting skills, finding both companionship and love in the company of the man he serves and discovering his crucial role in the battle against the evil that overshadows his land. Mainstream novelist and playwright Grimsley (MY DROWNING) crafts an elegant tale of love, war, and magic in the epic fantasy tradition. Most libraries should consider."-Library Journal, May 2000."Jim Grimsley has done something few other novelists would. Forsaking the comfortable world of mainstream literature, he's journeyed deep into the genre ghetto with Kirith Kirin, a sweeping fantasy epic filled with magic and myth. Kirith Kirin has a little something for everyone. Fantasy readers will find a world of legends and wonders, and a story with mythic overtones. At the same time, fans of Grimsley's mainstream work (Comfort and Joy, Winter Birds) will find the complexity, lyricism, and gay sensibility common to his earlier works. The story follows a very established fantasy path, recording the coming of age and coming to power of a farm boy-cum-legend. In this case, the young man's journey brings him power as a mage and love in the person of the immortal King, Kirith Kirin. Grimsley has done his homework, filling his world with archetypes and themes familiar to anyone versed in Joseph Campbell and Jung. At the same time, he has managed to avoid the trap of excessive cliché. While his characters and situations are familiar, he finds new angles to view them and ways to combine them for a fresh story. For a first time fantasist, Grimsley has shown a remarkable understanding of what makes the genre powerful. And while he may have done well to cut down on the never-ending onslaught of created words, it's easy to forgive him this minor sin as one breathes in the lyrical and senses and emotion rich world Grimsley has created."-Rob Gates, NY Blade
Rating: 
Summary: Enchanting
Review: A spell binding book. One can not stop reading. Sometimes you start believing, that magic could be real. I felt with Jessex and Kirith Kirin throughout the hole book. One hopes for them to win the great war and above all to be together one day happy and untroubeld. I wish Arthen would be real and I could go there one day to become young again. I'm waiting for a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, Delightful, Everything A Reader Could Want!
Review: Could you tell that I liked the book from the title?
Okay, so, just to let you know. I'm a straight female. For those people out there who think that you can't read something with gay guys in it because you're not one, you need to get over yourself and read this.
The language was elegant, beautiful, and, just so you know, the sex wasn't over powering. I've read romance novels that were so much worse, you'd laugh.
I must admit, that the age difference threw me at first. You see, from the reviews I read here before I bought the book, I thought that Kirith Kirin was some crusty old man, which he isn't. True, Jessex is only fifteen, but the way I was thinking about it was, Kirith Kirin only looked like he was 20, 25 maybe. My dad was 12 years older than my mom, so, looking at it that way, it didn't sound so bad. That's just a comfort thing for myself, though, if it will help more people read the book, great.
The magical system was awesome. I loved the discriptions some other reviewers said were too long, and I thought that, even though Kirith Kirin might have been a bit more interactive and discribed, over all, the book was magnificent.
This is most definitely a book that I will compare others to for a very long time, if not for the rest of my reading life.
Rating:
Summary: Well written
Review: Excellent science fiction love story about a wizard and his king. Easy to read and hard to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: Mercedes Lackey fans will enjoy Kirith Kirin
Review: Fans of author Mercedes Lackey's novels about the Heralds of Valdemar are sure to enjoy Jim Grimsley's "Kirith Kirin". After reading Grimsley's haunting and beautiful novel "Dream Boy," I was intrigued to see how the writer would handle a fantasy genre piece. Grimsley really delivers...a tome filled with enchanting visions of a world where magic is revered, but little understood except by those who are very adept in the art. Don't let the hundreds of pages of very fine print scare you...Excellent map, glossary, and other appendices make the world portrayed come to life.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful....
Review: Fantasy is best when there are identifiable elements from one's own world and culture. This is certainly the case in Kirith Kirin. I have never read a book where the elements of love, overcoming stuggle and growing up are so finely and artfully woven in with magic, mystery and intrigue. This is a book that you MUST read. It is beautiful and sweet and so bursting with emotion that it is hard to believe it is merely a work of fiction sitting before you on printed pages, rather than a real place and a real existence.
Rating:
Summary: Realistic Hero
Review: Finally, a majician who actually gets trained and doesn't spend endless years stumbling along, performing majic feats and not knowing how ...it was done. Finally a majical hero that doesn't go through the book crying "why me" and "I really don't want this power". There are so many other works in the genre that drive me crazy for just these reasons. I know ... yet another all powerful majician saving the world, but that's the nature of most fantasy novels. The hero almost always has special powers. ... I enjoyed the book. It was a little long and could have been edited ... but at least it was well written. The love scenes didn't overpower and take away from the main story line. It was sort of like old movies where there's a little gropping, a little sex, the light fades, and the next thing you know, it's morning and the birds are singing. Somethings are better imagined. ....it wasn't yet another good vs evil scenario... It's all about power. People in power do not tend to relinquish it voluntarily. I remember a line from one of David Eddings books where two old sorcerers are talking to a young man. They tell him not to confuse the issue with good and evil. It's them and us and that sort of keeps it simple.
Rating:
Summary: a very good read
Review: first off ide like to say i was torn between 4 and five stars i chose four for reasons i will go into the story overall is amazing its rich world and the charecters are people you care about the few problems i had with the book are when jessex learns about magic its very over done and over writen going into details that fill your brain and takes you away from the overall story if you like that kind of thing then its not an isue second the names for people places and things my god there very complicated the words are made up and trying to pronouce them in your mind as you read is a trick of magic in and of itself though to the writers benifit in the back of the book there is a kind of dictionary that tells you how they should sound i found myself going to the back of the book to see how a word should be sounded out the love story between jessex and kirith kirin the king who is deposed in the arthen forest is very tender and romantic if your looking for twadry sex scenes there not in this book there done tastefuly with just a bit of detail yes jessex is only 15 but in the back of the book it states that a year on this world is longer than a year on earth and he spends much time in another demension learning magic where he doesnt age where he spends moths and months and is put back in time at the moment he leaft based on that is he much older than 15 so i didnt have a problem with his age like some readers did haveing done the math in my head guessing his true age at around 18 i was very pleased to find the actual story to be so absorbing to find a book that has gay main charecters writen as if its the most natural thing in the world to be able to be a man and love a man the story covers much ground from the kings imrisonment in the arthen forest to the final battle as for the final battle i found it anti climactic allmost liek huh that is it and the final chapter (afterword) left me feeling sad wich for me is something i dont like ot feel at the end of a book im a sucker for happy endings i recomend this book for anyone who loves a true fantasy with magic and knights it incorperates all that i found myself thinking of token(the lord of the rings) when reading it i think its a great book for gay readers and open minded straight people as well i will most ikely re read this book again at some point when my memory of the sad ending has left me i recomend this book highly
Rating:
Summary: a very good read
Review: first off ide like to say i was torn between 4 and five stars i chose four for reasons i will go into the story overall is amazing its rich world and the charecters are people you care about the few problems i had with the book are when jessex learns about magic its very over done and over writen going into details that fill your brain and takes you away from the overall story if you like that kind of thing then its not an isue second the names for people places and things my god there very complicated the words are made up and trying to pronouce them in your mind as you read is a trick of magic in and of itself though to the writers benifit in the back of the book there is a kind of dictionary that tells you how they should sound i found myself going to the back of the book to see how a word should be sounded out the love story between jessex and kirith kirin the king who is deposed in the arthen forest is very tender and romantic if your looking for twadry sex scenes there not in this book there done tastefuly with just a bit of detail yes jessex is only 15 but in the back of the book it states that a year on this world is longer than a year on earth and he spends much time in another demension learning magic where he doesnt age where he spends moths and months and is put back in time at the moment he leaft based on that is he much older than 15 so i didnt have a problem with his age like some readers did haveing done the math in my head guessing his true age at around 18 i was very pleased to find the actual story to be so absorbing to find a book that has gay main charecters writen as if its the most natural thing in the world to be able to be a man and love a man the story covers much ground from the kings imrisonment in the arthen forest to the final battle as for the final battle i found it anti climactic allmost liek huh that is it and the final chapter (afterword) left me feeling sad wich for me is something i dont like ot feel at the end of a book im a sucker for happy endings i recomend this book for anyone who loves a true fantasy with magic and knights it incorperates all that i found myself thinking of token(the lord of the rings) when reading it i think its a great book for gay readers and open minded straight people as well i will most ikely re read this book again at some point when my memory of the sad ending has left me i recomend this book highly
Rating:
Summary: Damn good read
Review: For a start, let me say this book is very well written. Like Dream Boy, the prose is well constructed, and has a similar dreamlike quality at times. The story itself is slightly different to the standard fantasy fare, notably with the interest in dualism, which at times seems to border on obsession. It has a bittersweet, elegaic quality to it, reminding me of the same sort of atmosphere that is so prevalent in The Lord of the Rings, which marked that book out from its many clones that followed. Also interesting is the portrayal of the relationship between Jessex and Kirith Kirin. It is not even described as 'gay' as such. It is simply a relationship based on love, the gender of the 2 is shown to be irrelevant. As for flaws... the characters are a little sketchily drawn, but this seems to be a feature of Grimsley's writing. He provides the framework, and we fill in the details. The magic system was well described but seemed self-indulgent: the depth of description made me glaze over on occasion, and did not seem strictly necessary. As for the supposed 'pedophilia', I would direct the reader to the contents page, which states that the year of Aeryn is substantially longer than our own, making Jessex at least 18 in our terms at the time he first slept with Kirith Kirin. Overall, an original fantasy well worth giving your time to. Will reward with ideas that people like Terry Goodkind can only wish they could write about.
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